Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay has received grants totaling $17,000 to fund JA work readiness and financial literacy programming. The grants, from State Farm Insurance, are part of a larger statewide initiative totaling $60,000 that will support Junior Achievement programs in 11 communities throughout Florida, enabling over 5,000 young people to participate in JA’s nationally-recognized economic education programs, a news release said. Locally, the $6,000 allocation of State Farm funds to Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay/Hillsborough County partially funds 847 low-to-moderate income students to attend JA BizTown or JA Finance Park. Both programs help students identify and practice the skills they need to find and keep a job and to manage personal finance. JA of Tampa Bay/Sarasota received $5,000 in State Farm funds and JA of Tampa Bay/Polk/Highlands received $6,000 to support Junior Achievement financial literacy classes for over 400 low and moderate income students. State Farm and its affiliates are the largest providers of auto and home insurance in the United States.
The Institute for Commercialization of Florida Technology helped Yac Media Inc. raise more than $1.5 million. Yac, an Orlando-based technology company, is developing a communication platform for remote work teams, a news release said. The product was built with a small team in mind to replicate the details of an office environment, but with the ability to scale up to a couple of thousand people, Hunter McKinley, Yac CMO, said in the release. The Florida Institute, based in Tampa, collaborates with corporate, academic, and investment partners to drive innovation-based economic development across the state. Florida Funders won a bid to manage the institute's portfolio last year.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida will appeal a federal judge's weekend ruling on a case stemming from the 2018 passage of Amendment 4, a measure that automatically restored voting rights for people who have completed their sentences for felonies other than murder or sex crimes. The judge said the state law enacted after voters approved Amendment 4 is unconstitutional. That law requires people with serious criminal convictions to pay court fines and fees before they can register to vote. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, told the St. Pete Catalyst that the judge's ruling was "plain, simple justice." Crist, who was Florida governor from 2007 to 2011, said under his tenure, state policy was changed to allow more felons to vote, but that policy was reversed when former Gov. Rick Scott succeeded him. "The ruling by the judge was exceptional, extraordinary and just plain, simple justice," Crist said. "I hope that many former felons will have the opportunity to vote this November." At a news conference, DeSantis said the state knew the judge would rule as he did, and said there are "good grounds" to appeal.
Kaligia Biosciences is starting clinical trials of its Rapid Biofluid Analyzer 2, a portable, saliva-based device that can screen for COVID-19 and can produce results in less than three minutes. The company's new device is based on the technology in an earlier product that analyses multiple blood components. Kaligia Biosciences is collaborating with AdventHealth, the University of South Florida College of Pharmacy, the USF College of Medicine and Tampa General Hospital to adapt the device for COVID-19 screening. The technology is non-invasive, more accessible and faster than COVID-19 tests that currently require nasal swabs or blood samples, and can take days, if not weeks to obtain results, Fazal Fazlin, Kaligia CEO, said in a news release.
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $167,000 grant to a team of scientists from the University of South Florida that is working on a novel technology for critically needed respiratory masks. The technology can rapidly sterilize and electrostatically recharge N95 respiratory masks to restore their original filtration efficiency, USF said in a news release. The researchers have filed for a provisional patent on the technology and are working toward FDA approval. They’re currently collaborating with a medical device design company to turn their prototypes into products that cost less than $50.
There are now 1,153 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pinellas County. The Florida Department of Health reported 37 additional cases of COVID-19 in the county between Friday, May 22 and Saturday, May 23. It was one of the largest daily increases in the number of cases in Pinellas County since May 4, the launch of Phase 1 of the statewide plan to ease business restrictions, and it was second only to an increase of 39 cases on May 14. About half of the ZIP codes in Pinellas County posted increases in confirmed COVID-19 cases between May 22 and May 23; see the total number of confirmed cases in each county, as reported by the state health department, on the St. Pete Catalyst interactive map. COVID-19 has been confirmed as the cause of 75 deaths in Pinellas as of Saturday, an increase of two deaths from Friday. As of Friday, 54 of the deaths in Pinellas County were among residents or staff in long-term care facilities. The increased number of cases could be due to increases in testing. As of Saturday, 34,451 Pinellas County residents have been tested, with 1,153 testing positive, 33,273 testing negative, 13 inconclusive and 69 awaiting results. The health department said the 3.3 percent who tested positive is within the target range. Statewide, 858,112 people have been tested, with 50,127 testing positive, or a positive rate of 5.9 percent throughout Florida.
A new poll shows over half of Tampa Bay residents believe social distancing should continue indefinitely to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The latest findings in a poll by the Tampa Bay Partnership show 58 percent of area residents favor continued social distancing, even if it means that businesses will suffer, and jobs will be lost, a report from the Partnership said. Since May 4, when statewide stay at home orders were lifted, one-third of residents have visited a friend or family member and 30 percent have shopped inside a retail outlet. About 19 percent have visited a doctor’s/dentist’s office, with still fewer people saying they've gone to a public park, a restaurant, a public beach or a hair/nail salon, while 27 percent of residents haven’t engaged in any of the newly permitted activities at all.
Air Canada will be temporarily placing workers at its Tampa call center on furloughs starting July 1. Up to 70 employees are expected to be affected, the company said in a May 15 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. The furloughs could continue indefinitely but they are intended to be temporary and last less than six months, the WARN said. The company cited the impact of COVID-19 on its business. Workers who are not represented by a union will be on unpaid furloughs. Those who are represented by a union will be on off-duty status without pay, the WARN said.
Soma Global, a Tampa company with technology solutions to modernize public safety, will enter the transportation market in a new deal with the Richmond International Airport. The airport will use Soma Global's computer aided dispatch, records management, and mobile data systems, a news release said. The cloud-based "public safety as a service” platform will enable the Richmond International Airport Police to effectively secure facilities and protect over 4 million passengers and travelers that pass through it every year, the release said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Read more about Soma Global here.
CASA, the official domestic violence center for Pinellas County, has raised $140,000 for its new Covid-19 Relief Fund. The fund offsets revenue lost when CASA had to cancel its spring gala and temporarily close its thrift store. Globally, there's been a rise in domestic violence during the pandemic and CASA saw a 49 percent increase in calls to its emergency hotline in April. Click here to read more in the St. Pete Catalyst Impact section about how the largest public company in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area led other businesses to step in when CASA needed their support. Donations to the relief fund are being accepted here.
Florida's unemployment rate was 12.9 percent in April, according to newly released information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's up from 4.4 percent in March and from 3.3 percent in April 2019. The unemployment rate for the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area was 13.1 percent in April, up 10.1 percentage points from one year ago, a separate news release from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said. In the Tampa-St. Pete area, the industry losing the most jobs over the year was leisure and hospitality, with a loss of 77,600 jobs. Government was the only major industry that gained jobs over the year in April 2020, up 1,200 jobs. The national unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent in April and was 11.1 points higher than in April 2019.
The continuing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is hitting the workforce at the DoubleTree Tampa Airport Westshore. The hotel told state officials in a May 18 WARN notice that it would lay off more than 50 employees, or about one-third of its workforce, and the layoffs could exceed six months. In mid-March, the hotel put most of its employees on furlough, expecting the furloughs would last 60 to 90 days. "This no longer appears to be the case," the WARN said, citing abatement measures to contain the spread of the virus and uncertainty over when business levels will begin to rebound. Arl Tampa Management, which operates the hotel, decided to convert many of the furloughs to layoffs beginning May 15, the WARN said. As business needs dictate, the hotel will seek to rehire the laid-off workers, the notice said.
