A part of his ongoing trade mission in Israel, today Governor Rick Scott recognized the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Florida State University and Tel Aviv University. This agreement will support student and staff exchange programs, research collaboration and academic seminar opportunities. To view the agreement, click HERE.
Governor Scott said, “Florida’s students are the leaders of tomorrow and these important partnerships are another way that we can provide them with every opportunity to learn and succeed. I applaud Florida State University and Tel Aviv University for working together to support our students by providing more opportunities for research and collaboration.”
Governor Scott is currently leading a delegation of nearly 70 Florida business and education leaders on a trade mission in Israel to continue to build on Florida and Israel’s strong relationship. Florida’s economic development and trading partnership with Israel exceeds $286 million a year.
Stand Up For North Florida To Announce Expanded Mission
MEDIA ADVISORY
Former Congressman Steve Southerland, Chairman of Stand Up For North Florida, will host a press conference today, Monday, December 4, at 2:00 p.m. to announce the group’s expanded mission as a 501(c)(4) organization ahead of the 2018 legislative session.
Southerland, along with board members David Biddle and Wayne Harris and other coalition members, will discuss the group’s objectives, which, in addition to equitable distribution of state conservation dollars, will now include ensuring that North Florida has a strong voice on other issues like transportation and taxation.
Who: Former Congressman Steve Southerland, SUNF Chair
Wayne Harris, former Okaloosa County Commissioner, SUNF Board Member
David Biddle, Gilchrist County Republican State Committeeman, SUNF Board Member
What: Announcement of Stand Up For North Florida’s expanded mission and change of status to a 501(c)(4) organization
When: TODAY, Monday, December 4, at 2:00 p.m.
Where: The Capitol, 4th floor, outside the House Chamber
For additional information, please contact Lori Hutto at (850) 222-8156 or [email protected].
Online Risks Are Routine for Teens, Most Bounce Back
Teens routinely encounter online risks, such as sexual solicitations, cyberbullying and explicit material, but research shows that the negative effects of such exposure appear to be temporary, vanishing for most teens in less than a week.
A new study from the University of Central Florida, Pennsylvania State and Ohio State found that typical teens seem to be resilient and cope with most online risks, moving beyond the temporary negative impacts quickly.
The researchers conducted a web-based diary study of 68 teens. They chronicled the teens’ online experiences for eight weeks and used pre-validated psychological scales to assess how negative online experiences impacted teens’ emotional state and well-being. While they found that teens reported more negative emotions during the weeks they experienced cyberbullying and explicit content, these effects were gone only a week later. The findings will be presented at the 2018 conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing next year.
“I think if there is a message here, it is that teens are being exposed a lot, but they bounce back and show resiliency,” said Bridget McHugh, who worked on the study while a Ph.D student at UCF and is now a leadership development consultant at Ohio State University. “We’re not exactly sure how they are learning the coping skills, but they are and that’s good news.”
McHugh said coping may be happening through other online interactions with friends or through support from social media communities.
Pamela Wisniewski, a computer science assistant professor at UCF in Orlando, and co-author of the study, concluded that more research needs to be conducted into how teens learn to cope in the constantly changing social media world.
“I know parents are afraid of all the dangers out there, especially because teens seem to be practically tethered to the internet with their mobile devices,” she said. “But we may be over problematizing online risks and creating another stressor for teens and parents. What we should be looking at is, what does this all mean for the everyday teen?”
“We absolutely acknowledge there are cases where teens experience severe online risks, such as cyberbullying, that lead to long-term negative outcomes, like committing suicide,” Wisniewski said. “These are terrible, but they are also extreme cases. The good news is that in our study, we found that these extreme scenarios aren’t the average teen experience.”
She suggests parents help their children learn to manage risk, and that can’t happen if there isn’t open communication. But that’s a challenge when it comes to the topic of online activity. In another study, Wisniewski found that teens don’t communicate about all the risks they encounter online because parents tend to overreact.
Wisniewski has a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and joined UCF in 2015. Her research on adolescent online safety has won best paper awards (top 1%) and best paper honorable mentions (top 5%) at premier conferences in her field, as well as being featured by Science Daily, Forbes and NPR.
McHugh earned her Ph.D from University of Central Florida in 2016. Her work focuses on the benefits and drawbacks of social media and other forms of digital communication among adolescents and young professionals.
This research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation under grant CNS-1018302. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Florida Lottery’s new PAC-MAN® Scratch-Off game puts your favorite arcade game in the palm of your hands
The Florida Lottery is introducing the new $5 Scratch-Off game, PAC-MAN®, offering more than $52 million in total cash prizes! The ticket features retro artwork, depicting the classic Pac-Man arcade game. The game also features more than 3.8 million winning tickets, including 13 top prizes of $250,000! The game’s overall odds of winning are one-in-3.97.
The Florida Lottery also launched three additional Scratch-Off games today that offer more than $110 million in instant prizes. All Lottery retailers are expected to have these new tickets in stock and available for purchase within 72 hours.
The $3 game, SCRABBLE, features more than $63 million in total cash prizes, including 40 top prizes of $50,000! The game’s overall odds of winning are one-in-4.14.
For just $2, players can win up to $30,000 with 2018 NEW YEAR’S BUCKS. There are over 5.5 million winning tickets totaling more than $33.5 million in cash prizes! The game’s overall odds of winning are one-in-4.37.
SILVER DOLLAR features 600 top prizes of $1,000 and more than $14 million in total cash prizes! This $1 game offers more than 4.9 million winning tickets, and overall odds of winning are one-in-4.81.
Scratch-Off games are an important part of the Lottery’s portfolio of games, comprising approximately 68 percent of ticket sales and generating more than $784 million for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF) in fiscal year 2016-17.
Florida Lottery's new PAC-MAN® Scratch-Off game puts your favorite arcade game in the palm of your hands
The Florida Lottery is introducing the new $5 Scratch-Off game, PAC-MAN®, offering more than $52 million in total cash prizes! The ticket features retro artwork, depicting the classic Pac-Man arcade game. The game also features more than 3.8 million winning tickets, including 13 top prizes of $250,000! The game’s overall odds of winning are one-in-3.97.
The Florida Lottery also launched three additional Scratch-Off games today that offer more than $110 million in instant prizes. All Lottery retailers are expected to have these new tickets in stock and available for purchase within 72 hours.
The $3 game, SCRABBLE, features more than $63 million in total cash prizes, including 40 top prizes of $50,000! The game’s overall odds of winning are one-in-4.14.
For just $2, players can win up to $30,000 with 2018 NEW YEAR’S BUCKS. There are over 5.5 million winning tickets totaling more than $33.5 million in cash prizes! The game’s overall odds of winning are one-in-4.37.
SILVER DOLLAR features 600 top prizes of $1,000 and more than $14 million in total cash prizes! This $1 game offers more than 4.9 million winning tickets, and overall odds of winning are one-in-4.81.
Scratch-Off games are an important part of the Lottery’s portfolio of games, comprising approximately 68 percent of ticket sales and generating more than $784 million for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF) in fiscal year 2016-17.
CFO and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis to Make Major Announcement Regarding Florida Firefighter Cancer and PTSD Benefits
MEDIA ADVISORY
CFO and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis will make a major announcement regarding Florida firefighter cancer and PTSD benefits on Tuesday, December 5, at 2 p.m. in West Palm Beach. Joining State Fire Marshal Patronis will be local fire service professionals.
WHO: CFO and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis
WHAT: Major Announcement Regarding Firefighter Cancer and PTSD Benefits
WHEN: Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at 2 p.m.
WHERE: Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Station No. 23
5471 Okeechobee Blvd
West Palm Beach, FL 33417
RoadWatch Advisory: SR 60 Lane Closures
POLK COUNTY
SR 60 west of FDOT Operations Center: Maintenance permit project: Expect intermittent westbound lane closures on State Road 60, just west of the FDOT Operations Center, Monday December 4 through Wednesday, December 6, while crews begin work to remove equipment and repair the roadway. Intermittent eastbound lane closures are expected to begin on Thursday, December 7, or as soon as work is completed on the westbound lanes. Work is expected to continue through Friday, December 15. Use caution and plan extra travel time while driving in this area.
UNF Honoring Student’s Exceptional Service During Fall Commencement
The University of North Florida will honor a student with an outstanding record of volunteerism, when it hands out over 1,000 degrees Friday, Dec. 8, during fall commencement at the UNF Arena, Building 34, on campus.
UNF senior Nikki Adams, who is graduating this week with a bachelor’s degree in biology, will be recognized as the recipient of the Senior Service Award, which is presented to a graduating senior for outstanding volunteer service to the University or community by the UNF Alumni Association. She will be honored during the 10 a.m. ceremony.
Adams, a Jacksonville native who grew up in Riverside, realized she could spark change and awareness through volunteerism and found she could accomplish this through the University’s Environmental Center, where she became deeply involved with the Center’s student-led organization, the Environmental Center Student Coalition. Adams served as club president last fall and facilitated open discussions with students about environmental problems and ways in which they could enact change.
Through the UNF Environmental Center, Adams began to participate in activities that also helped improve the Northeast Florida community by volunteering at clean-up events organized by the St. Johns Riverkeeper, North Florida Land Trust and Groundwork Jax. By “getting down in the dirt” with a team of impassioned individuals, she was able to work as part of a team committed to making a positive, visual change.
Additionally, Adams has interned with the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve as well as the National Park Service and volunteered with the North Florida Land Trust’s Team Terrapin, where she contributed to a database that served to quantify the amount of diamondback terrapins present in the marshes on Big Talbot Island. She’s also volunteered with The Girls Gone Green, the U.S. Green Building Council, Dreams Come True and Rising Tides Young Professionals group.
The ceremony for the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Computing, Engineering and Construction will take place at 10 a.m., while the ceremony for the Brooks College of Health, Coggin College of Business and the
College of Education and Human Services will start at 2 p.m.
The University expects to award a total of 1,022 bachelor’s degrees, 165 master’s degrees and 38 doctorates this term. Including the fall 2017 graduates, UNF has issued a total of 73,956 bachelor’s degrees, 18,591 master’s degrees and 531 doctorates since first opening its doors in 1972.
Senate Republicans defeat Nelson’s effort to make middle-class tax cuts permanent
‘Proof that this GOP tax bill was never about helping the middle class’
On a strictly party-line vote, Senate Republicans today voted down an amendment by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) that would have made the modest middle-class tax cuts in the GOP’s tax bill permanent, instead of ceasing after just a few years.
“The modest middle-class tax breaks are not permanent, in seven or eight years they cease to exist, they sunset,” Nelson said on the Senate floor prior to the vote on his amendment. “Now, that’s simply not fair. This little amendment simply says, go back to the Finance Committee and correct this inequity. Go back to the Finance Committee, make the middle-class tax cuts permanent.”
If approved, the amendment Nelson filed late Thursday would have required that the Senate suspend its consideration of the current GOP tax bill and send it back to the Senate Finance Committee to work out a bipartisan compromise that provides permanent tax relief for the middle class.
Shortly after Nelson made his remarks, Senate Republicans voted to defeat the amendment by a vote of 52 to 48 – with all 48 Democrats voting for it, and all 52 Republicans voting against.
After the vote, Nelson tweeted, “Senate Republicans just voted down my amendment to make the modest middle-class tax cuts permanent, instead of a tax increase in a few years. Proof that this GOP tax bill was never about helping the middle class.”
Attorney General Bondi’s Statement Regarding Sexual Harassment Legislation
Attorney General Pam Bondi today issued the following statement regarding potential sexual harassment legislation for the 2018 Legislative Session:
“Weeks ago, I reached out to Speaker Corcoran and Senator Benacquisto to preserve a spot for potential legislation that could provide protections to victims of sexual harassment claims. Without hesitation, both were extremely supportive and eager to work together to protect women in state government.
“I encourage any woman who has been sexually harassed to come forward and allow their voice to be heard.
“Yesterday, I was astonished to learn that one of the victims of the recent allegations in Tallahassee is a woman who I’ve known and respected for years. My heart breaks for her. We must respect the investigation by the Florida Senate and the privacy of all parties involved.
“I look forward to working with the legislature this session to formulate laws that protect all women working in state government. It has been remarkable what women can do when we all stand together. FLORIDA MUST BE A LEADER IN THIS MOVEMENT.”