Florida Wants To Expand Voucher Eligibility To More Students
(Tallahassee, FL) -- Florida lawmakers are trying to expand eligibility for its school voucher program. House Republicans filed legislation yesterday that would make vouchers available to all students in kindergarten through 12th grade.Lower-income families would still get priority. Households would receive the money through the state-funded education saving accounts to spend on private-school tuition, home-schooling, or private tutoring. Lawmakers will reconvene during the next legislative session that is set to begin in early March.
Report: Supporters To Spend Millions To Boost DeSantis' Profile
(Undated) --Supporters of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are reportedly planning to spend millions of dollars to boost the Republican's national profile ahead of a potential 2024 presidential bid. The Financial Times reports the political action committee Ready for Ron intends to file a report with the Federal Election Commission outlining the expenditures. According to the report, the group aims to spend more than three-million dollars over the next six months on a national TV campaign and other promotions to build up DeSantis' profile. A Ready For Ron website is also collecting signatures on a petition to draft DeSantis to seek the GOP presidential nomination next year. The group calls DeSantis the "next Great American President -- like Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump -- who will turn our country around." The DeSantis camp calls the PAC a grift that will not help the governor should he decide to mount a campaign for president.
Volusia County Residents Hope Governor Can Streamline Permit Process
(Daytona Beach Shores, FL) -- Some Volusia County residents are hopeful the governor can make it easier for them to get their properties fixed. Governor Ron DeSantis was in Daytona Beach Shores Wednesday where residents are having trouble getting the permits they need to repair damage from last year's hurricanes. DeSantis promised to make the permitting process easier, and one resident says he has already noticed a change. He tells News 6 the local Department of Environmental Protection office was very helpful when he went to them for assistance yesterday.
Shooting At MLK Day Event Came After Private Security Team Was Canceled
(Fort Pierce, FL) --Organizers of an MLK Day event in St. Lucie County are blamed for firing their private security team the night before.One person was killed and eleven people were hurt when shots were fired at the event at a park in Fort Pierce.The sheriff's office announced yesterday that Elite Tactical Solutions was hired to provide armed security at the event, but the night before, the company was told its services wouldn't be needed. The sheriff's office says it didn't know about the change, and it only had two deputies in the area to help with traffic. Elite Tactical Solutions tells WPTV the tragic shooting could have been prevented.
NC Distillery Plans To Age Bourbon In Space
(Durham, NC) --A North Carolina distillery is planning to create a bourbon that's truly out of this world. Mystic Farm and Distillery says it wants to send five barrels of its Mystic Galactic whiskey into orbit for one year of additional aging.The business is working with SpaceX, Inversion Space and other companies to help finance, design and test the launch.Buyers can put down a 75-thousand-dollar deposit for one of the roughly 13-hundred bottles before they're sold for market price. This will be the first commercial product ever to be manufactured in space.
Atwater Brewery Releases Beer Brewed With AI Recipe
(Detroit, MI) --Detroit-based Atwater Brewery is releasing Artificial Intelligence IPA, a beer brewed using a recipe created using AI and brewed by a human. Quality assurance manager Joe Platt used ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, to create the recipe. Platt says the chatbot first gave him a home brew-scale recipe and it was able to scale that upward when asked. Atwater will sell pints of the beer for $2.001 in an homage to the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" today in Detroit, Grosse Pointe Park, and Grand Rapids.
$4M Worth Of Drugs Seized At U.S.-Mexico Border
(San Diego, CA) --U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized four-million dollars' worth of cocaine hidden in a shipment of decorative stones. Officers say more than 55 cellophane wrapped packages of cocaine were found earlier this month on a tractor-trailer southeast of San Diego. A CBP officer randomly offloaded one of the stones and found it had an anomaly which led to the drugs. The driver was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
TODAY IN HISTORY
2016, Kathryn Smith became the NFL's first female full-time coach. The Buffalo Bills hired her as a special teams quality control coach.
1981, the remaining 52 hostages in Iran were released, ending 444 days in captivity.
1961, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President of the United States.
1958, Elvis Presley received his draft notice ordering him to serve in the U.S. Army.
1937, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first President inaugurated on January 20th. The 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution set the date as the official date for the swearing in of the President and Vice President.