Payroll payments per small business moderated as 2023 came to a close, according to new data from Bank of America.

Health advocates are urging the FDA to finalize a rule that would prohibit flavored cigars as a new report raises concerns about cigar use among children, especially Black youth.

A man is facing charges of manslaughter and sale or delivery of cocaine following a deadly overdose, according to a report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

News4JAX obtained the arrest report for a man facing multiple charges of human smuggling following a traffic stop by the Florida Highway Patrol on Interstate 10 in Jacksonville.

A new study shows the coronavirus pandemic flattened roadway congestion -- but not for long.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The head of Florida’s guardian ad litem program defended the agency’s efforts Tuesday to a Senate committee, following a report that said the organization’s funding has increased while the number of children it represents has dropped. Local and federal funding for the program more than doubled over the same time period, the report found. While the program staff has expanded to 848 employees and 13,231 volunteers, the number of children served by the program has declined, the report found. “Maybe you can save the answer for the next time we meet,” Wright told Abramowitz. At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Book told Abramowitz and the committee that she and her panel will continue to delve into the program.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The final report by a special Jacksonville City Council committee formed to investigate a botched attempt to sell the JEA in 2019 calls the plan greedy and found that it cost the city millions of dollars. The 132-page report released Monday morning was the result of 10 months of committee work, including witness testimony, and prepared by an attorney for the City Council. The report says the compensation plan “ran afoul through Aaron Zahn’s greed.” In closing, the report says “The ultimate cost to JEA and the City was millions of dollars. The truth around JEA’s strategic planning process is complex and definitively involved the Mayor, City Council, the entire Board, OGC and countless strategic advisors. He applauds the City Council investigation on JEA and says the report points to three huge problems.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida is expected to see its population increase by an average of more than 303,000 residents a year and is forecast to have 23.1 million people in April 2025, a new report by state analysts shows. The report, by a panel known as the Demographic Estimating Conference, said the population from April 1, 2020, to April 1, 2025, is expected to increase by 303,264 residents a year -- or 831 people per day. “These increases are analogous to adding a city slightly larger than Orlando every year,” an executive summary of the report said. The analysts projected that Florida will have 21.89 million residents in April 2021, with the number steadily climbing to 23.1 million in April 2025. The report also said Florida population estimates produced by the U.S. Census Bureau are higher than the state analysts’ numbers.

FDA warns of hand sanitizer packaged in food, drink containersPublished: August 27, 2020, 6:52 pmThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning people about alcohol-based hand sanitizers that are being packaged in what appears to be food or drink containers.

Florida is not the best place to have a baby, according to new report released by WalletHub. The report ranks all 50 states and Washington, D.C. based on factors like cost, health care accessibility, and baby-friendliness. The data also set ranges from hospital conventional-delivery charges to annual average infant-care costs to pediatricians per capita. The top five best states to have a baby are Vermont, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Minnesota. The study also showed that Florida is among the highest for hospital delivery charges, rate of low birth-weight, and midwives per Capita.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Opioid drug overdoses could have killed more Americans than first projected, according to a report from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. According to the report, nationwide, the opioid death rate was 24 percent higher than previously estimated. By region, opioid death rates were concentrated in the Mountain States, Rust Belt, Industrial North, New England and much of the South. Heroin deaths were particularly high in the Northeast and Rust Belt, but lower in the South and Mountain States. That’s because sometimes up to 25 percent of death certificates didn’t list the drug responsible for killing the person.