ELECTIONS CYBERSECURITY The Florida Department of State will draw down over $19 million of federal money for cybersecurity for the upcoming elections. The Legislature must approve the distribution of the funding to the state’s 67 Supervisors of Elections and the hiring of five new specialists. The funding requires a 5 percent match by the state over Read more about Issues of Interest[…]
BP SETTLEMENT FUNDS Four regional economic development projects in Northwest Florida will receive $19 million from Triumph Gulf Coast, the organization created to administer the settlement money from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. The Port of Panama City and Wakulla, Escambia and Okaloosa counties are the initial project recipients, with more than $1.5 billion Read more about Issues of Interest[…]
FACIAL RECOGNITION The Orlando Police Department is one of the first police stations in America to test Amazon Rekognition facial recognition technology. The program allows police to upload a photo to “detect, analyze, and compare faces for a wide variety of user verification, cataloging, people counting, and public safety use cases.” The program is in Read more about Issues of Interest[…]
TAX HOLIDAY Hurricane season is just around the corner- Already! Forecasters are predicting another busy storm season with a possibility of up to 17 named storms. So mark your calendars! The hurricane preparedness tax-free holiday for stocking up on batteries, tarps, generators and other hurricane items will be June 1st -7th. More details of what Read more about Hurricane Tax Holiday and Recovery Update[…]
Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was originally called, was a loosely organized day in May to remember northern soldiers who had died during the Civil War. It was General John Logan, as the Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, who issued General Orders No. 11 establishing May 30th as the official day Read more about Memorial Day[…]