A little-known consulting firm with ties to a prominent Jacksonville business leader landed a $78 million contract earlier this month to provide a raft of critical services at a pop-up immigration detention center in Big Cypress National Preserve, which Florida officials have aggressively marketed as “Alligator Alcatraz,” according to a report from The Tributary, a Jacksonville nonprofit newsroom.

The photo captures dozens of alligators lurking in the Big Cypress National Preserve in south Florida.

Interior Department officials on Thursday canceled a Trump administration directive that gave local and state officials power to block purchases of land and water for conservation under a longstanding federal program. Trump administration officials had said the order would have allowed the government to fulfill goals that were set when conservation areas were created, by filling in missing pieces of them. Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia and others for undermining the conservation program. They accused the Trump administration of using Bernhardt’s order to circumvent the intent of Congress and squandering the bipartisan goodwill created by passing last year's law. Daines welcomed the move to revoke the order and said in a Thursday statement that the program was a critical tool for conservation.

OCHOPEE, Florida (CNN) - What would you do if you encountered a 98-pound Burmese python while out on a hike in Florida? The captors are members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Python Action Team. The Python Action Team was created by the commission to lead python control efforts. These team members are paid to find and capture Burmese pythons in regions throughout south Florida. "Removing 900 pythons is a great milestone for our Python Action Team!"