Photo: Friends of Ron DeSantis
Florida News That Impacts You – July 14th, 2021
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- Governor DeSantis made two education announcements on Tuesday. He said the $1,000 bonuses for teachers approved during the state’s session should be distributed once the upcoming school year begins next month. Additionally, he announced the creation of the Florida Civics Seal of Excellence program. Under the initiative, which also be rolled out during the upcoming school year, educators which successfully complete a state certified civics training program will become certified with Florida’s “Civic Seal of Excellence” and will receive a $3,000 bonus.
- New details emerged in the investigation into the Surfside condo collapse. According to a Miami Herald report, the first red flags appeared well before the 2018 engineering report which identified “major structural issues”. In 1996, an inspection cited 500 cracks in the pool deck and a 20 square-foot slab which needed to be replaced at the Champlain Tower South building. Work for those issues appeared to have been completed by November of 1997. The death toll in the collapse has risen to 95 with 14 potentially unaccounted for.
- Norwegian Cruise Line has sued Florida over the state’s ban on “vaccine passports”, stating the inability of the cruise line to demand proof of vaccination in Florida’s ports “poses imminent, substantial, irreparable harms” to Norwegian. Related, the CDC’s unconstitutional no-sail and conditional-sail orders are set to be lifted on Sunday.
- As part of Governor DeSantis’s re-election campaign effort, his team has released a line of merchandise with the tagline – Don't Fauci My Florida. Other taglines being used by the governor include – Keep Florida Free, Love My Gov & a quote stating How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?