A North Florida deputy is expected to recover after authorities say he was ambushed and stabbed multiple times Wednesday while responding to a suspicious person call. Body camera video released by the sheriff’s office captured the violent confrontation.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post on Thursday that Deputy Robert Fitch responded around 5 p.m. on May 13 to the city of Dunnellon after reports of a suspicious person.

The sheriff’s office said that as Fitch stepped out of his patrol vehicle, 38-year-old Heriberto Medina Marquez immediately attacked him, knocking the deputy to the ground before climbing on top of him and repeatedly stabbing him in the chest.

“I knew the end result already when I watched the bodycam, but it’s still, my heart rate is up,” Lt. Paul Bloom told CBS affiliate in Orlando WKMG. “You feel that emotionally. You feel that tension and that fear, that moment where somebody’s trying to kill you.”

Deputy’s bulletproof vest credited with saving his life

Authorities said Fitch’s bulletproof vest likely saved his life.

“They’re designed to stop bullets, not necessarily knife attacks,” Bloom said. “The fact that his life was spared is a blessing to us.”

According to investigators, Medina Marquez fled into a nearby wooded area after the stabbing. Deputies said that as Deputy Montalvo arrived on scene, Medina Marquez emerged from the woods and was taken into custody without further incident.

The sheriff’s office also said Medina Marquez made threatening remarks after his arrest. While sitting in the back of a patrol vehicle, investigators said he told deputies, “I should have killed you, you know that right.”

Following interviews and evidence collection, detectives determined Medina Marquez intentionally tried to kill Fitch, according to the sheriff’s office.

Medina Marquez was arrested on a charge of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and booked into the Marion County Jail, where he is being held without bond.

The sheriff’s office said Fitch suffered minor injuries in the attack and is expected to return to work when he feels ready.

In:

The Florida Legislature made a huge move to strip away more zoning and land use power from local governments in the name of affordable housing, but this time, the affordable component is lacking.

The Infill Redevelopment Act, sponsored by state Sen. Alexis Calatayud, would strip local governments of their power to block housing on recreational sites such as golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pools and clubhouses. 

The legislation, which sailed through the Florida Senate and House of Representatives back in March, is awaiting the signature of Gov. Ron DeSantis to become law, Housing Wire reported.

The wording of the legislation specifically targets Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. To qualify, parcels must be at least 5 acres and located in counties with nearly 1.5 million residents and at least 15 municipalities. 

Developers would need only staff-level administrative approval to redevelop qualifying sites, bypassing the public hearing process.

The act would only apply to recreational sites that have been closed for at least a year, and developers must agree to pay double the standard parks and recreation impact fees. 

It gives neighboring property owners the right of first refusal to purchase the land, however. Developers would be required to send notice by certified mail to all adjacent property owners. That would trigger a 90-day window during which neighbors could buy the property.

The legislation is Tallahassee’s latest power grab aimed at local zoning and land-use laws. The idea is that it would eliminate the expense of local approval, and those savings would trickle down to tenants or buyers.

But it doesn’t come with an affordability mandate.

Legal experts warn the legislation is asking to be challenged legally, but lawsuits haven’t stopped Florida’s political leaders from doubling down on the Live Local Act.

That law, passed in 2023, allows developers to bypass local approval and build to the highest allowed density in the municipality and match the height of the tallest building within 1 mile. Under Live Local, developers must reserve 40 percent of units for workforce housing, which is for residents earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income.

The village of Bal Harbor is among the Florida municipalities resisting Live Local. 

Bal Harbor rejected Whitman Family Developers’ plan to redevelop the Shops at Bal Harbor with three 275-foot-tall buildings with 600 residential units and a 70-key hotel, after it sparked major uproar in January 2024.

Whitman sued, claiming the village retroactively implemented zoning changes and restrictive floor-area ratios to stall the project. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier stepped into the case last month, writing a letter to the judge in favor of Whitman’s right to develop and accusing the village of “systematically obstructing” a project that met all state criteria.

—Rachel Stone

South Florida’s wet season officially begins Friday, but residents will likely have to wait a few more days before the typical daily downpours settle in across the region.

The wet season runs through Oct. 15 and typically brings 60% to 70% of South Florida’s annual rainfall over the next five months. Despite the seasonal shift, rain chances will remain relatively low Friday and Saturday before a wetter and more unsettled pattern develops Sunday into early next week.

Residents woke up Friday to slightly cooler temperatures and lower humidity levels across South Florida, creating a more comfortable start to the day. Expect mainly dry conditions through the morning, with only a few isolated afternoon showers developing due to drier air remaining in place.

Afternoon high temperatures Friday are expected to climb to around 90 degrees, with heat index values making it feel like the mid to upper 90s.

Rain chances increase Sunday into next week

The chance for rain will stay limited Saturday, with spotty showers possible amid plenty of sunshine. High temperatures will once again reach the upper 80s to low 90s.

By Sunday, deeper moisture is expected to return to the atmosphere, allowing scattered showers and thunderstorms to develop across South Florida. Temperatures will remain above average, with highs in the upper 80s.

The wetter pattern will continue into early next week as the atmosphere becomes increasingly moist and unstable.

Wet weather pattern settles into South Florida

Passing showers and thunderstorms are expected Monday and Tuesday, with breezy conditions also building across the region. High temperatures are forecast to stay above normal in the upper 80s through the middle of next week.

The NEXT Weather team is advising residents to keep rain gear nearby as South Florida transitions into its wetter summer pattern.

In:

Real estate is a notoriously male-dominated industry, but in South Florida a growing number of women power players are making their mark on the tri-county region’s changing skylines. 

A recent study by the MIT Center for Real Estate and CREW Network Foundation found that women make up just 38 percent of the commercial real estate workforce. Earlier this year, The Real Deal featured its Top 100 South Florida real estate leaders, including 22 of the women at the top of the industry. 

Here’s a look at a few of the women real estate leaders highlighted this year:

Trailblazers

Donna Abood is a force in South Florida’s commercial real estate industry. Abood is one of  Miami-Dade County’s top office lease brokers,  with more than 80 million square feet of office space leased in her career. She founded her own firm in 1989, before merging with Michael Fay and the late Thomas Wood Sr. to form Abood Wood-Fay Real Estate. The company rebranded under Colliers before Avison Young acquired it in 2014. In 2024, Abood joined Savills as the co-head and vice chairman of Florida. 

Tere Blanca is the chairman and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, the commercial real estate brokerage she launched in 2009 after a five-year stint at Cushman & Wakefield. Her clients include Nuveen Real Estate and Pimco Prime Real Estate’s 250-acre Waterford Business District, CP Group’s One Biscayne Tower and Terra’s the Well Bay Harbor Islands, where Tom Brady’s family office leased 8,400 square feet. 

Mayi de la Vega similarly struck out on her own amid the global financial crisis. She got her start in real estate as an agent with Coldwell Banker Realty in the 1990s, and founded One Sotheby’s International Realty in 2008. The Coconut Grove-based brokerage is a dominant player in Miami’s luxury real estate market. It placed fourth in TRD’s 2025 Miami-Dade County brokerage ranking with $2.4 billion in on-market sales. 

The “Queen of the Miami River” Lissette Calderon got her start in real estate working for Jorge Pérez at Related Group in the 1990s. She struck out on her own in 2000 to found Neology Life Development Group and build more than 1,000 apartment units along the Miami River. In 2014, she returned to Related, becoming the first woman to lead a division at the condo giant. She left again in 2017 to focus on her own multifamily developments, and remains one of the few women in the region building at scale. 

Resi stars

According to the National Association of Realtors, 62 percent of agents are women. But the picture is different at the top of the field. Only seven of the 25 top agents and teams recognized in TRD’s 2025 Miami-Dade County broker ranking were women or women-led. In TRD’s 2026 Palm Beach County ranking, five of the 20 agents and teams ranked were women or women-led. 

In Miami-Dade, Jill Hertzberg, Jill Eber and Judy Zeder, better known as “the Jills,” dominated with $1.4 billion in on-market sales last year. The trio heads their namesake team at Coldwell Banker Realty, and consistently ranks as the brokerage’s top team in the country. 

Douglas Elliman’s No.1 agent Dina Goldentayer has carved a spot out for herself at the top of Miami’s ultraluxury market. In 2023, she represented Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos in his $79 million purchase of a waterfront Indian Creek Island estate.Alicia Cervera Lamadrid and her sister, Veronica Cervera Goeseke, lead Cervera Real Estate in Miami. The new development sales powerhouse was founded by their mother, Alicia Cervera, in 1969 after the family fled to Florida from Cuba. The sisters lead the firm, overseeing sales for more than 25,000 condos across over 100 projects.

A driver was killed Friday morning in a crash involving a flatbed truck and a box truck on southbound U.S. 27 just before Krome Avenue, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

FHP Lt. Alex Camacho said a yellow flatbed truck slammed into the rear of a box truck that was stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of southbound Okeechobee Road and Krome Avenue.

The driver of the flatbed truck died at the scene, authorities said. The driver of the box truck was not injured.

The crash caused major traffic delays Friday morning, with all southbound lanes at one point closed to traffic and drivers being diverted onto the shoulder to get by. Traffic cameras showed congestion building in the area, with backups expected to stretch toward the Broward County line.

Officials urged drivers to avoid southbound U.S. 27 near Krome Avenue as Florida Department of Transportation crews and troopers remained at the scene.

The crash remains under investigation.

In:

New U.S. House districts that could help Republicans win several additional seats in Florida are set to face their first test in court Friday, amid claims that the map violates the state’s constitutional ban on partisan gerrymandering.

Lawsuits filed on behalf of voters ask a state judge to block the districts from being used in the midterm elections, creating a potentially significant hurdle for President Donald Trump’s effort to maintain a narrow Republican majority in the U.S. House by redrawing districts in the GOP’s favor.

Republicans currently hold 20 of Florida’s 28 U.S. House seats. 

The new congressional map, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis after a swift two-day special legislative session, could improve the party’s chances of winning four additional seats in November.

Florida lawmakers approved the new map on April 29, the same day the U.S. Supreme Court weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities while striking down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana. Since then, several Southern states have moved to eliminate minority districts that have historically elected Democrats.

Challenges over partisan gerrymandering in Florida

Congressional districts are typically redrawn once every decade following the U.S. census to account for population changes. But after Mr. Trump pushed for mid-decade redistricting last year, Republicans began pursuing new maps in several states, including Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama. GOP leaders believe those efforts could net as many as 15 additional House seats.

Democrats, meanwhile, believe they could gain six seats through redistricting efforts in California and Utah.

Democrats had also hoped to gain up to four additional seats in Virginia, but the Virginia Supreme Court last week struck down a Democratic-backed redistricting plan approved by voters, ruling lawmakers failed to follow proper procedures when placing it on the ballot.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal courts do not have the authority to decide whether partisan gerrymandering goes too far. However, the court said such claims can still be challenged in state courts under state constitutions and laws.

Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2010 prohibiting congressional districts from being drawn to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent. The amendment also bars districts from diminishing the ability of racial or language minorities to elect candidates of their choice and requires districts to be compact while following existing political and geographic boundaries whenever feasible.

Lawsuits argue Florida’s new map favors Republicans

The lawsuits, filed in Leon County on behalf of voters, seek a temporary injunction blocking the new congressional map from taking effect. The legal challenges focus heavily on allegations of partisan favoritism.

“The plan takes the state’s partisan skew to an unprecedented extreme,” one of the three lawsuits states.

A legal brief filed on behalf of the Florida Senate argues that partisan intent has not been proven and says a temporary injunction would be inappropriate before a full trial is conducted.

Although DeSantis called lawmakers into special session before the Supreme Court ruling in the Louisiana case, his administration anticipated a decision that would weaken Voting Rights Act protections for minority districts.

Among the changes in the new map is the reshaping of a southeastern Florida district that DeSantis’ office said had originally been designed to help elect a Black representative in compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.

DeSantis’ office said racial data was not used in drawing the new map presented to lawmakers. In a memo to legislators, DeSantis General Counsel David Axelman argued that Florida’s constitutional provision governing racial redistricting violates the U.S. Constitution.

Axelman further argued that if one part of the 2010 amendment is found unconstitutional, then the entire amendment, including its ban on partisan gerrymandering, should be considered invalid.

In:

Residential: The top home sale recorded in South Florida was in Bal Harbour, where a waterfront home at 216 Bal Bay Drive changed hands for just under $29 million. A trust tied to Luis Arevalo sold the property to a trust managed by attorney Mark Meland. Built in the 1950s, the property spans about 3,000 square feet and has three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms. The seller purchased it in 2015 for $7.5 million. The property’s last asking price was $29.9 million. Jill Hertzberg with Coldwell Banker’s the Jills Zeder Group had the listing, and Dina Goldentayer with Douglas Elliman brought the buyer.

Commercial: Miami-Dade logged the top commercial deal to hit records in South Florida, with the sale of a luxury apartment building known as Biscayne Shores at 11295 Biscayne Boulevard. The property is in an unincorporated area of the county that’s bordered by North Miami, Miami Shores and Biscayne Park. An affiliate of Integra Investments sold the complex to an affiliate of RPM Living Investments, based in Atlanta. The complex, built in 2024, includes a 15-story property with 288 apartments and 92 townhouses across three buildings. Sources told The Real Deal that the sale amounted to $151.4 million; the recorded deed values the property at $206 million, though the buyer is disputing this.

Residential: In North Palm Beach, Robert and Robin Martin sold the home at 11329 Turtle Beach Road to John and Norah Daly — John is a financier — for $13 million. The property spans more than 6,200 square feet, pricing the sale at more than $2,100 per square foot. It has five bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms. 

Residential: A trust tied to attorney Harold L. Lewis parted with the home at 1276 Biscaya Drive in Surfside for $11.4 million. The buyer was a trust linked to Brian Rebhun, a partner with PwC’s asset and wealth management tax practice. The home has five bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms across 4,900 square feet, pricing the sale at more than $2,300 per square foot. The property last traded in 2020, for $5.5 million.If you like this digest, you can get it even earlier — every evening — by subscribing to TRD Data, here.

We’re shifting into high gear with the 11th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars well underway. CBS News Miami NEXT Weather Meteorologist Shane Hinton sits down with one of South Florida’s fiercest performers and contestants, Morphine Love Dion, to talk about the show and the impact South Florida performers have had on the popular series.