1.
Florida plant squeezed, no more juice processing
To continue a very large and recently growing trend, another orange juice-processing
plant has terminated its processing department. In Orlando, Florida, Southern Gardens
Citrus has stopped the processing at its plant just a month before the growing
season of this year starts, and it this is not the first of this news to be
reported recently. As of the last couple decades, the amount of citrus processing
plants has decreased from to seven where it was originally at 30. This has been
mainly due to the citrus plants struggling to fight two strong diseases, citrus
greening and citrus canker, as well as taking a hard blow from the devastating
damage done by Hurricane Irma in 2017. These have caused the plants to process
juice well below their quota which has in turn forced them to shut down one by
one.
Problem: The problem is
that 23 processing plants have had to shut down due to disease and hurricane disaster
which has caused a sharp decline in the citrus juice and products being
available to the U.S. consumers. There is no telling how many jobs will be lost
and how many companies will lose money as well as how much money will be lost.
People: Citrus plant employees, distributor
stores, citrus and juice companies, citrus and juice consumers.
2.
‘We’ve
had enough.’: Students organize protest on Fraternity Drive
A group of University of Florida students have gotten
together to address safety issues on campus, specifically the lack of blue
lights on fraternity row. Scattered throughout the UF campus are Blue Light Emergency
Phones, which are blue telephone structures that students can click a button
and instantly contact the police who will also receive your location wherever
the blue light is. The students main fight is for their right to speak on these
safety issues and have more of a say as last spring, the student government did
not succeed in passing the resolution to put blue lights up and down fraternity
row. Four female students will be partnering up with the National Women’s
Liberation on September 17 to create a stronger protest in the fight for change
in the UF student government and the blue lights shortage on fraternity row.
Problem: The
problem here is all about UF student safety. There is an entire section of campus
where there is no way to contact any help for emergencies and this area is more
than susceptible to have emergencies in that area. This goes for females and males
because you never know the situation or who can be involved when problems arise.
People: UF
Student Government, UF students, Fraternity row residents, National Women’s
Liberation members.
3.
‘They’re asking me for the
impossible.’ Bahamians say customs agents won’t let them fly to U.S.
Hundreds of Bahamian citizens have been denied by U.S Customs
and Border Protection at the international airport in Nassau. Previously the agency
has only required clean police records to travel over, but now the agency is requiring
some to have visas in order to travel. The ones who actually made it over to
Miami have been told they are only allowed to stay for two weeks. CBP agents
have also been requesting multiple documents proving income, property
ownership, bills, etc. However, most those documents were destroyed or washed away
in the storm making it impossible to provide such things. Officials have also
told the few who made it over to the states that they are not allowed to enroll
their kids into any schools. Many peoples bags made it to the states, but
because of the unexpected new regulations and rules, the citizens aren’t.
Problem: Bahamian
citizens have already lost everything from Hurricane Dorian, and are now being
turned away by the U.S when trying to seek refuge. The original regulations
have not been asked of and instead, impossible regulations are being required
by the CBP officials forcing Bahamian citizens to go back to the ruins of their
homes.
People: Bahamian
citizens, CBP officials, US government officials, tourists/travelers, airline
workers.
4.
Fake hostage situation at Daytona airport had red
flags, sheriff says
At the Daytona Beach International Airport, a call was made
to the sheriff’s office from a man who claimed he had three flight attendants who
worked for British Airways hostage and was going to kill them if he didn’t receive
$20,000. The man went by the name of the “John Raizes”, however, there were
some questionable characteristics about the call. Two facts that didn’t add up
were that British Airways does not fly out of Daytona Beach International Airport
and the airport was not even open during the time of the call. Just to be sure
the office had men search the airport and found no threat. They refer to these
fake calls as “swatting” and it happens quite often, sometimes there are still casualties
in them.
Problem: There
are hoax calls that happen all the time around the US and even though they are
not real hostage situations they are still very serious and life-threatening. Before
this one, a serial swatter by the name of Tyler Barriss performed a fake call
that ended up leading to the death of a Kansas man. Barriss was sentenced to 20
years for the role in the killing. This is a serious matter and better
precautions need to be taken to stop more of these from happening.
People: Law
enforcement officials, Daytona airport employees and officials, indirect victims,
travelers.
5.
Vote to
double parking rates in Miami Beach during big events delayed until October
A potential law in Miami Beach has recently been postponed until
October that would double the parking rates during high volume periods of time
such as spring break, winter break, etc. Parking could reach up to $50 a day if
this law was passed, and in most cases could increase by 100%. As of now, the
voting for the law is on hold as they are trying to find a way to not affect
employees and locals as the law is not targeted for them.
Problem: The city commission of Miami Beach is trying
to double the fares of parking to make the prices very unreasonable for tourists.
They receive enough revenue every year from them and now they are just trying
to scrape up all the extra dollars they can get and now it will also affect
employees who park there and work for these places as well as locals who go
there every day.
Hi Christian,
ReplyDeleteThe opportunities in this post were very entertaining to read. Because I come from Miami, the news about the plans to increase parking rates was very informative to me. You did a short summary for this opportunity but it had quality. The fake hostage situation was also very interesting to read. I have never read about a hostage situation so it was very informative to me. This summary for the hostage situation was a little bit longer compared to the other ones but it was a good summary overall. You were very straight forward explaining the problem. It helped me understand better this opportunity. Overall, you had a good summary of your 5 opportunities. Thank you for sharing with the class!
You chose some really great articles, I had no idea that so many citrus processing plants were closing, what a surprise! You did a great job of summarizing your articles, they were clear and to the point. Your sources were great too, it was hard for me to find some good ones. I don't really think you could have done a better job, thanks for the information!
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