Identifying Local Opportunities

Disc golfers enjoy sport, outdoors, kinship

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20160519/ARTICLES/160519658/1002/news01?Title=Disc-golfers-enjoy-sport-outdoors-kinship

This article focuses on a small nonprofit group that aims to educate and coordinate disk golf participants in the Alachua County area.  The article discusses a rising participant count despite a general lack of knowledge among most populations.  

What is the problem?

The article mentions that not many know of the existence of disc golf clubs or competitions.

Who the problem effects?

This problem seems to effect those that run disc golf clubs/organizations and those who put on disc golf competitions

Car insurance rates skyrocket as Floridians drive more and crash more

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article78819742.html

The article linked above discusses how the increase in active drivers has a direct correlation to rising auto insurance rates in Florida. According to the article Floridians auto insurance premiums have rose an average of 14 percent in the last year, with one major carrier spiking 40 percent.  These rate increases offset or even negate the savings insurance companies often emphasize in their commercials. Transportation specialists, as well as those in the insurance industry, correlate a larger number of drivers to these rising rates.  They claim that with more drivers on the road more accidents will occur leading to more payouts leading to higher rates for everyone regardless of driving record.

What is the problem?

Rising auto insurance rates for Floridians

Who the problem effects?

This problem mainly effects Florida residents who drive a motorized vehicle.  However, due to government oversight it may be considered a problem for them as well.

Florida pregnant women with Zika quadruples under new guidelines

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article78996297.html

This article describes that by changing how the state of Florida reports on Zika, the population effected jumped from 9 to 36 overnight.  The change in reporting standards eliminates that someone "show symptoms of" the Zika virus and replaces it with "those that show evidence" (test results, etc.) of the virus.  This change in reporting will most likely lead to the federal government granting the funding state officials are asking for in order to combat the virus.

What is the problem? 

Sudden changes to reporting reclassification of disease reporting may cause confusion and panic in the population from an overnight jump in case numbers

Who the problem effects?

The problem mentioned above will most likely effect the state population that will see the rise in numbers and not realize that this is due to how the disease is being reported to the state

DEP Defends Water Pollution Standards

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/05/20/dep-defends-water-pollution-standards/84675594/

The state regulatory Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is close to raising  what the acceptable levels of 43 toxins found in Florida waters.  These new limits are less stringent than the Federal version of the DEP, the EPA, sets as their criteria. This will allow concentrations of these chemicals to be more concentrated in Florida waters.  The change is to be done as part of regulation reexamination that occurs about once a decade.  Proponents of the change say that raising the expected amount will cause little harm to human life based on the most recent research.  Opponents of the new limits say that any increase to pollution is of grave concern and that human life should not be the only life measured.  They also comment that the levels of one of the chemicals, benzene, is an open invitation, and courtesy, for the fracking industry to enter the Florida market.  Benzene is the main chemical bi-product of the fracking process.    

What is the problem?

The DEP will be raising the amount of chemical concentration in Florida's water that will be acceptable to the state.  

Who is effected by the problem?

Industry is effected when the level of acceptable chemical is lowered.

Florida ecology is hurt when these levels are raised.

Sixty-two years after the Supreme Court ruled that America’s schools must be integrated, schools across the country increasingly are becoming segregated by race and income.

http://jacksonville.com/news/schools/2016-05-17/story/race-income-increasingly-segregate-schools-across-nation-gao-report#

This article discusses how despite intentional segregation being school segregation being illegal 16 percent of the schools in the nation have become segregated by definition.  Those professionally close to issue say that grouping of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) areas, and the failure to follow through on magnet programs, are to blame for the issue.  Members of different educational committees claim that by not mixing lower SES with higher SES in schools, districts have unwillingly segregated minority into lower performing schools.  In Jacksonville racial minorities make up 44 percent of the student population, however, only account for 29 percent of the population in A rated schools. 

What is the problem?

Schools in the United States are becoming segregated at an alarming rate some say. 

Who is affected by the problem?

Every school aged child, especially those from low SES areas.