Florida provides greater than 6,000 new coronavirus instances
Danielle Prieur, WMFE
The Florida Division of Well being reported 6,148 new coronavirus instances and 228 new coronavirus-related deaths on Friday.
That brings the overall variety of instances within the state because the starting of the pandemic to 563,285, and the dying toll to 9,141 residents.
Orange County continued to guide Central Florida with essentially the most coronavirus instances, including 286 new instances as we speak for a complete of 32,861 optimistic assessments since mid-March.
An Orange County personal faculty pupil is the county’s first case of coronavirus in a baby because the faculty yr restarted on Monday.
Movie business may give Florida financial system a lift
Gina Jordan, WFSU
Movie and TV productions shut down across the nation as COVID-19 unfold. Movie Florida, a not-for-profit commerce affiliation, has a brand new president who thinks present biz productions could possibly be a serious a part of Florida’s financial restoration.
Florida is residence to the coming-of-age collection David Makes Man. It was filmed in Orlando and started streaming final yr on HBO Max.
“When a mean characteristic movie or TV collection movies in a location, they spend roughly $20 million in the area people in simply three or four months whereas hiring roughly 1,500 Floridians,” says Gail Morgan, new president of the Movie Florida Board of Administrators.
Nationwide Geographic’s The Proper Stuff is one other manufacturing kicking some cash into state and native coffers. Filming just lately occurred in downtown Tampa and close by Sanford, with most filming being performed in Orlando and the House Coast. The Proper Stuff collection about Mercury Seven astronauts will premiere on Disney Plus later this yr.
“$20 million going straight into the pockets of native people and small companies on the tune of $150,000 per day whereas producing tax revenues for each the native and state authorities, that may be an vital half in getting Florida’s financial system going,” says Morgan, who will proceed in her function of Destin-Fort Walton Seashore Movie Commissioner.
She says Florida is shedding too many productions to Georgia and different states that supply incentives, like tax rebates. “Florida is just one of 17 states in America that doesn’t have a program, and it’s the one state within the Southeast with out a program which places us at a serious aggressive drawback.”
Florida’s movie tax incentive program expired in 2016, and the final two legislative classes noticed payments that attempted and did not deliver it again. “This laws has a superb return on funding (ROI),” Morgan says. “For each one greenback Florida invests, greater than 5 {dollars} will probably be spent within the state.”
That’s the ROI usually touted by lawmakers and supporters of movie incentives over the past decade. State economists discovered otherwise in a 2018 report.
For now, Movie Florida is targeted on maintaining everybody on the set COVID-19-free. The affiliation was one of many first within the nation to launch an inventory of suggestions for sustaining clear and wholesome units. It adopted up with two digital city halls and can also be distributing private protecting gear to manufacturing groups.
Magic snap 5-game skid with 133-127 victory over Pelicans
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Nikola Vucevic scored 23 factors on 10-of-11 capturing from the ground and the Orlando Magic confirmed up for the postseason by beating the New Orleans Pelicans 133-127 on Thursday to snap a five-game skid.
Each groups have been lacking a lot of their high gamers in a regular-season finale that carried no playoff implications.
Orlando was locked into the eighth seed within the Japanese Convention and can face the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in a first-round collection starting Tuesday.
New Orleans already was out of playoff competition.
Winter Backyard pupil will get coronavirus
Amy Inexperienced, WMFE
Leaders are reporting Orange County’s first coronavirus case in a college.
Raul Pino of the Florida Division of Well being in Orange County says a 9-year-old little one examined optimistic at a non-public faculty in Winter Backyard.
“They put on masks always within the classroom, so we take into account the publicity was minimal to the scholars and lecturers.”
He says eight college students within the class have been uncovered. All are below quarantine, and the kid’s household has been suggested to get examined.
When $600 goes away
The Indicator from Planet Cash, NPR
Tens of millions of jobless People are determined to know whether or not their unemployment advantages will probably be prolonged, and by how a lot.
However Congress simply went on trip.
Joe Biden: For the subsequent three months, all People ought to put on a masks when outdoors
Asma Khalid, NPR
Joe Biden is looking for everybody in america to put on a masks, effectively into the autumn.
“Each single American must be sporting a masks once they’re outdoors for the subsequent three months, at a minimal,” Biden mentioned Thursday afternoon in remarks in Wilmington, Del. “Each governor ought to mandate necessary mask-wearing. The estimates by the specialists are it can save over 40,000 lives.”
His feedback got here after a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic together with his new operating mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, and public well being specialists. More than 165,000 Americans have died due to COVID-19.
In contrast to President Trump, who took months to wear a mask publicly, Biden has lengthy been persistently sporting a masks and inspiring others to take action. However he’s by no means been so specific about mandates and a timeline.
In an interview with KDKA in Pittsburgh in June, the presumptive Democratic nominee mentioned he would require masks if he have been president.
“I’d insist that everyone out in public be sporting that masks. Anybody to reopen must guarantee that they walked right into a enterprise that had masks,” he mentioned.
Learn the full article here.
COVID-19 dying fee for Black People twice that for whites, new report says
Scott Neuman, NPR
Black People have gotten contaminated with the coronavirus at a fee thrice that of whites and they’re twice as more likely to die from COVID-19, in response to a brand new report from the Nationwide City League, based mostly partly on knowledge from Johns Hopkins College.
A key focus of Thursday’s report is the affect of the pandemic and the way the illness has adopted the contours of the bigger society in falling particularly exhausting on Blacks, Latinos and Indigenous individuals.
State of Black America Unmasked paints a “bleak image” of COVID-19 and other people of coloration, the league’s CEO, Marc Morial, mentioned.
The pandemic “uncovered the fault strains in America’s social and financial establishments,” the authors of the report mentioned.
The racial disparities that have an effect on how the illness is spreading in America have been recognized because the early days of the pandemic, and a few of the numbers launched Thursday monitor intently with earlier stories by NPR, The New York Times and different media retailers.
“We all know that these racial, ethnic disparities in COVID-19 are the results of pre-pandemic realities. It’s a legacy of structural discrimination that has restricted entry to well being and wealth for individuals of coloration,” Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, director of the Fairness Analysis and Innovation Middle at Yale Faculty of Medication, instructed NPR in Could.
Learn the full article here.
Mail-in ballots despatched to Trump, First Woman in Florida
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump has requested a mail-in poll for Florida’s main election, regardless of weeks of criticizing the follow.
Palm Seashore County election data present ballots have been mailed on Wednesday to each the president and First Woman Melania Trump on the Mar-a-Lago resort, which Trump lists as his authorized deal with.
Each beforehand voted by mail within the presidential desire main final March.
Following a number of claims that mail-in voting was unsafe and susceptible to fraud, Trump tweeted a change of thoughts in regards to the follow final week not less than in Florida.
Voters in Tuesday’s main are primarily selecting celebration nominees for Congress and the state Legislature.
Gamers kneeling for anthem met with boos earlier than MLS sport
There was a smattering of boos when gamers from FC Dallas and Nashville SC collectively took a knee through the nationwide anthem earlier than their sport in Frisco, Texas.
Dallas defender Reggie Cannon says he was disgusted by the boos at Toyota Stadium when gamers and officers knelt to name consideration to racial injustice.
Dallas and Nashville had not performed a sport because the season was suspended on March 12 due to the coronavirus.
Optimistic COVID-19 assessments stored the groups out of the MLS is Again event in Florida.
Lecturers’ union lawsuit strikes ahead
Blaise Gainey, WFSU
A schedule is about for mediation in a lawsuit over a state order requiring colleges to begin in-person courses this month.
The state is demanding that every one colleges open or face monetary penalties. Ron Meyer is the lawyer for the Florida Schooling Affiliation, a state-wide lecturers’ union.
He instructed Choose Charles Dodson throughout court docket Thursday he believes reopening will result in unhealthy outcomes.
“There may be little question that simply speeding to open public colleges right here in Florida, brick and mortar, goes to create the identical sort of mess we’re seeing throughout the nation the place you open them after which you find yourself closing them as a result of there’s COVID transmission being recognized.”
The FEA needs the state to permit faculty districts to determine what date to open.
Dodson will hear a movement to dismiss the case Friday. If he doesn’t dismiss, he’s ordered either side to complete mediating by midnight Tuesday, August 18.
A possible injunction listening to is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday if no settlement may be made.
As ICU mattress numbers at South Florida hospitals enhance, elective procedures begin up once more
Veronica Zaragovia, WLRN
Hospitals in South Florida are reporting higher numbers. They’ve extra ICU beds obtainable. And their nursing scarcity is bettering.
Jackson Well being System is even gearing as much as restart elective procedures. Justin Senior is the CEO of the Security Web Hospital Alliance of Florida.
“They’re again to a really busy hospital in downtown Miami with fairly a number of COVID sufferers besides, however they need to be again to a full-service, totally operational hospital by way of the entire scheduled procedures that they do within the subsequent few days.”
In July, Jackson paused non-emergency or non-urgent surgical procedures to cope with the surge in COVID-19 sufferers and a scarcity of nurses.
Memorial Healthcare System restarted its elective procedures earlier this week.
Palm Seashore County Faculty Board provides households a alternative
Wilkine Brutus, WLRN
As mother and father put together their youngsters for online-only courses in a number of weeks, the Palm Seashore County Faculty District up to date its re-entry plan at a gathering Wednesday.
In a 6-1 vote, the Palm Seashore County Faculty Board accepted a plan to provide households a alternative: both have youngsters return to bodily school rooms as soon as it’s secure or proceed with distance studying.
Superintendent Dr. Donald Fennoy says the board faces extra challenges.
“We do have a whole lot of exhausting issues forward of us. We have now to attempt to make as many lodging as we will, however we nonetheless should run Palm Seashore County Faculties. And so, this stress that we’re dealing with – I’m not going to say that it’s wholesome however girls and gents, it’s mandatory. And there’s no solution to keep away from it.”
Board member Debra Robinson is a medical physician. She voted no and says she’s frightened about contact tracing points. She says the Florida Division of Schooling doesn’t care about youngsters’s security.
“Possibly it’s simply due to my skilled expertise that this weighs closely. It could be good if I didn’t lose sleep over this. Proper? I’m afraid I do know what’s going to occur as a consequence of our choices.”
The board meets subsequent week to hash out extra particulars.
Bay District Faculties seeks to fill openings
Valerie Crowder, WFSU
Bay County has 50 vacant educating positions that college district leaders are speeding to fill. Human Assets Director Shirley Baker says instructor shortages aren’t uncommon for the district.
Although she says some lecturers have refused to return to the classroom as COVID-19 quickly spreads all through the neighborhood.
“There are some workers who both have members of the family at residence that they’ve nice concern for and we’ve got had some workers who’ve their very own underlying situations and have made totally different choices by way of whether or not or not they’ll proceed their employment or whether or not or not they’ll take an prolonged go away.”
Baker says the district is hiring further custodians and substitutes through the pandemic.
She says lecturers who should self-isolate at residence will want a substitute to observe their class, even when these lecturers can join nearly with college students. Bay County Faculties reopen for in-person instruction subsequent Thursday.
FSU head coach denies allegations made by large receiver
Blaise Gainey, WFSU
Florida State College’s Soccer Head Coach Mike Norvell says he’s been clear about what the crew is doing in response to the coronavirus.
He made the assertion throughout a press convention after FSU large receiver DJ Matthews tweeted that he’d examined optimistic. Matthews deleted the tweet.
Later his teammate, Warren Thompson, posted a letter to Twitter claiming the varsity has been mendacity in regards to the situation of gamers.
Norvell says the crew has been following applicable security measures.
“It’s clearly disappointing to see what was mentioned. We’ve been very open and clear all through this course of. We’ve had a voluntary camp; we’ve had voluntary summer time entry. We’ve been very clear all through all facets together with an extra crew assembly two nights in the past.”
Norvell says all gamers have been examined previous to the beginning of returning to campus for voluntary coaching camp.
He says they’ll proceed to be examined each week of coaching camp. The college will not be releasing details about whether or not or not any of these assessments yielded optimistic outcomes.
20 questions to assist determine what’s finest to your children (and also you) this faculty yr
Life Package, NPR
Households with youngsters are in a severe bind.
Whether or not you’re searching for choices for little one care or want assets to maintain your child entertained, this episode will stroll you thru some concepts to consider for this faculty yr.