HURRICANE SEASON BEGINS The six-month hurricane season began June 1st and forecasters predict between 13-20 named storms. As of this writing, we have already made it to Tropical Storm Claudette, which dumped heavy rain on the Southeast over Father’s Day weekend.
SCHOOL RENAMINGS After almost a year of debate, the Duval County School Board voted to rename six schools that had Confederate ties. The schools were originally named after Confederate generals, including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
CANDIDACY As a result of recent legislation, a person seeking nomination as a candidate of a political party must be a member of that party for the 365 days before the beginning of the applicable qualifying period. Additionally, a person seeking to qualify for office as a candidate with no party affiliation may not be a member of any political party for the same 365-day period. The last day for a person to make changes for the 2022 election cycle were April 24, 2021, for the first qualifying period (state attorney and judicial) and June 12, 2021, for the second qualifying period (U.S. Congress, cabinet positions and state legislature).
TOURISM While tourism numbers have begun to increase this year, the numbers are still down 14 percent over early 2020. From January 1st through March 31st, 26.2 million visitors came to Florida; this compares to 30.4 million during the same period in 2020. In March 2020, tourism numbers plummeted to 9.9 million. VISIT Florida has estimated that the State had 79.8 million visitors last year, the lowest number in a decade. Over 131 million tourists visited the State in 2019.