Uncommon Knowledge
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A controversial effort to strengthen self-defense arguments for people who shoot bears on their property is headed back to the Florida House.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted 24-12 on Wednesday to approve a bill (HB 87) that critics contend will result in increased deaths of the once-threatened species.
The House passed the bill last week. But the Senate made a change to make clear the self-defense protections wouldnât be available to people who lure bears with food or in other ways for purposes such as training dogs to hunt bears. The change means the bill will have to be considered again by the House.
Bill sponsor Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, said the bill is needed because of an increase in bears venturing into residential areas of his sprawling North Florida district and that current law has a âlittle bit of ambiguity.â
Read: New Florida bill proposes to allow homeowners to kill bears without a permit
âThis isnât a mandate by any stretch of the imagination,â Simon said. âIf a bear shows up in your home, or on your porch, youâre not obligated to shoot that bear.â
The proposal, in part, says people would not be subject to penalties for killing bears if they âreasonably believed that his or her action was necessary to avoid an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to himself or herself or to another, an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to a pet or substantial damage to a dwelling.â
People who shoot bears would be required to notify the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission within 24 hours and show they did not intentionally place themselves or pets in situations where they needed to kill bears. Also, people would not be allowed to possess or sell bear carcasses after the killings.
Several Democrats who opposed the bill argued the state should do more to focus on other ways to limit human-bear interactions, such as expanding efforts to prevent bears from being attracted to trash in residential areas.
Read: Alaska-native Kodiak bear cubs found roaming on Florida road
âWe know this is a gun-happy culture,â Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, said. âAnd giving them the permission to shoot is what this bill is doing, instead of taking every single precaution that we could possibly take to prevent the taking of a protected species and potentially other human life.â
Similar bills did not pass in recent years. But the issue gained traction during this yearâs legislative session after Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith in September said his rural community was âbeing inundated and overrun by the bear population.â
Bill supporters argued the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hasnât changed its approach to human-bear interactions, which includes its BearWise program. The program outlines steps such as telling people not to feed bears, to clear grills, make trash less accessible, remove bird feeders when bears are active and to not leave pet food outside.
Read: Bear caught on camera breaks into Lake Nona familyâs shed, steals snow cone syrup
The House voted 88-29 to pass the bill last Thursday.
The state had about 4,050 bears, according to a 2017 estimate by the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the most recent available.
The numbers had fallen to between 300 to 500 in the 1970s, but the species was able to rebound while listed as threatened by the state. That designation was lifted in 2012 when a new management plan was approved.
Since that time, the state has held a single bear hunt. In 2015, the state held what resulted in a two-day hunt in four parts of the state, with 304 bears killed — 16 short of the so-called âharvest objectiveâ expected over seven days.
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Florida International University ranked highest among the 12 Florida public universities in qualifying for performance-based funding awards.
Criteria to determine the awards include graduate employment or further education, median wage of graduates, tuition and fees, graduates with degrees in areas of strategic emphasis, and other indicia of academic progress.
Eleven of the state’s 12 public universities scored above 70 out of 100, the threshold to receive all of their share of state-allocated funding. The pot contains more than $300 million, with shares ranging from $71 million for the University of Florida to $5.1 million at New College of Florida.
One university will miss out on at least half of its performance-based funding. Florida Gulf Coast University would have been entitled to $15.3 million but posted the lowest score at 63. Because that’s under a 70 score, that entitles it to at least $3.8 million since it met the first requirement of submitting a student success plan and, if the plan is implemented plan by March, it would qualify to double that amount to $7.6 million.
However, the balance of the original entitlement will be shared among FIU, the University of Florida, Florida State University, and University of South Florida, which scored the highest (FSU and USF tied for third place).
“I’m very proud to say we’ve already implemented the student success improvement plan and I assure you that we are not going to have the same conversation next year, so we are already seeing the improvements in many of our metrics,” FGCU President Aysegul Timur said during the Thursday meeting of the State University System Board of Governors in Orlando.
FIU has scored the highest in three of the past four years, notching a 96 this year.
State government instituted the performance-based funding program in 2014.
Board members are talking about fiddling with the formula, partly because high-scoring universities can get penalized if their scores decline even modestly. For example, The University of Central Florida scored 85 points this year, two points less than last year; if it drops by even one point next year, it would be required to submit a student success plan, but still be eligible for 100% of funding as long its score remains above 70.
Other schools that scored lower than the year before are Florida A&M University, Florida Polytechnic University, the University of North Florida, and USF.
Additionally, FSU Board of Trustees chair Peter Collins said that increased investments to attract students who receive Pell grants — a factor in the scoring — could prove a poor use of money, because it could spark in-state competition for that pool of students.
Alan Levine, vice chair of the Board of Governors, acknowledged Collins’s point, adding that, given Florida universities’ national rankings, it makes sense for the board to start measuring Florida universities against their peers in other states, such as the University of Michigan and Duke.
“Evolving these metrics to be more specific to the institution and that institution’s goals makes a whole lot of sense, given where we are,” Levine said.
Overall, Levine praised the performance-based funding program, saying it produced improvements at FAMU.
During the board’s Friday meeting, a representative of the FAMU Alumni Association, William Youmans, said the university’s score of 72 is respectable but argued the university deserves credit “in context of the challenges that our students overcome and the university’s accomplishments.”
“FAMU is persevering through it all,” Youmans said, given that many of its incoming students aren’t as prepared for college because of social and other barriers that the university needs to help them overcome.
FAMU is the only historically Black university in the State University System. More than 80% of its students are Black and more than 90% are students of color.
“Some metrics are interdependent and should be calculated in context to each other, such as graduation rate and university-access rate to the actual outcomes, to include the social mobility index,” Youmans said.
The social-mobility index calculates a school’s role in improving the economic mobility of its students.
Despite historical factors affecting the communities broadly served by FAMU, its students must compete with the other 11 universities in categories such as starting salary of graduates, graduation rate, and incoming high school GPA, or else the university risks forfeiting performance funds to the other universities.
In the first year of performance-based funding, 2012-13, FAMU tied for seventh out of the 11 universities. This year, it ranked tenth of 12.
FAMU was ranked the 2024 best among Historically Black Colleges and Universities by Niche and the 91st best public school in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report.
What are 2024 hurricane names? When is Atlantic hurricane season?
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. Here is the list of names for 2024, as set by the World Meteorological Organization.
The second named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to form today or Saturday, less than a week before the Fourth of July holiday.
Predictions call for it to quickly become the first hurricane of the season as it moves into the Caribbean.
Although it’s currently Invest 95L, once named, it’ll be Beryl.
➤ Spaghetti models for Invest 95L
➤ Track all active storms
While the future Beryl is expected to approach the Lesser Antilles by the end of the weekend, predictions on where it will go after that depend on a variety of factors.
Could Florida feel an impact from what will become Beryl, and could any impacts affect your Fourth of July plans? Here’s what you should know.
Invest 95L: A low pressure system located about 1500 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands is gradually becoming better defined.
Showers and thunderstorms are also showing signs of organization, and a tropical depression or tropical storm will likely form later today or on Saturday.
➤ Tropics watch June 28: Tropical Storm Beryl expected to form soon
This system is expected to move westward at 15 to 20 mph and approach the Lesser Antilles by the end of the weekend. Residents in the area should monitor the progress of this system.
Can’t see the map? Open in a new browser.
Special note about spaghetti models: Spaghetti model illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center uses only the top four or five highest performing models to help make its forecasts.
“As we speak, the storm is betting a lot better organized and may form later today or by tomorrow morning” into Tropical Storm Beryl, said Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather lead hurricane forecaster
“The official forecast is for a strong tropical storm to approach the Less Antilles Monday. It may become a hurricane by then, and we’re getting a little more concerned about that possibility” DaSilva said.
“There’s plenty of warm water. Wind shear is decreasing as the storm moves west. It’s dealing with some dry air and wind shear right now but (conditions) are turning more favorable for development over the weekend.”
Look for the storm to approach the Lesser Antilles Monday and move into the Central Caribbean Tuesday or Wednesday.
Where it goes after that, along with development, depend on a couple of factors: land interaction and a system of high pressure over the southeastern United States, DaSilva said.
If it moves over Hispaniola or eastern Cuba, the land and mountains could disrupt its circulation, leading to less organization and weakening from a wind speed perspective. That doesn’t mean those areas wouldn’t feel an impact from the storm, which could dump a huge amount of rain on the islands, DaSilva said.
By the Fourth of July, the storm will likely be a hurricane in the western Caribbean, south of Cuba.
“From that point, we’re going to have to watch an area of high pressure across the southeastern U.S. If there is weakness in that high-pressure system, (Beryl) could be drawn up north into either the Gulf of Mexico or the Florida Peninsula,” DaSilva said.
Timing would be next weekend if it does get drawn north, so really watch this thing July 5-7, DaSilva said.
If the system of high pressure stays strong, the storm will be forced west and go into Yucatan and Mexico. with no real impacts to the U.S.
The system that’s expected to become Beryl is compact so nothing should be felt across Florida on the Fourth of July that’s associated with the storm.
“You may get just the normal run-of-the-mill summer thunderstorms, but nothing associated with Beryl,” DaSilva said.
July 4th Florida forecast: Scorching heat and severe storms ahead. Where to watch in Florida. See radar
Long-range forecasts can change a lot and depend on several evolving factors, but the worst-case scenario could see some impact from Beryl across Florida next weekend.
How much or even if anything is felt depend on the state of the storm later next week and interaction with the islands, which could pull it apart. But if there’s less interaction with land, the system could become more organized, DaSilva said.
A worst case scenario all depend on the state of the storm next week and that interaction with Cuba and Hispaniola. One possibility is rain associated with Beryl affecting Florida next weekend.
The most likely scenario is that Beryl will head west into Mexico and miss Florida entirely, DaSilva said.
“We want people to be alert and aware. We don’t want people to be caught off guard. We’re not sounding alarm bells, and the holiday looks OK. Beyond that, just watch and see,” DaSilva said.
Hurricane Tracker App tweeted Friday morning:
“It’s becoming likely that we will have a Hurricane named #Beryl plowing through the Windward Islands Mon am through Tues am.
“Data shows it reaching Cat 1 status with winds 74-95 mph. All interests in the Windward Islands should be preparing for a hurricane. Upgrade likely today (Friday, June 28).”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has vetoed a bill that would have given the state the power to close beaches if tests show water does not reach the state’s health standards.
DeSantis made the call this week, despite Floridians being warned against swimming due to “fecal pollution” just two months ago.
If the bill had gone through, local authorities of beach waters and public bathing places would have had to notify the Department of Health whenever testing water was below recommended health standards.
The Department of Health then “shall require the closure of beach waters and public bathing places that fail to meet the department’s standards if it deems closure is necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public,” the bill read.
But Desantis wrote in his veto letter that the bill “suffers from a fatal infirmity” as it “grants authority to the Florida Department of Health (DOH) to close beaches, waterways, and swimming pools.”
AP
He said: “Health Departments like DOH can serve a valuable function, but they should not be vested with the power to supersede local jurisdictions regarding the operation of beaches.
“I have made water quality and protecting Florida’s natural resources a priority and my Administration will continue to do so, but this grant of power to DOH over Florida beaches is ill-advised.”
On June 13, the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County Healthy Beaches program issued health advisories for Dubois Park, Sandoway-Delray Beach and South Inlet Park.
Sampling showed bacterial levels to be more than 71 colonies per milliliter of marine water, putting the beaches’ results in the “poor” category.
Anything that is seen as “poor” should be “considered a potential health risk to the bathing public,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
At the end of April, the same department told residents not to swim at several beaches, including Midtown Beach and Dubois Park, in Jupiter.
Water in these two areas had tested positive for high levels of enterococcus bacteria, which the department said “is an indication of fecal pollution.”
It added that this may “come from stormwater runoff, pets and wildlife, and human sewage” and could put swimmers at an “increased risk of illness,”
In both spots, water was recorded as “poor”, meaning it measured 71 or greater enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water.
Infections from enterococci “are typically not considered harmful to humans, but their presence in the environment may indicate that other disease-causing agents such as viruses, bacteria, and protozoa [a microorganic parasite] may also be present,” according to the EPA.
Newsweek contacted DeSantis’ press office, via its email address, for comment on this context and was directed to his veto letter.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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