Florida News – Highlights from around the state – April 16th
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- With continued issues processing unemployment claims, Governor DeSantis removed the head of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Ken Lawson from handling the process. Department of Management Services director Jon Satter is taking over. Quoting DeSantis: I ask for the numbers every morning. That’s one of the reasons we want Jon in there. That’s just a change that needs to be done I don’t think the response has been sufficient in that regard.
- If you’ve wondered if drivers are more reckless of late during the pandemic – the answer is yes. According to FHP, issues with speeding drivers has significantly increased as traffic has decreased across the state. Through the first week of April, FHP issued nearly as many citations for speeding as they did the entire month of April last year. FHP did report a decline in multi-car crashes and DUI's during March.
- Florida’s small business bridge loan program is tapped out after having allocated $50 million in interest free loans to 1,000 small businesses in Florida. There were a total of 38,000 applications.
- Three Hospital systems in Florida - HCA, Cleveland Clinic and Ascension will be participating in the Trump administration’s recently announced Dynamic Ventilator Reserve program. The new program creates a federal reserve of ventilators and deploys them across the country to areas of need in the time of a critical shortage. Participating hospitals will contribute unused medical supplies to the reserve and virtual inventories of critical health equipment will be managed by the hospitals in partnership with FEMA and the US Department of Health and Human Services.
- Florida’s airports will be receiving nearly $900 million in federal relief by the FAA. Miami International will receive $296 million, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International $135 million and Palm Beach International $37 million.