Florida News – Highlights from around the state – April 13th
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- Economic impact payments began being received on Saturday by those who’ve previously established direct deposit with the IRS. All direct deposit payments for those eligible will go out by the 15th. If you don’t have direct deposit established you may do so at IRS.gov. Paper checks have yet to go out and will take additional time according to the Treasury Department.
- The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has announced $49 million in bridge loans for more than a thousand of Florida's small businesses. These act independently of the Federal CARES ACT program. The loans carry zero percent interest. The website for interested businesses is: www.FloridaJobs.org/COVID-19
- Governor DeSantis has extended a ban on vacation rentals statewide through at least April 30th. This includes services like Airbnb.
- The US Department of Agriculture has accepted a wavier request by the DeSantis administration allowing SNAP recipients to purchase groceries online. This comes as the state is encouraging online grocery shopping in lieu of in-person shopping where possible in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Florida.
- Inmates in Florida’s prison system are set to begin to produce face masks which will be used within the corrections system. The Florida Department of Corrections said they’re using CDC templates to create cloth masks to help stop the spread of the virus in the prison system.