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Tuesday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
› Calls for better safety measures came after the Surfside tragedy. Here are the changes so far.
Four months after the Surfside condo building collapse, Florida is just getting started on the long path toward shoring up its building laws to ensure people stay safe. Contractors have moved to improve old buildings across South Florida. Inspectors have evacuated residents from their deteriorating apartments for safety. New databases were created to keep the public better informed about the age of their condo buildings — and highlight the need for inspections. Some officials have called it progress, while noting that enough hasn’t been done yet.
› Biden Administration warns Florida over financial sanctions against school boards with mask mandates
The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran Monday, warning that withholding federal funds from districts that enacted mask mandates would make the state out of compliance with federal law. The letter says that if the state "move forward with its planned reduction of state aid to Alachua and Broward (counties), the Department is prepared to initiate enforcement action to stop these impermissible state actions."
› Old St. Petersburg Police headquarters set to be demolished this week
The boxy old St. Petersburg Police headquarters in the Edge district will soon be no more. Making way for new apartments, condos, offices and shops, it’s scheduled to be demolished starting Tuesday, with workers beginning with its interior. Then comes the structural demolition, which will likely involve hydraulic equipment and excavators hacking away at the building and loading the debris onto dump trucks for it to be hauled away.
› Miami’s local elections draw ‘abysmally low’ turnout. Here’s why that matters
In less than two weeks, voters in a half-dozen Miami-Dade communities are set to decide on important issues like who should serve as mayor of Miami and whether the county should incorporate a 35th city. History suggests less than a quarter of eligible voters — perhaps as few as one in nine — will participate. According to one study, Miami proper is in the bottom eight of the country’s most populous cities for voter turnout.
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