A sinkhole in Florida that swallowed two houses appears to have stopped expanding, meaning a recovery-and-repair operation can begin, authorities said. Five homes in Land O’ Lakes, a residential area about 20 miles north of Tampa, are unsafe for entry, officials said Saturday. Residents of four dwellings were allowed to return. It’s the largest sinkhole in Pasco County in at least three decades.
No injuries were reported. Officials said it will take weeks, perhaps months, for life to fully return to normal for residents in the neighborhood. The sinkhole, estimated to be 225 feet in diameter and 50 feet deep, apparently began beneath a boat, which fell into the widening depression.

The Justice Department has announced criminal charges against 412 people, including 115 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their roles in what Attorney General Jeff Sessions is calling the largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is poised to announce a major law enforcement action this week targeting health-care fraud, focusing on opioid treatment programs exploiting Obamacare insurance plans, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Drug users, desperate to break addictions to heroin or pain pills, are pawns in a sprawling national network of insurance fraud, an investigation by The Boston Globe and STAT has found.They are being sent to treatment centers hundreds of miles from home for expensive, but often shoddy, care that is paid for by premium health insurance benefits procured with fake addresses.

Circuit Judge Cymonie Rowe on Wednesday granted a request by Williams’ attorney to temporarily prevent a data download from the car occupied by victim Jerome Barson, 78. The court has scheduled a hearing on the matter at 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Palm Beach County Courthouse.

Action 9 exposed an insurance nightmare facing hundreds of customers who paid one of Florida’s biggest insurers to protect their homes. The kitchen’s gutted walls are cut open, and the floors have been stripped. That’s the condition of Adrienne Herrell’s home one year after a water leak triggered a destructive flood. “I’m 75 years old and I’ve been homeless for a year,” said Herrell.

One construction worker has died and another was hospitalized after being struck by lightning on Tuesday. According to fire rescue, the men were laying rebar for the new Pines City Center at 103rd Avenue and Pines Blvd. when they were hit at around 1:30 p.m.

Five people have been arrested after a police raid of a home in a central Florida retirement community uncovered drugs and golf cart parts, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.

Some Florida counties are seeing a major spike in auto glass litigation, generating fears that auto insurance premiums may follow the trajectory of rising property insurance rates in the state.

One person was killed after a plane crashed into Chico’s Daycare Saturday morning on Metro Parkway, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.

A “probable” tornado was the cause of damage to numerous homes and properties in the Fort Walton Beach area early Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Continuing to point at “out of control” water damage claims, the Citizens Property Insurance Board of Governors on Tuesday unanimously backed proposed rate increases that would hit South Florida policyholders hardest next year.

A massive and dangerous storm is bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Tropical Storm Cindy is the third named storm of the hurricane season and the first to hit the continental United States.

There is a 90 percent chance that a tropical storm will develop in the Gulf of Mexico in the next day or two, threatening oil and natural gas facilities and other energy infrastructure as it advances toward Texas and Louisiana.

Two separate tropical storms are likely to form in Gulf of Mexico and in the Atlantic over the next couple of days, the National Hurricane Center said.