Florida News That Impacts You – September 17th, 2025 | 1290 WJNO

Florida News That Impacts You – September 17th, 2025 

Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you throughout the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast.    

• Florida’s the top state for attracting and developing a skilled workforce for the third consecutive year according to the annual Lightcast Talent Attraction Scorecard. Metrics studied include job growth, education attainment, regional competitiveness and migration data. Florida specifically ranked first for job growth and competitive effect, second for skilled job growth and third for high-earning job growth. Among large metros nationally, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach ranked 3rd, while in mid-size metros Wildwood-The Villages ranked first nationally with the Sebastian-Vero Beach-West Vero Corridor ranked 9th.  
• A second FAU professor, finance professor Rebel Cole, has been placed on leave following messages posted to social media following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Professor Karen Leader was placed on leave last week.  
• Delray Beach voted to raise taxes on Tuesday. In a 3-2 vote city commissioners raised the millage rate from 5.94 mills to 6.19 mills, a 4.2% tax increase. The city is said to be facing a potential $25 million budget deficit. The tax increase notably comes after a high-profile battle with the state of Florida over its illegal pride intersection that was removed by the FDOT at the city’s expense, and subsequent legal battle in which the city retained outside legal council to unsuccessfully fight state law. 
• The region’s first landfill-gas-to-renewable natural gas facility has opened in Vero Beach. The new facility converts methane from the Indian River County landfill to fuel and is said be able to offset the emissions for 4,000 vehicles annually.  
• It’ll be sunny much of the day today with afternoon thunderstorms possible and highs in the upper 80’s, which is typical for this date. A thin layer of Saharan dust is tracking through the Leeward Islands across the central Atlantic. Related… 
• The National Hurricane Center is tracking two systems in the Atlantic. A tropical depression has developed in the southern mid-Atlantic. The system is expected to eventually strengthen into a hurricane south of Bermuda. It’s not expected to be a threat to the U.S. A second disturbance is developing in the southern Atlantic off the coast of Africa and is being given a 20% chance of development over the next seven days. 
• Gas prices rose by another seven cents per gallon on Tuesday. The average price for regular unleaded in Florida is currently $3.19 per gallon. In Palm Beach County the average price is $3.34 per gallon, in Martin the average is $3.25, it’s $3.24 in St. Lucie, and in Indian River County the average is $3.23 per gallon.