Florida's Latest News

Scott Franklin Introduces Bill Demanding Report on Cost of Shutdown

Representative Scott Franklin (R-FL) is introducing legislation to examine the economic effects of the ongoing government shutdown.

Specifically, Rep. Franklin's Non-Essential Workers Transparency Act requires all federal agencies to disclose the number of furloughed employees and how much each will be paid in back pay by the taxpayers for not working.

In addition, the bill requires this information to be publicly available and compiled in a report to Congress.

According to Rep. Franklin's press release, shutdown-related lost compensation costs can reach $400 million per day, and economic losses can range from $7 billion to $14 billion depending on the duration.

"Shutdowns have real consequences for families, service members, and federal workers, and this one was completely avoidable," the Florida Congressman said in a statement. "Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, are holding the government hostage to push unrelated political demands instead of doing their job to fund essential operations."

University of West Florida sees $64.3 million surge in research funding

On a recent fall day, University of West Florida student Alessandro Amato operated three drones in a simulated environment at the Institute for Machine and Human Cognition.

The drones equipped with newly developed software are learning to operate autonomously and may eventually be used to locate people or a spot to drop off supplies after a natural disaster. Along with rescue or recovery missions, the innovative technology drones could be used as a network bridge or by the military.

For Amato and Raffaele Galliera, both intelligence systems and robotics doctoral students at UWF, their work on the MAGMA: MARL-Based Guidance and Control for Deployment of Multi-Purpose Autonomous Agents is invaluable.

“Without the project, we wouldn’t be able to do this. When you do research, you do a lot of abstract stuff—you have an idea, you try to create it, but there is a missing link between the research and what actually happens in the real world,” Amato explained.

The project is funded by a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. It is one of 12 research grants totaling $64.3 million that UWF has been awarded since Aug. 1.

Mining giant Mosaic wants to expand its phosphate waste stack in Hillsborough

The Tampa-based mining company Mosaic is looking to widen its phosphate waste pile in Hillsborough County in a sweeping expansion that would keep the facility open for another two decades, according to a federal notice and a proposal the company presented earlier this year.

The extension could stretch the towering mound of phosphogypsum, a mildly radioactive byproduct of the company’s fertilizer production, farther west toward U.S. Highway 41 and closer to the shores of Tampa Bay.

The plan, still in its early stages, would increase the gypum stack’s total footprint by roughly 140 acres and make room for an estimated 48 million tons of gypsum storage, according to an initial estimate Mosaic gave in a company presentation earlier this year.

County, state and federal regulators who spoke with the Tampa Bay Times in recent weeks said Mosaic is in the initial phases of permitting, with an application to state oversight officials anticipated by mid-December.

Sarasota school board will vote Friday on a sweeping plan to prevent charter takeovers

Demolishing buildings, selling off administrative headquarters, and expanding four elementary schools to K-8 are part of the Sarasota school district’s plan to prevent charter schools from moving in, the superintendent said Tuesday.

The plan must be voted on by Friday, and could still change, Superintendent Terry Connor said during a school board workshop. He also admitted it’s not certain to prevent future attempts by charter schools to take up public school space on taxpayers’ dime.

Florida legislators this year expanded the scope of a 2017 law that established a pathway for Schools of Hope.

Now the program is not only aimed at low-performing schools or impoverished areas, but any public school with available space.

Connor said the school district currently has 5,600 “under-utilized seats.” County-wide, the district enrolls about 45,000 students. The plan he presented improves the capacity percentage at many schools, but still leaves about 2,200 open seats, according to school board member Tom Edwards.