Identifying Local Opportunities
Identifying Local
Opportunities
·
“Hillsborough transit meeting goes off the rails
during quarrel over contracts”
o This story
involves the Hillsborough area regional transit authority and an argument two
members got into over a contract. The contract was for $405,000 so that Connetics
transportation group could make an evaluation over bus routes and schedules. The
dispute between Kathleen Shanahan and county commissioner Pat Kemp came up because
they had a dispute over the process of hiring outside vendors. The transit is move
into new forms of transportation like a commuter rail, but they have to wait on
a Florida supreme court decision that will decide whether the agency will receive
more funds. Shanahan left the meeting early and claimed that there was a
conflict of interest for kemp.
o The problem
seems to be about how this transportation agency will award contracts for outside
vendors and the committee is arguing about how it will award these contracts.
o The people
who have the problem are the transportation agency and anyone that is affected
by the work that the transportation agency does. I.e. the people that live in Hillsborough
county and the people that rely on the transportation in the county.
·
“U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz: FBI needs to release the
names of hacked Florida counties”
o In this
story U.S. Rep Michael waltz commended the FBI, as they have decided to inform
individual states about election system hackings. This is specifically in reference
to Russian hackers meddling in certain states during the 2016 election. U.S. Rep Michael waltz said that this decision
by the FBI was a good start, but he did not think it was sufficient. He thinks
that the FBI could do more by announcing which counties in Florida specifically
were hacked during the 2016 election. He said that in the end the people of Florida
were most affected by the Russian hacking and they deserve to know if they
lived in a county that was breached. He said that the whole purpose of Russia hacking
our elections was to undermine our institutions and to make it, so people do
not have faith in our elections process and “so they need to be informed if
they're compromised.”
o The problem
is that the Russians hacked our election systems and while then states that
were hacked have been informed, we still do not know the individual counties
that were hacked.
o The people
that have this problem are the eligible voters that live in Florida. This is
true because since the election systems were hacked Floridians might lose faith
in our democracy and they deserve to know if the county they live in was hacked.
·
“Miami-based cruise companies cancel China
itineraries as coronavirus spreads”
o According to this article, various
cruise companies in Miami are cancelling trips that were planned to various
cruise ports in china as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus. Wuhan,
which is the busiest cruise port in china, is one of the places that affected
because over five thousand people have been infected with the coronavirus and
over one hundred people have died from it. Most of the cruise companies that
are based out of Miami like Carnival and royal Caribbean all have ships that
visit ports in china. As a result of this outbreak of the coronavirus, all of
these cruise lines have cancelled all of the cruises that were planning to go
to these Chinese ports. Some cruise lines are offering full refunds to
customers that were affected, while others are not allowing passengers that have
recently visited areas in china affected by the coronavirus to board their
cruises. The cruise companies have stayed in contact with the CDC throughout
this outbreak to make sure they are following special procedures.
o The problem in this story is that
cruise lines are having to cancel planned trips to certain parts of china
because of the outbreak of the coronavirus.
o The people that have this problem are
the cruise lines themselves because they have to give refunds and take special precautions.
The people that were going to take these cruises to china also have this
problem because now they cannot go on their planned vacation
·
“State workers are sounding the call to end poverty
wages, stage protest in Jacksonville”
o State
workers in Jacksonville gathered around the Florida state office building to
protest low wages and demand an increase in said wages. The people that
protested in Jacksonville were from “Child Protective Services, the Health
Department, various state hospitals and many other factions”. These workers feel that they need a raise so
that they don’t have to work multiple jobs and rely on public assistance. They feel
that they are being paid low wages compared to the rest of the country because
of state budget cuts. The workers requested a five percent pay increase across to
board and a cost of living allowance of two percent. The rallies have seemed to
help since senate president bill Galvano said, “there will be a “meaningful”
pay increase for state workers when the Senate starts budget negotiations with
the House”.
o The problem
in the story is that the state workers are protesting for higher wages because
they feel like they are not paid enough.
o The people
that have the problem are the state workers in Florida because they are not
paid enough, and they are struggling to make ends meet on their current salaries.
·
“Demonstrators decry proposed fish farm in Sarasota
ahead of EPA permit meeting”
o Environmental
groups in Sarasota are protesting a company that has plans to open an offshore fish
farm in the Gulf of Mexico near the shores of Sarasota. The Environmental Protection
Agency is having a hearing to decide on whether the company, Kampachi farms, will
receive a permit to build this offshore fish farm. There were roughly a dozen
protestors that stood outside in the hopes to dissuade the EPA from allowing
this company to operate a fish farm offshore of southwest Florida in order to
raise thousands of fish for humans to consume. The environmental activists that are
protesting argue that fish farming will cause a release of phosphorus and
nitrogen into the ocean, which is harmful to the environment. This would be one
of the first firm farms in the united states and if it is successful it will
lead to many more.
·
The problem is that Kampachi farms wants to
build an offshore fish farm in the Gulf of Mexico, which could be harmful for
the environment.
·
The people who have the problem are the environmental
activists because the proposed offshore fish farm would be bad for the
environment, and if this fish farm is successful it will lead to more fish
farms.
I wanted to comment on the forth article, the State workers are sounding the call to end poverty wages, stage protest in Jacksonville. I personally lived in Jacksonville and I go back every week to be with my family and take care of some business. The same people who are protesting for the living wages are the same people who work at Wendy's and who are on welfare. I do take that stuff seriously to a certain degree but I feel like as a nation we are just giving out for free and the people are not working to better themselves so as a government I should not be spending my tax money on someone who is lazy that just wants more benefits for less effort.
ReplyDeleteHey John, in your article about the fish farms in the Gulf of Mexico, if it is going to directly harm the environment then the EPA should stop it from happening. Our environment is already being harmed in many other ways and if we allow this and it leads to others, that just multiples the negative effects on our environment. I hope that they end up stopping this from happening. I am hoping that if they stop this it will lead to an awareness that we need to put a stop to other future business opportunities are environmentally hurtful.
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible how the threat of a virus can be so costly. Not only does it take lives (a big deal in and of itself) it has now led to significant loss of business, at least in the travel industry. I wonder how much money has been lost, and will be, due to the corona virus. Another financial question: is it possible to profit from a virus, epidemic, pandemic? If a private firm were to discover a cure or preventative measure, how would they be compensated? Would they profit or, at least, break-even? Should the government be responsible and relied upon to fund such research?
ReplyDelete