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More businesses, investors could get lawsuit protections from the Florida Legislature

Florida lawmakers in recent years have passed sweeping changes that make it harder to sue insurance companies. This year, they could extend protections to a variety of companies, including in instances where businesses pollute communities or lose consumers’ personal data to hackers.

The bills are backed by powerful business groups, but most of them have seen some bipartisan pushback. Here’s what lawmakers could pass in the final weeks of this year’s session:

HB 789/SB 738: These bills would make it harder to sue polluters for economic damages or personal injuries under Florida’s Water Quality Assurance Act. In 2004, fishermen used the act to sue the fertilizer giant Mosaic after one of its sites spilled toxic water into a creek leading to Hillsborough Bay.

During committee testimony last week, the executive director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association said fishermen would no longer be able to sue for damages under the act if the bills passed. Mara Hatfield, a lawyer representing Palm Beach County residents who were victims of a cancer cluster in the early 2000s, also raised concerns. 

Florida lawmakers agree to use gambling money to pay for environmental projects

Legislative leaders have agreed to use hundreds of millions of dollars in gambling money to help pay for further expansion of a state wildlife corridor and other environmental projects.

The Senate Fiscal Policy Committee and the House Infrastructure Strategies Committee last week approved identical bills (SB 1638 and HB 1417) that, in part, would provide $100 million a year for the wildlife corridor, a priority of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples.

Also, the bills include directing $100 million a year for the management of uplands and to remove invasive species and $100 million for a Department of Environmental Protection flooding and sea-level rise resilience plan. Much of the money for the legislation would come from a gambling deal, known as a “compact,” that Gov. Ron DeSantis reached with the Seminole Tribe of Florida in 2021. 

But the bills also include $150 million in state general revenue that would go to the South Florida Water Management District for “operations and maintenance responsibilities.” The bill includes directing the district to contract with the Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University to conduct a study about issues related to Lake Okeechobee.

Decrease in drug-related deaths in Florida gives new glimmer of hope to families affected by addiction

A recent report by the Florida Medical Examiner’s Commission revealed a slight decrease in the number of drug-related deaths in 2022, bringing a new glimmer of hope for families who have loved ones battling drug addiction.

A local parent who lost a son to fentanyl said the 3% decline in fentanyl deaths in Florida is progress. “There is a very long way to go with it. Every single life is worth it. But if we get the word out and continue to see a decrease in fentanyl deaths, then our goal is met,” Carroll Miniard said.

Miniard knows all too well about the pain of losing a child to a fentanyl overdose. “I would never wish this on any parent. To lose your child. It’s the worst possible nightmare,” Miniard said. Back in 2019, her son Evan was battling a drug addiction following a car crash that left him in pain. When prescription pain medication wasn’t enough, he turned to street drugs. His life ended when he used heroin that was laced with fentanyl.

“It was two policemen from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office when I opened the front door. We all went to the door together because we just knew something wasn’t right on a Sunday night in 2019,” Miniard said.

‘It's all preventable': Measles cases at South Florida school concern pediatricians

The number is now five. Broward County Public Schools announced late on Monday afternoon that there are now five confirmed cases of measles at Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston. It's unknown if those students were vaccinated, but infectious disease experts said as of Friday, when this outbreak became public knowledge, that it’s highly likely the kids are not vaccinated.

Most children get the MMR — or measles, mumps and rubella — vaccine, but with a disease as contagious as measles, doctors say it only takes a few holdouts to fuel an outbreak. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Florida among the states in which parents using a religious exemption to opt their children out of traditional childhood vaccinations is trending upward.

“Definitely, parents today are much more hesitant than ever. We actually are struggling in our pediatric practices to get kids completely immunized, to complete their series by the time they enter kindergarten because parents are scared, they’re kind of feeding into this misinformation,” said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a pediatrician who teaches pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

“It is extremely unfortunate because it’s all preventable, and the measles vaccine has been around a long time and it’s safe and effective, so the fact that we are still seeing this in modern times is really unfortunate, it’s also dangerous for the community, measles is an extremely infectious and contagious virus.”