Astronauts flying to the space station.
Two American and a Japanese astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut on on their way to the International Space Station. They launched this morning from Kennedy Space Center. Their SpaceX crew Dragon capsule is expected to arrive at the ISS early Sunday morning. They will spend 6 to 8 months aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The acting Administrator of NASA, Sean Duffy, was in town to watch the liftoff, and he met with the head of the Russian space agency, Dmitry Bakanov. It was the first in-person meeting between the top NASA and Roscosmos space agency heads in eight years.
Teacher vaccines down nearly 18%.
According to the Florida Department of Education, teacher vacancies in public schools are down 17.7% heading into the new school year. Over the past two years, vacancies are down nearly 30%. The department credits a focus on increasing teacher salaries statewide. Previously Florida ranked last in the nation for teacher pay.
Are you liable if your tree falls on a neighbor’s property?
As we move into the season of hurricanes and strong thunderstorms, the risk of uprooted trees is front of mind for many Florida residents. Under Florida’s current “no-fault” tree law, if a neighbor’s tree crashes onto your property and causes damage, you're often left footing the bill. Florida law follows the principles of “natural conditions” and “reasonable care” when it comes to fallen tree liability. Unlike some states, Florida doesn’t automatically hold tree owners responsible when a tree falls. Instead, liability is determined case by case, based on factors like negligence, whether the owner knew the tree was hazardous, and whether the fall was caused by a natural event like a storm. Hoping to change that, state lawmakers introduced two bills this year to shift liability to the tree’s owner. Both bills failed to advance in the legislature.
UCF raises rates for out-of-state students.
The University of Central Florida has joined Florida State and University of Florida in charging out of state students an extra 10%. Incoming out-of-state student Dylan Beaudreau spoke about the financial burden this change will put on him. He has to find an additional $1,500 this year alone.
“Out-of-state students make up only about 8% of UCF’s population, yet we're being asked to cover the full, I think it was $7.6 million increase. If that same amount was spread across all students, that would only be an increase of about $111 dollars.”
UCF says the change is necessary to keep up with rising inflation, and has said it will provide financial support to students, although at trustees admitted there was no plan in place to help out-of-state students so far. The maximum increase this year for all Florida Universities is 10%. Next year, they may vote to increase out-of-state tuition by 15%.
Florida ranks poorly in healthcare.
How does Florida rank among other states for healthcare? Not well. To determine where Americans receive the best and worst healthcare, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Florida ranked near the bottom. Florida's low ranking was due to poor scores in cost, access, and outcomes. Mississippi was rated the state with the worst healthcare. The best in the nation: New Hampshire.
