Florida News that impacts you – October 20th

Florida News that impacts you – October 20th

Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.

  • Early voting was smooth on the first day statewide as 52 of Florida’s 67 counties began early voting on Monday – including Broward, Miami Dade and Palm Beach Counties. Turnout was heavy, setting first day records with over 350,000 Floridians voting - 60,000 more than first day record set in 2016. Throughout South Florida, wait times exceeding an hour were common.
  • The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which is under a state and federal investigation for potential acts of bribery for paying off felon debts for the purpose of voting in November 3rd's elections, announced they’d registered a total of 67,000 felons voters as a result of 2018’s Amendment 4 passage. 40,000 of those registered former felons had their debts paid off by the Coalition as a total of $25 million was spent to pay off debts.
  • Florida’s Supreme Court has decided against hearing a case concerning short-term vacation rental companies. The case involves the extent to which platforms such as Airbnb, have a responsibility to collect “bed” and tourist related taxes. The case was brought by Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon. The ruling leaves a lower court ruling in effect which places the onus on the owners of the properties to collect and remit taxes rather than the platforms used to rent them out.
  • The Florida Wildlife Commission has broken up a flying squirrel smuggling ring. Seven arrests were made as 3,600 flying squirrels were shipped to South Korea where the squirrels are sold as exotic pets. The smugglers had also been found to be poaching native turtles and alligators.

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