Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 6-27-17

State
Governor Signs Bill To Legalize Medical Marijuana, 37 Others
Local
Case Of Mumps Discovered In Hillsborough County
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Last week, Governor Rick Scott signed 38 bills into law. Two of those bills pertained to the use of med- ical marijuana. Some of the bills are as follows:
Public Records/ Med- ical Marijuana Use Reg- istry/ Physician Certification for Mari- juana and Dispensing/ Department of Health: This bill creates a public records exemption for iden- tifying information of pa- tients, caregivers and physicians in the medical marijuana use registry and certification process.
Medical Use of Mari- juana: This bill creates guidelines for the Florida Department of Health to im- plement Amendment 2, passed by 71 percent of Florida voters last year.
Another bill signed by Governor Scott pertains to the penalties involving domestic violence.
Domestic Violence:
This bill increases penalties for domestic violence of- fenses.
Some of the others bills are: Florida Life and Health Insurance Guar- anty Association: This bill increases the maximum amount paid by the Florida Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association for one person’s health insur- ance from $300,000 to $500,000.
Regulation of Health Care Practitioners:
This makes changes to nurs- ing education programs and the regulation of ARNPs, Pharmacists, Physical Ther- apist Assistants and Ortho- tists and Prosthetists.
Utilities: This bill cre- ates the “Advanced Wireless Infrastructure Deployment Act” to increase the avail- ability of 5G wireless tech- nology throughout Florida.
Adoption Benefits:
This bill expands qualifying employees for the state em- ployee adoption benefit pro- gram to include employees from charter schools and The Florida Virtual School.
Flood Insurance: This bill updates law allowing in- surers to offer private mar- ket flood insurance.
Hospice Services:
This bill revises the hospice Certificate of Need process for designated teaching nursing homes that provide hospice services.
Unlawful Acquisition of Utility Services: This bill better-enables utility companies to recover utility theft losses.
Child Welfare: This bill makes changes to en- hance the care of children in the child welfare system.
Juvenile Justice: This bill increases the supervi- sion of juvenile offenders awaiting disposition or placement in a residential facility.
Home Health Agency Licensure: This bill allows a licensed home health agency to operate another agency within 10 miles of the existing agency.
The Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County has confirmed one case of mumps and has iden- tified two probable cases of mumps. The three individu- als are family members, one adult, and two children with close contact with each other.
Mumps is a contagious
respiratory disease caused by the mumps virus and is spread by talking, coughing or sneezing as well as sharing items, such as cups or eating utensils with others, and touching objects or surfaces with unwashed hands that are then touched by others.
The most common symp- toms include: fever,
headache, muscle aches, tiredness, loss of appetite, swollen and tender salivary glands under the ears on one or both sides.
For more information, visit www.floridahealth.gov. The Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention mumps webpage is available at www.cdc.gov.
City Urges Residents To ‘Know Your Zone’
Recently, the City of Tampa updated its official evacuation zone maps for 2017 and some of the zones have changed. The City of Tampa Office of Emergency Management is encouraging residents to look at the map for all of Hillsborough County located at www.tam- pagov.net/AlertTampa under the “Find your evacuation zone” tab.
The map shows the up- dated evacuation zones with
emergency contact informa- tion and is available in both English and Spanish. Evacu- ation zones are divided into five color-coded levels and the map shows evacuation routes as well as the nearest public shelters.
During a state of emer- gency, city officials will use zones to direct residents to an adjacent quick and safe evac- uation route.
For more information and additional emergency re-
sources, sign up for Alert Tampa, the city’s official emergency alert system. Sub- scribers can receive time- sensitive notifications which will be sent directly by email, cell phone, and in some cases, home phone. To sign up today, visit our website at tampagov.net/alerttampa or call (813) 231-6184. Also, fol- low us on twitter @Alert- Tampa for immediate updates from the Tampa Fire Department.
Chamber Launches Minority Business Accelerator
The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce an- nounces the launch of its Mi- nority Business Accelerator program. This program is geared towards helping Black and Hispanic busi- ness owners identify and overcome barriers to company growth.
The MBA will provide participants with the tools and knowledge to increase their organizational capacity, cultivate business opportu- nities & referrals and raise their brand awareness and visibility.
“One of the pillars of the Chamber’s ten-year vision plan is to be an inclusive or- ganization. The Minority Business Accelerator is the first program under that pil- lar and we are excited to launch the program in the first year of our vision plan. This program is the result of the engagement and hard
work of many Chamber vol- unteers over the last three years and I look forward to announcing the first class at our Annual Meeting this year,” said Mike Griffin, Chair, Greater Tampa Cham- ber of Commerce.
Recruitment for the program begins in Au- gust and there will be two Community Info Sessions prior to the appli- cation period to allow busi- ness owners that want to learn more about the pro- gram. The inaugural partici- pants in the program will be announced at the Chamber’s 132nd Annual Meeting on December 14.
“I have been involved in this project since I co- chaired the Minority Busi- ness Caucus two years ago. This initiative is the culmi- nation of researching similar programs in other communi- ties and understanding the
needs of the Tampa/Hills- borough County area. I am excited to chair the first class of our Minority Business Ac- celerator and I look forward to helping Black and His- panic owned and operated businesses in our commu- nity reach their fullest poten- tial,” said Bemetra Simmons, Chair, Minority Business Accelerator Pro- gram
More information about the MBA program can be found at www.tampacham- ber.com/mba.
Community Info Ses- sions will be held on June 27, 2017, @ 11:30 a. m.–1p.m.
at Robert W. Saun- ders Library, 1505 N. Ne- braska Ave., Tampa, FL 33602; and on June 29, 2017@12:30p.m.–2p. m., West Tampa Branch Library, 2312 W. Union St., Tampa, FL 33607.
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2017