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What you need to know about Florida today
Florida wants to ban social media for kids. Courts will likely stop it.
To protect the mental health and safety of kids, state lawmakers are moving ahead with a first-of-its kind proposal that would reshape how nearly every Floridian uses the internet. Kids under 16 would be forbidden from being on social media. And every Floridian who wants to use social media would have to submit some sort of ID, or submit to a facial scan, to prove their age. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
Business Beat - Week of January 26th
Get top news-to-know with Florida Trend's headline-focused video newsbrief, hosted by digital content specialist Aimée Alexander.
Opioid sales boomed at Publix while other pharmacies settled suits
The volume of prescription opioids dispensed in Florida fell 56% from 2011 to 2019 as the pharmaceutical industry was hit by lawsuits for its role in the national opioid crisis, according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis of Drug Enforcement Administration data recently released by a federal court. But while national pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens were dispensing fewer of the highly addictive drugs, Publix’s sales were soaring. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
More than 7,100 women traveled to Florida for abortions in 2023. Key court rulings could soon end those journeys.
In 2023, more than 7,100 women traveled to Florida from another state or country to end their pregnancies. They came from hundreds of miles, originating from Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, even Central America and the Caribbean. Florida was the closest place they could legally get an abortion, given that the majority of the South banned or restricted the procedure after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2022 that abortion laws should be left up to the states. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
UF report warns massive loss of Florida farm lands in coming decades
A new report paints a bleak picture regarding the impact of sea-level rise, development and other environmental impacts on agricultural interests in the next 45 years in Florida. The University of Florida Center for Landscape Conservation Planning and the citizens’ community activist organization 1,000 Friends of Florida published the results of a joint 38-page analysis that states “development and, to a much lesser degree, sea level rise are projected to result in the loss of about 120 acres of land a day — or almost 45,000 acres a year — between now and 2070.” [Source: Florida Politics]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Visit Tampa Bay spends $4.6M on out-of-state winter campaign
Visit Tampa Bay has expanded its annual out-of-state marketing campaign to include Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina and Michigan. The organization typically only markets in Atlanta during the summer. Legacy markets in the winter campaign include Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., along with international countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Brazil.
› Disney, DeSantis-backed district agree to June trial date for public records lawsuit
Disney and the Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed tourism oversight district agreed Thursday to a June 24 trial date for a lawsuit over public records. The entertainment district sued the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District last month, alleging that officials were withholding records in violation of the state’s public records law. Lawyers for the tourism oversight district deny the allegations.
› North Florida’s main airport shatters record for number of users in 2023
Northeast Florida’s main air travel hub made a full recovery in 2023 from the airline passenger hit caused by COVID-19. In fact, Jacksonville International Airport (JIA) recorded more travelers shuffling through its gates than ever before. JIA, which serves a large swath of North Florida and well into South Georgia, recorded about 7.45 million passengers who flew out of and into the airport in 2023, according to figures released this week by the Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA).
› Apprenticeship program helping to fill critical gap in construction industry across South Florida
When a labor shortage hit the construction industry during the height of the pandemic, the industry needed to think outside the box to attract a new workforce. In South Florida, that answer came in the form of an apprenticeship program thanks to Miami Dade College and the University of Miami.
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