A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down a challenge to the death sentence imposed against Jesse Guardado, who murdered Jackie Malone in 2004 in a secluded area of Walton County home before stealing money and other items.

Monday’s opinion, written by Judge Robert Luck and joined by Chief Judge William Pryor and Judge Jill Pryor, said Malone had helped Guardado find a place to stay and a job after he had been in prison. Guardado went to Malone’s home at night on Sept. 13, 2004, and said he needed to use the telephone.

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After she let him in, Guardado hit her in the head with a tool known as a breaker bar, stabbed her in the chest and slit her throat, Monday’s ruling said.

Guardado pleaded guilty to the murder, but the appeal centered on arguments that his attorneys were “ineffective” during the penalty phase of the case that resulted in the death sentence. In part, Guardado argued that his attorneys did not properly investigate and present “mitigating” evidence that could have prevented a death sentence and that they did not properly try to prevent three jurors from taking part in the penalty phase.

But the appeals court, in a 76-page decision, rejected the arguments.

Guardado, now 62, is an inmate at Union Correctional Institution, according to the Florida Department of Corrections website.

The report, released Thursday, said 763,866 landlines remained in use as of Dec. 31, 2023, with 484,345 used by businesses and 279,521 in residences.

Meanwhile, with the state’s population now topping 23 million people, the report indicated Florida phone users had about 24 million wireless subscriptions. Also, another 4.5 million users made calls through what is known as voice over internet protocol.

Landline use in Florida peaked two decades ago with about 12 million users, but wireless technology rapidly took hold as the population increased and wireless services became more affordable.

“Based on competitors’ substantial market share and market pressures requiring comparable affordability and reliability, competition is having a positive effect on the maintenance of reasonably affordable, reliable telecommunications services,” the commission’s annual Report on the Status of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry said.

CenturyLink experienced a 19.9% drop in residential landlines in Florida during 2023, while Frontier saw a 25.6% decrease and AT&T went down 27.2%, according to the commission. Business landlines, which declined by 15% from 2022 to 2023, have outnumbered residential landlines in Florida for 13 years.

The revised lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Tallahassee, alleges that the Federal Highway Administration has violated a law known as the Administrative Procedure Act by not making a timely decision about whether the companies would be prevented from working on federally funded projects.

The lawsuit was initially filed in March by nine companies and their owner, Linda Figg. The companies are affiliated with FIGG Bridge Engineers, Inc., which designed the Miami-Dade County pedestrian bridge that collapsed in 2018, crushing cars and killing five motorists and one construction worker.

FIGG Bridge Engineers was blocked in 2021 from working on federally funded projects until 2029. The revised lawsuit said that in September 2023, the federal agency notified Figg and the affiliated companies of a proposal to keep them off federally funded projects, or what is known as “debarment.”

Figg and the affiliated companies filed a response Nov. 13, and the lawsuit said the federal agency was required to make a decision within 45 days.

“Plaintiffs are being adversely affected by defendants’ failure to act or unreasonable delay in announcing a decision regarding debarment of plaintiffs,” the revised lawsuit said.

Judge Allen Winsor on July 10 dismissed the initial version of the case but left open the possibility the plaintiffs could revise it.

The Florida House Republican Campaign Committee, which is led by incoming House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, made a $21,800 in-kind contribution to Gossett-Seidman’s campaign early this month, according to a new finance report.

The Republican Party of Florida also has made $13,420 in in-kind contributions this year in the House District 91 race.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Jay Shooster has received $11,062 in in-kind contributions from the Florida Democratic Party, including $3,261 this month, a finance report shows.

In-kind contributions are used for such expenses as staffing and polling.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zachary Bolitho rejected a request for a protective order that would have shielded the child, identified by the initials J.N., from having to testify in a deposition.

The request was filed by the child’s mother, Ann Novakowski. J.N. is a plaintiff in the case through her mother.

Bolitho wrote that by having a “young child serve as a plaintiff, it should have been anticipated that the young child would be required to be deposed and to ultimately testify at any trial.” He also wrote that he did not think deposing Novakowski would be an “adequate substitute” for taking testimony from the child.

“Only J.N. can testify as to her thoughts, interests, desires, and efforts to access the books at issue in this case,” he wrote in the order Monday. “And those issues are critical ones in this case, especially as it relates to J.N.’s standing to bring this lawsuit.”

Nevertheless, Bolitho limited the child’s deposition to 90 minutes and said a parent could be present.

Novakowski and J.N. are part of a group of plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit alleging that the Escambia board’s decisions to remove or restrict access to numerous library books violated First Amendment rights. Escambia County has become a battleground amid controversy in Florida and other states about school officials removing or restricting books.

“Winning the presidential election still requires winning 270 electoral votes, and that means our pathways to victory runs through the states,” Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in the overview. “Vice President Harris enters a tight race, but it is clear that she can bring together a coalition of voters to keep a wide set of states in play.

“We continue to focus on the Blue Wall states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — and the Sun Belt states of North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, where the Vice President’s advantages with young voters, Black voters, and Latino voters will be important to our multiple pathways to 270 electoral votes.

“We intend to play offense in each of these states, and have the resources and campaign infrastructure to do so.”

The overview came three days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential campaign and gave his support to Harris, who quickly appeared to lock up the party’s nomination.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, won Florida in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

Also, Florida Republicans have built a commanding edge in voter registration during the past few years.

The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission made the recommendation to the state Supreme Court after an investigation of Judge Mardi Levey Cohen.

A document filed at the Supreme Court said Levey Cohen was accused, in part, of forwarding an email in July 2022 to a representative of the Wynmoor Condominium Democratic Club and did not “take sufficient steps to corroborate or verify the information contained in the email.”

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The information, for example, included an accusation that Levey Cohen’s opponent obtained money from the federal Paycheck Protection Program during the COVID-19 pandemic when she did not qualify.

An agreement, known as a stipulation, also was filed Monday at the Supreme Court that said Levey Cohen “does not contest the findings and recommendations and accepts the discipline recommended therein.”

The Supreme Court has ultimate authority to discipline judges.

DeSantis had a net worth of $1,773,157 as of Dec. 31, up from $1,174,331 a year earlier, according to a financial-disclosure report posted Friday on the Florida Commission on Ethics website.

DeSantis’ finances have received a jolt from his 2023 book, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.”

DeSantis received $625,500 in 2023 from HarperCollins Publishers LLC, which paid him $1.25 million in 2022. He also received $160,000 in 2023 from Premiere Collectibles Books, which offers signed copies of the book for $35 or in a “deluxe collector set” for $50.

The book debuted as a best seller on The New York Times and Amazon lists when released in February 2023.

State elected officials each year are required to file financial-disclosure forms by July 1 that list income, assets and liabilities. Generally, the forms show financial information from the end of the previous year.

Before the book deal, DeSantis posted a net worth of $318,986 in 2021.

In addition to income from the book, DeSantis’ new report shows increases in checking and savings accounts.

At the end of 2023, DeSantis had $351,078 in USAA checking and savings accounts; nearly $1.26 million in a savings account with Interactive Brokers; $95,592 in a thrift savings plan, a type of retirement savings and investment plan; and $84,196 in the Florida Retirement System.

A year earlier, he listed $1.046 million in USAA accounts, $91,719 in the thrift savings plan and $54,720 in the Florida Retirement System.

As he and his family live in the governor’s mansion, DeSantis did not report real-estate holdings in 2023.

The bill, which passed during the legislative session that ended March 8, will direct the Florida Department of Education to develop a program to provide money to Jewish day schools and preschools for such expenses as security cameras, fencing, shatter-resistant glass for windows and hiring security employees.

The bill does not specify an amount of money for the program, but the budget for the upcoming 2024-25 fiscal year includes $20 million for security efforts at the schools, according to a House staff analysis of the bill.

The budget and the bill will take effect July 1.

DeSantis on Monday also signed a separate bill (HB 187) that will put a definition of anti-Semitism in state law.

Meanwhile, DeSantis signed a bill (HB 321) that will revise penalties for intentionally releasing balloons and vetoed a measure (HB 1241) about how courts handle certain probation violations.

The bill (SB 1582) would help at least three Black farmers who sought licenses but were deemed ineligible to apply by state officials. Lawmakers passed the bill in March, the second year in a row they have signed off on efforts to expand the number of licenses for Black farmers.

The cannabis industry has mushroomed since voters approved a 2016 constitutional amendment broadly authorizing medical marijuana.

A law passed in 2017 that provided an overall framework for the industry required health officials to issue a license to a Black farmer with ties to decades-old litigation about discriminatory lending practices by federal officials, known as the “Pigford” cases.  The law also required prospective licensees to show they had conducted business in Florida for at least five consecutive years before applying.

State health officials began accepting applications for the Black farmer license in March 2022 and six months later announced they intended to award the license to Suwannee County-based farmer Terry Donnell Gwinn.

All of the 11 other applicants who lost out challenged the decision, including Moton Hopkins.

Hopkins was the top-scoring applicant, but the 84-year-old Ocala-area grower died before the state’s decision about the license was finalized.

Part of this year’s bill, however, appears to clear the path for Hopkins’ heirs and partners, who have launched numerous legal and administrative challenges in their quest for a license.

Legal wrangling over the denial of Hopkins’ application delayed the issuance of Gwinn’s license.

Lawmakers sped up the process last year by passing a measure requiring health officials to issue licenses to Black farmers whose applications did not have any identified deficiencies.

The 2023 law resulted in licenses for Gwinn and two additional applicants and brought the overall number of licensed medical-marijuana operators in the state to 25, but left Hopkins out of the mix.

This year’s effort, however, sets up a 90-day “cure” period for rejected applications that meet certain criteria, including if “the applicant died after March 25, 2022,” which was the last day to apply for the licenses.

The law, which will take effect July 1, could lead to a total of six Black farmers who were part of the Pigford litigation having licenses.