How Amendment 3 impacts funding.
A new web app allows you to search by zip code to see how Amendment 3 could impact two-year funding at all levels. WFIT’s Terri Wright has more.
The web app from the Florida Policy Institute shows how Mosquito control, public library services, beachside parks, and other services could be impacted by the property tax amendment facing Florida voters on November 3rd.
The site launches as a new University of North Florida poll shows Florida homeowners worry more about property insurance than property taxes. FPI Research Director Esteban Santis said this site gives Floridians accurate information leading up to the election.
SANTIS: It goes beyond counties and cities. It touches special districts, which have not been noted or addressed by previous tools.
The tool can be accessed at amendment three DOT florida policy institute DOT org.
Rocket launches on Thursday.
Two Space Coast rocket launches tomorrow are expected to bring sonic booms. On Thursday morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch a crewed mission, with two NASA astronauts, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut and a Roscosmos cosmonaut, to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. It’s been six months since astronauts have launched from Florida. Liftoff is slated for 11:10 am.
And just before midnight, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch a national-security payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The launch window opens at 11:53 pm. Expect sonic booms as the two side boosters return to land on the Cape.
Victory Casino Cruises shuts down.
Victory Casino Cruises shuts down its sailings from Port Canaveral and furloughs its staff. Victory’s only shipremains sidelined in an extended dry dock with no date set for its return to service. Before the shutdown, Victory sailed twice daily Tuesday through Sunday on five-hour gaming cruises into international waters. Victory Casino Cruises did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the number of employees furloughed or when the ship is expected to resume sailing.
Florida names 90 groups as terrorists.
Governor Ron DeSantis and the Cabinet on Tuesday voted to name more than 90 groups as terrorist organizations, and a legal challenge is already in the works to overturn the move.
The Cabinet voted to apply domestic or international terrorism labels to a series of groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the anti-fascism movement known as antifa as terrorist organizations.
Mark Glass is the Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“The organizations listed in the designation written notice meet the statutory criteria, in light of the evidence cited in the notice of intent.”
Hina Shamsi (HEN-uh sham-SEE), the director of the ACLU National Security Project, says they intend to file for a preliminary injunction against the designation on Thursday.
“There is nowhere in that notice any allegation or evidence that CAIR has engaged in any violent or dangerous act in violation of Florida or US law.”
The designations take effect November 5th.
$15 minimum wage is here.
An estimated 1.3 million minimum-wage Florida workers will start earning a $15 hourly wage Wednesday. For those in the service industry who earn tips, the minimum wage will be $11.98 an hour. But The Florida Policy Institute says that’s not a living wage. The organization estimates that, statewide, a living hourly wage ranges from nearly $20 for a single person without children to $34 for two adults with one child.
