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State House moves to exempt workers from COVID shots
Day two of the Florida Legislature’s special session was a busy one. After killing several amendments proposed by Democrats, the Republican majority on Tuesday readied for passage a bill that would ensure worker exemptions from employer-required vaccinations against COVID-19. The bill’s sponsor is Rep. Erin Grall, a Republican from Vero Beach. Read more here.
Booster shots for all
And speaking of vaccines, people 18 or older who are already considered fully vaccinated could soon be eligible to get a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce later this week that it will grant Emergency Use Authorization for all adults to get the Pfizer booster shot. Read more here.
International visitors are returning to Florida, leading to a tourism surge
U.S. travelers to Florida during the third quarter of this year easily exceeded numbers from the same period in 2020, as COVID-19 vaccinations were widely available and cruise ships were back on the seas. More important for the state’s tourism-marketing agency Visit Florida, the estimated total of 32.517 million tourists between July 1 and Sept. 30 bested — by just over 0.3% — the overall number of visitors in the third quarter of 2019 before the pandemic began. Read more here.
Tallahassee joins in suing over restrictions on cutting law enforcement budgets
Tallahassee, along with eight other Florida cities, has filed a lawsuit against a state law that would, in part, allow the governor and cabinet to review any reductions in local law enforcement budgets and override them. Read more here.
DeSantis proposes $960 million in environmental budget funding
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday announced his environmental budget priorities for the 2022-23 fiscal year, and said he will request legislators to approve $960 million toward resiliency efforts. Read more here.