FACIAL RECOGNITION The Orlando Police Department is one of the first police stations in America to test Amazon Rekognition facial recognition technology. The program allows police to upload a photo to “detect, analyze, and compare faces for a wide variety of user verification, cataloging, people counting, and public safety use cases.” The program is in Read more about Issues of Interest[…]
PRICE GOUGING In December, three hotels in the Tampa Bay area were accused by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office of price gouging during the states of emergency declared for Hurricanes Matthew and Hermine. One of the hotels charged 400 percent more than the average nightly rate. All three complaints seek civil penalties, disgorgement, injunctive relief, Read more about Issues of Interest[…]
ZIKA VIRUS With 1,051 cases of the Zika virus in Florida as of October 24th, 82 percent of which are attributed to travel, Florida is aggressively working to manage the outbreak. Zika can cause microcephaly and other severe birth defects. Governor Scott has allocated over $61 million of state funding for mosquito control, research for a Read more about Issues of Interest[…]
STATE OF EMERGENCY Following the shooting in Orlando on June 12th, Governor Rick Scott issued a state of emergency for Orange County and requested an Emergency Declaration under the Stafford Act from President Barack Obama. Two GoFundMe accounts have brought in over $4 million and several other community groups, including the Orlando Magic, have donated Read more about Issues of Interest[…]
PYTHON HUNT The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida sponsored a month-long Python Challenge. The Challenge ran January 16th through February 14th and yielded 106 pythons. During the February 27th awards ceremony, prizes were awarded for the longest python (fifteen feet) and the most captured (thirty-three). Only Read more about Issues of Interest[…]