Florida
Florida House passes bill easing child labor laws
The big story: The issue of protecting children took center stage again in the Florida House on Thursday, as members debated legislation that would lessen restrictions placed on teens in the workplace.
The measure, which has not yet passed the Senate, would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work past 11 p.m. on school nights, and permit them to carry more than 30 hours a week.
Democrats offered a series of amendments the argued would place guardrails on the rules, such as requiring water breaks on hot days. Using similar language that Republicans used when advancing social media limits on children under 16 — that kids should be allowed to be kids — they asked support for the proposals they said would protect children from being taken advantage of in the workplace.
More than one opponent noted that one year ago the Legislature approved a proposal requiring middle and high schools to begin classes later in the day to allow children more time for needed sleep. They suggested the current measure seemed to ignore the discussions leading to that law.
Republicans rebuffed each amendment, with the bill sponsor saying added regulations on businesses were not needed as lawmakers aimed to make it easier for teens to work more flexible hours, if they wish. Read more from Florida Politics, Associated Press, Tallahassee Democrat.
More Tallahassee action
Vouchers: The Florida House approved a bill aimed at expanding and refining the universal school voucher program enacted in 2023, Politico Florida reports. The measure has not yet made its way through the Senate.
Relief act: For the first time in more than a decade, Florida lawmakers advanced a bill seeking financial relief for a Pasco County resident who was injured in a major school bus crash in 2006, Florida Politics reports.
Artificial intelligence: A House committee moved legislation to create a task force that would study the potential implications of artificial intelligence in education, News Service of Florida reports.
Hot topics
Top teachers: Blake High School science teacher Clayton Nylund was named Hillsborough County 2024 Teacher of the Year. • Central School band director Christal Bennett is Santa Rosa County 2024 Teacher of the Year, the Pensacola News-Journal reports. • Palm Beach Public Elementary third grade teacher Katie Judge is Palm Beach County 2024 Teacher of the Year, WPEC reports. • Riviera Elementary sixth grade teacher Deborah Price is Brevard County 2024 Teacher of the Year, Space Coast Daily reports. • Antioch Elementary fourth grade teacher Amy Bowden was named Okaloosa County 2024 Teacher of the Year, Northwest Florida Daily News reports.
Superintendents: The Alachua County School Board is poised to consider terms of superintendent Shane Andrew’s contract, after having delayed a decision, the Gainesville Sun reports. • Monroe County superintendent Theresa Axford won a one-year contract extension, after which she plans to retire, WLRN reports.
School security: Four Palm Beach County high schools added metal detectors at entrances as the district expands its security measures, WPTV reports. More from the Palm Beach Post.
New College: The dean of students at New College has come under fire for a video showing him performing a comedy routine that some are calling “homophobic,” the Herald-Tribune reports.
Neighborhood schools: Residents of Hillsborough County’s Apollo Beach community are asking the school district to convert their local elementary school into a K-8, WFTS reports.
Moms for Liberty: Florida-based Moms for Liberty came on strong three years ago, but appears to be waning in influence, USA Today Florida Network reports.
Just say no: The St. Johns County school district has launched a new program to teach children about the dangers of drugs and violence, WJXT reports.
Discipline: Few Florida school districts use corporal punishment, but the ones that continue the practice do it often, WJAX reports.
Black History Month: Some Florida teachers are struggling to craft Black History Month lessons within the state’s restrictions on how to talk about race, Axios reports.
Attendance: Florida schools have seen an increase in chronic absenteeism among students, but not all areas of the state are affected equally, USA Today Florida Network reports.
From the court docket … A political operative pleaded guilty to seven counts of violating text message disclosure laws in a 2022 Polk County School Board campaign, WFLA reports.
Don’t miss a story. Yesterday’s roundup is just a click away.
Before you go … It’s Black History Month, which makes it a good time to remember that “Lift Evry Voice and Sing” was written and first performed in Florida. Here’s a lovely version from the Florida Memorial University Ambassador Chorale.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/4DLXMJBS6JDU3N75Q6AVJCW4H4.jpeg?w=400&resize=400,240&ssl=1 "Rubio, Scott call fast-tracking of Florida state park golf course plan ‘ridiculous’")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/4DLXMJBS6JDU3N75Q6AVJCW4H4.jpeg?w=80&resize=80,80&ssl=1 "Rubio, Scott call fast-tracking of Florida state park golf course plan ‘ridiculous’")
A 40-year-old man accused of using an AR-style rifle to threaten another man in a Wawa parking lot was arrested, according to a recently-obtained affidavit.
Jeremy Vigil, of the 700 block of Southwest Estate Avenue in Port St. Lucie, was arrested June 15 on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery charges after the incident at a Wawa at Southwest Becker Road and Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard.
A man about 10 p.m. June 15 told Port St. Lucie police that he and Vigil completed a job together the weekend before, and Vigil was angry about payment.
The man said Vigil contacted him, telling him to meet with his money. He arrived at Wawa and met Vigil, with their vehicles positioned window to window.
He described Vigil as “extremely angry,” and accused Vigil of pointing an AR-style rifle out of his truck at him.
“I’m a gangster (expletive),” Vigil is quoted as saying. “I’ll (expletive) kill you.”
The man said Vigil’s son was in the truck, and tried to get the rifle away from his father.
The man reportedly tried to record the encounter on his phone but said Vigil knocked the phone from his hand.
The man said he drove off and circled around to get his phone from the ground near the air pumps.
Ultimately, he said Vigil approached again without the rifle. Vigil reportedly “prevented him from leaving by chest-bumping (the man’s) vehicle.”
Vigil and the man got in a physical altercation near the gas pumps. Vigil then is accused of chasing the man into Wawa and yelling before leaving the scene.
Police viewed video surveillance of the incident.
Police reported they couldn’t definitively see a firearm in the video, noting the quality of the footage and distance away made it difficult.
The store manager told investigators it was the third incident involving Vigil at the location.
Police went to Vigil’s home, and he finally came outside after officers used a public address system and made a number of phone calls.
Vigil allowed officers to search his home, and they reported finding an AR-style rifle inside a safe.
Vigil initially denied the allegations.
Parts of the affidavit that appear to contain some of Vigil’s statements with police were redacted.
Vigil was taken to the St. Lucie County Jail, but it couldn’t immediately be determined June 22 whether he’d been released on bond. Attempts to reach the booking desk via phone were unsuccessful.
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.
Cape Coral has one. So do Fort Myers, Bonita Springs and Naples.
And now it’s Fort Myers Beach’s turn to get its very own food truck park.
Access 26 Family Food Truck Park is expected to open early next year at 2500 Estero Blvd. and Beach Access 26. On June 8, Stevens Construction broke ground on the project, which will highlight five yet-to-be-announced food trucks, all with unique menus.
And there’s more. A bar with covered seating, Manny’s Scoops ice cream and retail area will be featured in a two-story, 3,000 square-foot structure. Storage, office space, restrooms, coolers, a freezer and a dumbwaiter system for beer kegs and supplies will take up the second floor.
A 569-square-foot comfort center with restrooms, storage and three outdoor showers is also planned, along with a curbside table rail, artificial turf play area, three shade canvas structures, guest parking lot and beach access.
And it’s designed with storms and hurricanes in mind — the building’s generator and mechanical equipment will be above flood level, metal flood panels and waterproof walls will help with storm surge and flooding, and the foundation’s design lets water flow through more easily.
Southwest Florida’s expanding food truck scene
Access 26 is the latest food truck park to join Southwest Florida’s growing eatertainment scene. Slipaway Food Truck Park & Marina opened a year ago on July 4 with food trucks, a large covered central bar, live music daily and more in Cape Coral.
Bay Street Yard first brought its vibrant food and entertainment concept to downtown Fort Myers in May 2024, while Backyard Social debuted its food trucks and family-fun daytime and 21-and-up nightlife format in south Fort Myers in October 2023.
Bonita Springs welcomed Rooftop at Riverside’s two-story, two-bar (one on the rooftop) open-air venue with food trucks in January 2024.
Naples’ Celebration Park — a waterfront destination with gourmet food trucks, bar and live music — led the way, opening in November 2018.
Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at rhgeorge@fortmyer.gannett.com
Please support local community journalism and stay informed about Southwest Florida news by subscribing to The News-Press and Naples Daily News; download the free News-Press or Naples Daily News app, and sign up for daily briefing email newsletter, food & dining and growth & development newsletters here and here.
NASA’s next great observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center aboard the agency’s massive Pegasus barge late Sunday morning.
The spacecraft was nestled inside its protective case, which NASA nicknamed the “Chariot” in keeping with the “Roman” theme. That said, telescope is named not for the ancient empire, but instead for NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy, Nancy Grace Roman.
“She was a key person in our exploration of space. She understood that in order to better understand the universe, you have to go in space,” said Lucas Paganini, the program executive for Roman. “That’s why she’s called the ‘Mother of Hubble’ because she made Hubble possible.”
The 43-foot-tall observatory disembarked from the barge shortly after 7 p.m. EDT (2300 UTC), following a stream of thunderstorms that delayed its departure by about an hour. The spacecraft will travel to the south end of the KSC campus to a building called the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility.
There it will undergo a roughly 70-day prelaunch campaign involving checkouts, fueling, and finally the encapsulation inside the payload fairing of a Falcon Heavy rocket. The observatory is set to launch from Launch Complex 39A no earlier than August 30, moved up from the original September launch date.
“A lot of credit to this great team. They’ve been able to accommodate schedules, to accelerate to be able to launch earlier,” Paganini said. “There’s a lot of things going on at the Cape and of course the team has been amazing.”
This was the second trip to Florida for the Pegasus barge this year after it dropped off the propellant tank section of the core stage for the Artemis 3 Space Launch System rocket back in late April. While the spacecraft arrived safely, Neil Patel, the Roman mechanical engineer who traveled with the observatory, said it wasn’t entirely smooth sailing after leaving from Massachusetts.
“We do have a tight temperature tolerance on the observatory. We need to stay below 74 degrees. We have two cooling units: we had a primary and a redundant unit and they just weren’t getting the job done down here, so we had to make a stop, add additional rental units,” Patel said.
“Again, it was an amazing effort to have a team come down on an emergency basis. Basically, a MacGyver crew came in and we added additional units and those units did maintain the temperature quite well.”
Roman is designed to operate near a fixed point in space called Lagrange Point 2, about 1.5 million km away from the Earth on the side opposite the Sun. It’s designed to operate there for a minimum of five years, but Paganini said with the propellant onboard, it will likely last for 10 years or more.
The telescope is+ equipped with a 300 megapixel camera called the Wide Field Instrument, which features 18 detectors. It was developed by BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace).
“It’s going to allow us to observe at least 100 times wider field of view than what we can do with Hubble. Same resolution, but a wider area, 1000 times faster,” Paganini said. “So what takes Roman a year to observe, it would take Hubble thousands of years. So it’s definitely much more efficient.”
The observatory also features a chronograph instrument, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will allow Roman to observe the faint light of exoplanets near their stars.
Paganini said Roman will also help scientists better understand dark matter and dark energy, the combination of which he calls the “dark universe”.
“100 years ago, we discovered that the universe was expanding. 25 years ago, we discovered that it was expanding at an accelerated pace and that’s what led to a Nobel Prize,” Paganini said. “What we don’t quite know yet is if that acceleration is changing in ways. We don’t know if it’s actually dark energy, what is producing it, or is it simply that we don’t understand gravity at all.
“So eventually, we’ll see if the laws of physics that we use these days are the right ones for what we are observing. But at the end is, we’re trying to understand a very human question, which is where do we come from and where are wea heading in this universe that is our neighborhood?”
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