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Florida News That Impacts You – November 17th, 2021
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- The four bills being considered in the current special Legislative Session continued to progress on Tuesday. The first bill to clear all committees in both chambers is SB 8, the bill which would prevent the state’s Surgeon General from mandating vaccinations of Floridians. The proposed legislation will now go to a full vote in both chambers.
- After a slight increase in Florida’s weekly trend for COVID-19 cases on Monday, the first increase since August, with 1,552 new cases reported on Tuesday, Florida resumed a lower trend. Florida’s now averaged 1,564 daily cases over the past week.
- The Army Corp of Engineers finalized a new framework which will direct the future water control plan for Lake Okeechobee discharges. Under normal conditions eastern discharges into Florida’s waterways won’t occurup to 95% of the time. Instead, the excess water will be sent south into the Everglades. East-West discharges during “stressful” times could continue as they currently do however.
- Florida had a record number of tourists visit the state in the third quarter. According to Visit Florida, just over 32.5 million tourists visited the state between July and September – higher than the record number of visitors from 2019’s pre-pandemic levels.