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Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

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Report: State received only 58 cents for every dollar spent on tourism marketing

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(The Center Square) — State officials say Florida’s tourism marketing organization, Visit Florida, returned only 58 cents for every dollar spent on it in 2023.

The report by the Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR) found that Visit Florida’s public marketing during fiscal years (FY) 2019-2022 generated a positive 0.58 return on investment.

(Ryan Haft/Unsplash)

According to the report, the return on investment for fiscal years 2019-2022 was much lower than the previous two reports that covered 2016-2019 and 2013-2016.

The report shows that in the 2021 report, Visit Florida’s marketing efforts received $3.27 for every dollar spent with a return on investment of 3.27. This was up from 2018’s analysis, which had a return on investment of 2.15.

Legislation enacted in 2013 and 2014 directs EDR and the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to analyze specific state economic development incentive programs every three years.

According to the EDR, state payments to Visit Florida have decreased 35.7% since its previous review, averaging $48.9 million annually over three years. However, the report further states that the U.S. Travel Association has reported that average state funding for tourism was around $18 million in fiscal year 2021-2022.

Overall, Florida had 134.2 million visitors in 2022, with nearly 127 million being domestic travelers, the largest number of visitors between 2016 and 2022.

International travel recovered somewhat with a reported 7.2 million international visitors in 2022, a slight rebound since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, which saw only 2 million international visitors.

However, despite appearances, Florida’s Economic Estimating Conference expects a strong period of growth, around 6.4% during FY 2023-2024, after which it is likely to drop to an average of 4.9% in FY 2024-2025.

The EDR also notes that they believe the current working return on investment for Visit Florida is closer to 3.3, which better reflects the program’s long-term goals.

The report says Visit Florida’s mission is to promote and drive visitation to and within the state of Florida in hopes of establishing the state as the No. 1 destination, both domestically and internationally.

Visit Florida conducts marketing activities, and advertising campaigns both domestically and abroad, as well as researching travel trends and tourism, managing welcome centers, administering reimbursement grant programs, and partnering with businesses and destinations.

Published May 15, 2024

How workplaces can contribute to COPD risk

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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is a long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. Impacting 11.7 million people in the United States, many people only think of it as a disease that impacts people who smoke and use tobacco products, but long-term exposure to dust, chemicals, fumes and vapors from the workplace are also risk factors.

((c) KatarzynaBialasiewicz / iStock via Getty Images Plus)

In fact, work-related exposures account for 10% to 20% of either respiratory symptoms or lung function impairment consistent with COPD.

To help people understand the many facets of COPD risk, the American Lung Association is launching a campaign to raise awareness of occupational COPD. As part of the campaign, they are sharing patient insights, along with information to help people identify workplace risk factors and signs of disease progression.

Knowing the risk factors
Mary Cohen, who lives with COPD, started having symptoms when working at a nail and hair salon.

“I did not realize that working in a hair and nail salon doing nails would put me at risk for lung disease, COPD,” says Cohen.

The leading industries and job types that increase risk for COPD include agriculture, mining and manufacturing; however, many types of workplaces, from construction to welding, can potentially expose workers to harmful irritants that can contribute to developing COPD. Workplace exposures include:

  • Secondhand smoke
  • Mineral dusts like silica, coal and asbestos
  • Organic dusts like cotton, wood and grains
  • Metal or welding fumes like cadmium
  • Diesel or exhaust fumes
  • Asphalt, tar fumes, or vapor in roads or roofing
  • Smoke from fires

Recognizing the signs
While there is no cure for COPD, it is often preventable and once diagnosed can be managed and treated. That’s why recognizing the symptoms as early as possible is so important. These symptoms include shortness of breath, a cough that may bring up sputum (mucus or phlegm), wheezing, tiredness or fatigue, or repeated lung infections like bronchitis or pneumonia. Perhaps a person notices they are taking the elevator instead of the stairs because of shortness of breath, or that they develop a lingering cough every time they sweep sawdust. Unfortunately, people often attribute these changes to their health to aging or because they have gained weight or are out of shape.

If a person has been exposed to risk factors for occupational COPD or has symptoms, the American Lung Association recommends that they speak to their health care provider. For more information, visit Lung.org/workplace-COPD.

The workplace is where people spend hours of their day and years of their life. Learning more about how to protect the lungs at work is critical.

-StatePoint

Published May 15, 2024

Governor signs ban on lab-grown meat

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(The Center Square) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans the sale of lab-grown meat as part of efforts by state officials that are intended to boost the state’s agricultural sector.

DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1084, prohibiting the sale of lab-grown meat in Florida. He also said at a news conference in Hardee County that the Sunshine State is upping its beef production to keep up with demand.

(Louis Reed/Unsplash)

In addition, DeSantis said that Florida is supporting the state’s agriculture and meat industry by modernizing the Right to Farm Act, reestablishing funding for the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program with $300 million in funding and investing more than $2.8 billion into the industry itself.

“We want to make sure we protect agriculture activities from frivolous litigation,” DeSantis said. “We’ve also signed legislation to ensure that agri-tourism operators qualify for protection against property tax assessments when operating on agricultural land, we also simplified steps for Florida farmers to receive sales-tax exemptions for agricultural materials.”

The governor said that the legislation is part of a continued effort to have a vibrant agricultural industry. He added the legislation is intended to protect the industry from natural disasters and also from man.

“What we’re protecting here is the industry against acts of man,” DeSantis said “Against an ideological agenda that wants to finger agriculture as the problem, that views things like raising cattle as destroying our climate. These will be people who will lecture the rest of us about things like global warming…meanwhile, they’re flying to Davos in their private jets.”

DeSantis noted that the people who hold these ideologies like the World Economic Forum (WEF) only want to impose restrictions on everyday people, while they do whatever they want. DeSantis further noted that policies have already been enacted to protect Floridians from being forced into a social credit score system as in China.

“I think what they’re looking to do is create a social credit score system…We see the threat for what it is,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis stated that is not a vision that has taken hold in Florida and that those at the WEF want to eliminate meat production and farming altogether.

“They want to eliminate meat, they want to eliminate cattle, they want to eliminate chickens…they want to create protein in laboratories,” DeSantis said. “So essentially lab-created meat, and their goal is to get to a point where you will not be raising cattle.”

Published May 15, 2024

Freedom summer savings announced

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Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced the signing of the Freedom Summer Sales Tax Holiday, in the budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025, according to a news release.

The Freedom Month Sales Tax Holiday will take place during the month of July and will make items such as fishing supplies, outdoor recreation equipment, admissions to state parks and museums sales tax free.

Canoes and kayaks that cost $500 or less are included in the Freedom Sales Tax Holiday. (Alyssa Moore/Unsplash)

Florida State Parks also will offer free admission on Memorial Day weekend, May 24 to May 27, to kick off the summer for families, the release says.

The July sales tax holiday will remove the sales tax on:

  • Boating and water activity supplies
  • Fishing supplies
  • Camping supplies
  • Outdoor supplies
  • Admissions to events or performances scheduled to be held between July 1 and Dec. 31, such as live music events, live sporting events, movies in a movie theater, ballet, plays, fairs and festivals
  • Admissions purchased for museums and state parks, including annual passes; and season tickets for ballets, plays, music events and musical theater performances

For more information and a list of individual items priced for sales tax exemption, visit https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/FLDEP/bulletins/3999fac.

Published May 08, 2024

Polk sheriff’s office seizes largest amount of fentanyl in county history

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(The Center Square) – The Polk County Sheriff’s Office in one operation disrupted a Mexican drug trafficking organization operating in several states. In the process, deputies seized the largest amount of fentanyl in county history of 14 kilograms, or 30.86 pounds — enough to kill one-third of the state’s population.

Two of the four individuals arrested were in the country illegally, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.

“Fentanyl is the drug that is coming from Mexico through an open border … and it’s killing people all over the United States,” Judd said at a news conference. “It seems like every time I talk about a fentanyl operation, I’m saying it’s the largest fentanyl seizure in the state of Florida. Once again, that’s what I’m saying. The seizure of 14 kilos of fentanyl is the single largest seizure in the history of Polk County.”

Two milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose for most people, according to the DEA. (United States Drug Enforcement Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

The two criminal aliens they arrested, Judd said, “didn’t come here to better themselves and their family. They came here illegally to kill people in America with a deadly drug through a porous border that we need to seal off.”

“What’s frightening about this,” he said, is “the drugs we seized were enough to kill every man, woman and child” in 14 counties. Since January 2023, his deputies alone have seized enough fentanyl to kill everyone in Florida, he said. They’ve also saved 23 people’s lives from fentanyl poisoning using Narcan, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses if administered quickly enough.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said the record amount of fentanyl seized in Polk County, “enough to kill a third of our state,” originated from the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. “How does that happen? It happens because our border is wide open,” she said.

“Since 2021, since (President Joe) Biden took office, over 10 million people have poured into this country,” she said, citing the record numbers reported by The Center Square. In the first six months of fiscal 2024, more than 1.7 million illegally entered, the greatest number in U.S. history.

“As long as the border is wide open, we will continue to see those that crossed over illegally pouring deadly drugs into our state,” Moody said.

She also said Florida law enforcement officers and prosecutors were “being very aggressive to take down the poison peddlers.” The Florida legislature has also ensured law enforcement officers and first responders are fully funded and residents who have substance abuse issues are provided with a range of resources.

The sheriff’s operation began in August 2023 when members of a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force began investigating a Mexican drug trafficking organization specializing in fentanyl. The task force also worked with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, U.S. Border Patrol, and the State Attorney’s Office 10th Judicial Circuit.

In the early stages of the investigation, Polk County Sheriff’s detectives working undercover received two kilograms of fentanyl from a drug trafficker in Mexico. They later coordinated a delivery to be made in person this month at a motel in Lakeland, where they received one kilogram. They then arranged for a third delivery, with the trafficking organization agreeing to ship 11 more kilograms of fentanyl to Polk County.

On April 22, 2024, four individuals arrived at a predetermined location in Polk County to deliver the 11 kilos and were met by Judd’s team. All four were arrested: Maria Machuca-Alderete, Maria Guadalupe-Garcia, Sergio Garcia and Pedro Rodriguez-Correa. A fifth individual believed to be working with them is wanted and at-large.

Garcia, a U.S. Army veteran, brought the drugs from California to Florida, which came from Sinaloa, Mexico. His wife, Guadalupe-Garcia, said they were paid $42,500 to drive the drugs to Florida, Judd said.

Rodriguez-Correa, who was in the country illegally, drove the alleged four fentanyl traffickers and brought with them a 6-year-old boy to the delivery. The Florida Department of Children & Families was called and took custody of him.

The detectives also seized two vehicles used by the drug traffickers, and $5,461 in cash, according to the sheriff’s office.

Published May 08, 2024

Tourist council seeks industry professional

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Pasco County’s Destination Management Organization, Florida’s Sports Coast, is seeking a hotel/motel industry professional to become the newest member to serve on the Tourist Development Council (TDC), according to a news release.

The TDC is an advisory council to the Pasco Board of County Commissioners, which is made up of elected officials and tourism industry professionals who provide recommendations to the staff of Florida’s Sports Coast on promotional/partnership proposals, marketing opportunities and oversight to tourism tax expenditures (also known as the “Bed Tax”).

(File)

These are the position details:

  • The opening must be filled by an owner/operator of a motel, hotel, recreational vehicle park or other tourist accommodation in the county that is subject to the tourist development tax.
  • TDC members serve staggered, four-year terms.
  • Positions are voluntary, with no financial compensation.
  • The TDC meets monthly — alternating between New Port Richey and Dade City. Applicants must live and be registered to vote in Pasco County.

Applications are being accepted online through May 15, at Pasco.rja.revize.com/forms/7182.

For more about the Pasco TDC, including members and the 2024 meeting schedule, visit https://www.pascocountyfl.net/government/advisory_boards_and_committees.php#collapselinks-58-21b14.

Published May 08, 2024

Girl Scouts celebrate 112th birthday

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Girl Scouts, alumni and members of the Zephyrhills community joined in the birthday celebration that included games and a market. (Courtesy of Michelle Lucas)

The Zephyrhills community helped to celebrate the Girl Scouts’ 112th birthday and West Wind’s Girl Scouts through the decades with an event at Zephyr Park’s Alice Hall.

Admission was free and the event featured a girl-preneur market, games and guest speakers. Girl Scouts alumni were invited to attend and asked to bring their uniforms.

“This was such a fun day and so fantastic to see so many generations and the community come together, remembering the troop that started in 1957. Girls got to complete a Journey in a Day, learn how to be safe from Zephyrhills local police officers, hear fun and interesting stories from ER nurse Natalie, hear from the YMCA and Code Ninja, as well as be empowered to use their voice by the mayor, and so much more. West Wind sure knew how to end Girl Scout Week with a real GREEN party!” said Courtney Neal, community manager, Girl Scouts of West Central Florida (GSWCF), in an email to The Laker/Lutz News.

Published May 08, 2024

From left, back: Courtney Neal, community manager, GSWCF; Hailey Burgos, membership and wellness director, YMCA; Hailey Davidson, aquatics director; and front, Tricia Smith, manager, West Wind Service Unit.

Audit gives Florida Department of Transportation good grades for efficiency

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(The Center Square) — The Florida Department of Transportation received high marks on its efficiency with taxpayer funds during fiscal 2022-2023, but auditors found some issues that needed correction.

According to the annual report by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the audit portion was done to provide independent appraisals of the performance of department programs and processes. This included an assessment of management’s performance in meeting information needs within the department while maintaining its resources.

(Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The audit team also provided assurance and consulting services to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of department programs, producing audits, reviews of contracts, grants, operational processes and information technology,  particularly focused on cybersecurity.

While most programs that were audited were found to be compliant, several issues included duplicate payments to certain engineering firms, unreliable performance measures and internal controls to protect personal information.

However, other programs with findings or recommendations, like the Nuclear Density Gauge Storage, and the Identity & Access Management Enterprise Cybersecurity Audit, were protected from disclosure. The report states that all findings had been addressed and actions had been taken to prevent future deficiencies.

The OIG’s investigative team worked to detect and deter activities such as contract fraud and employee misconduct within the FDOT. The investigation team received 203 complaints during the year, in which 18 investigations were opened, 112 were referred to management and 73 complaints were forwarded to other agencies.

The report noted that the OIG conducted fraud awareness briefings throughout the state to department employees, supervisor and management academies, and professional engineer trainees. Fraud hotline employees also were trained to identify and report fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct or mismanagement.

Nine investigations were carried forward from fiscal 2021-2022, and three cases were worked jointly with law enforcement. These included allegations of fraud, theft, falsification, conflicts of interest, bid rigging, false certification, lack of quality control and recording without consent.

One former department employee was believed to have misused a debit card or cash withdrawals from an Employee Benefit Fund. Investigators found unreconciled ATM withdrawals and several charges on the EBF debit card for DoorDash purchases.

The OIG found conflicts of interest involving a department employee and a contractor doing business with the department. Based on interviews and records, it was “proved that the employee created the appearance of a conflict of interest by attempting to utilize a department contractor for a fellow employee’s potential benefit.”

Published May 08, 2024

Pasco Corrections Facility earns reaccreditation

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(File)

The Pasco County Corrections Facility in Land O’ Lakes has announced it has again earned accreditation from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) by demonstrating outstanding compliance with NCCHC’s nationally recognized standards of care for correctional health services in jails around the country, according to a news release.

The Pasco facility first was accredited in 2019 and has maintained its commitment to meeting the requirements described in NCCHC standards. The reaccreditation recognizes Pasco County Corrections’ dedication to provide quality health services to its approximately 1,400 inmates.

To maintain the accreditation, the corrections facility underwent a rigorous professional assessment earlier this year, during which a team of experienced physicians and experts in correctional health care surveyed the jail for compliance in areas including:

  • Patient Care & Treatment
  • Health Promotion
  • Safety & Disease Prevention
  • Governance/Administration
  • Personnel/Training
  • Special Needs & Services
  • Medical Legal Issues

The Land O’ Lakes facility houses men and women charged or sentenced on misdemeanor and felony crimes, as well as juveniles who have been adjudicated for treatment as adults.

Published May 08, 2024

DeSantis touts more spending for the developmentally disabled in Florida

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(The Center Square) — Floridians with developmental disabilities will benefit from a record level of funding for direct services after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a multibillion dollar investment from the state.

DeSantis spoke at the Els Center in Jupiter on Monday and announced that as part of the Live Healthy legislation spearheaded by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and his Focus on Florida’s Bright Future Budget that $2.2 billion will be going to the Agency for Persons with Disabilities for services through the iBudget waiver.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stands with a $1 million check for the Els Center of Excellence.(Facebook/Governor Ron DeSantis)

This would allow those living with autism and other developmental disabilities to access social, behavioral, therapeutic and medical services.

“That is the highest amount ever appropriated in the history of Florida by a country mile, and the iBudget waiver offers an array of social, medical, behavioral, and therapeutic services to individuals who have developmental disabilities,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis stated that the record-high funding includes $200 million to support an across-the-board increase for iBudget waiver providers, $64.8 million to enroll additional individuals in crisis onto the iBudget waiver and $55.7 million to enroll individuals currently in a pre-enrollment category.

“So, this is a big deal, this is a big investment, it shows the state of Florida’s commitment,” DeSantis said, adding that he also has approved an additional $1 million for the Els Center of Excellence recreational complex.

DeSantis noted that the new facility will provide a specialized swim and water safety program, aqua therapy sessions, indoor sports and fitness, and a specialized autism-friendly hurricane shelter.

“The facility will also provide a specialized athletic curriculum that gives parents, teachers and coaches the best tools to assist children and students with unique abilities. We want them to get active, we want them to live healthier lives, and that’s exactly what they’re doing here at the Els Center.” DeSantis said.

Agency for Persons with Disabilities Director Taylor Hatch said that more individuals living with developmental disabilities will be empowered by the funding provided by DeSantis and the Legislature.

“This historic funding will provide services that empower a greater number of individuals and their families to thrive through the power of partnership, highlighting the importance of a strong provider workforce through first-ever, across-the-board pay increases, as well as focusing on the importance of community partners,” Hatch said.

Published May 08, 2024