Photo Gallery: Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro visits Southcom | Sunday, March 8, 2020
March 8, 2020, 1:43 PM
Severe weather: Mad snow, deadly floods
January 12, 2011, 3:57 PM
Dense fog in South Florida
January 11, 2011, 9:13 AM
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\n\n Broadway stars Laura Benanti and Lin-Manuel Miranda urged student thespians whose high school musicals were canceled to send them performance videos using the hashtag #SunshineSongs.\n
\n“I want to be your audience!” \n Thank you, @LauraBenanti, thank you kids, I'm watching too. #SunshineSongs https://t.co/TGO5n7h6H7
Rolling Stone magazine has partnered with IGTV to present “In My Room,” and its first two guest artists were Angelique Kidjo singing “Gimme Shelter” from home in Paris and Brian Wilson performing from home in California.
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\n\n Lots of intimate gigs can ease melancholy daily at Global Citizen’s #AtHomeTogether, Isol-Aid, Quaran-Stream, Couch Party, Homechella, Lockdown Livetream and Penned Up.\n
\nNew York’s \n Lincoln Center At Home opened a portal with \n pop-up classes, a trove of \n videos, and live-streams from “empty halls and living rooms.”\n
\n\n In South Florida, the show goes on with gusto despite shuttered stages. What virtual performances may lack in acoustics they make up for in price. You can’t beat free.\n
\nNo more outdoor Wallcasts this season, but the\n New World Symphony is performing on Facebook. UM’s Frost School of Music has Friday night rebroadcasts of concerts. Local nightclubs and musicians are welcoming audiences to virtual piano bars, tango lessons and jam sessions. \n Area Stage has virtual acting classes.\n
\n\n Coral Gables Art Cinema converted to a “Drive-In” theater showing curated movies on its website, which won’t “replicate the experience of watching a movie on the big screen surrounded by a crowd of movie lovers” but will provide “solace in trying times,” the website says.\n
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\nMuseums and attractions offer virtual exhibition tours, blogs and science experiments. \n Zoo Miami is closed, but its Meercam is filming those adorable meerkats. The \n Dade Heritage Trust created a digital tour of 12 downtown Miami sites. The \n O, Miami Poetry Festival canceled events, “but you know as well as we do how powerful shared language can be in uncertain times, and we are committed to providing space for that language, even if that space is only virtual.” \n Everglades National Park has set up a webcam feed, and \n Big Cypress National Preserve has an online photo gallery.\n
\n\n Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, recognizing “the new normal” and “the importance of outdoor living,” launched #MyFairchild, a resource for how to grow tomatoes and sweet potatoes, kids crafts, meet-our-scientists streams and “mindful moments” — videos of garden scenes, like a waterfall in the rainforest section.\n
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\nThe least satisfying flight of fancy is virtual travel. It’s a poor substitute as borders close, airlines slash service and travelers are grounded. But for those feeling restless or saddened by canceled trips, there are outlets for traveling the world without having to wedge into airplane seats.
\n\n Travel Zoo compiled a bucket list of 20 can’t-miss digital experiences. Paris may be on lockdown, but the \n Louvre is open for online tours. Visit Ireland’s \n Cliffs of Moher, China’s \n Great Wall, India’s \n Taj Mahal, Peru’s \n Machu Picchu, London’s \n Buckingham Palace. Take an interactive 3,000-foot climb up \n El Capitan at Yosemite National Park. Scream from the front seat of California’s \n GhostRider Wooden Roller Coaster. Go on \n safari. Dive our disappearing \n reefs. There are countless virtual vacations to sweep you away. You can even do \n Napa Valley wine tasting from home.\n
\nSuffering from live sports withdrawal symptoms? So far, the most successful replication has been NASCAR’s iRacing platform, a video game simulation in which pro drivers race around a digital track from their homes. But fans loved watching Denny Hamlin beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. down the stretch at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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\nGiven that most sports require team play, physical contact and dense gatherings of fans, there’s not much on offer as a virtual version of competition. Spain’s La Liga soccer clubs held an Esports FIFA tournament with the top gamer on each team controlling the action. Marco Asensio led Real Madrid to the title.
\nThe American sports scene has largely been reduced to replays of classic games on sports TV, such as the re-broadcasts of two World Series Game 7s on what should have been baseball’s Opening Day. Steph Curry can’t play basketball, but he did interview Dr. Anthony Fauci on Instagram.
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\n“Boredom is your imagination calling to you,” says Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and author of “Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age,” and “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.”
\nTurkle, who has been studying digital culture for 30 years, sees a creative, resourceful, communal spirit on social media knitting together the great divides caused by home confinement.
\nPeople are rallying to help those in need and using the internet to do it. Neighbors checking on the elderly via Next Door; virtual trivia nights to raise money for unemployed bartenders, and a Miami prayer group has switched its gathering spot \n “from rooftops to laptops,” and Chef Jose Andres posting videos on how to wash hands or make his mom’s lentil stew.\n
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\nAs with other upheavals throughout history, such as the Great Depression, World War II, the rise of HIV/AIDS, 9/11 and the Great Recession, the coronavirus pandemic will bring a lasting reorientation of everyday life in the United States, \n which has surpassed China in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.\n
\nThe convenience and comfort of virtual routines could make us forget how to go offline. What if we become addicted to the passive ease of clicking and nesting-in-place?
\nJobs will change as employers resistant to telecommuting wake up and realize productivity increases and expenses decrease when employees don’t have to waste time and destroy the environment driving into a useless office or flying to a meeting more efficiently conducted via teleconference.
\nAs more tasks are performed online, an already \n decimated labor force could see a radical rearrangement toward the Amazon business model, where deliveries to stay-at-homebodies dominate the consumer economy.\n
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\n“Coronavirus could hasten the replacement of humans by computers,” Harvey said.
\nThe entertainment industry, rocked by iTunes and Netflix, could be rocked again: Why pay $12 at the movie theater (plus $7 for popcorn), $75 for a theater ticket or $120 for a rock concert — while surrounded by possible host carriers of the next coronavirus?
\nIntractable partisan politics during the pandemic have heightened calls for a \n virtual U.S. Congress, enabling leaders to spend more time in their communities listening to constituents than inside the Beltway listening to lobbyists.\n
\nCoronavirus, the scourge that pulled us apart, might just have a rebound effect, and bring us back together when it’s conquered. What did Barbra Streisand sing? People who need people are the luckiest people in the world. Starved for actual face-to-face chats, we’ll fling aside the damned keyboard, repair the fissures in American society, re-embrace globalization and break out in block-long conga lines.
\n“Our yearning for social connection and physical touch is what makes us human,” Alhajji said. “When a mom hugs her baby, hormones are released.”
\nFree from quarantine, blinking in the sun, humans might just choose to unplug, and trade virtual life for the real thing.
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More cities announced restrictions on residents Friday with an \n expanding network of curfews forcing people to stay indoors under most circumstances.\n
\n\n Miami Gardens, the county’s third-largest city, posted a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, effective Friday. Coral Gables\n announced a curfew starting Friday as well, but it begins at 11 p.m., as does a \n new curfew in Sweetwater. They join Miami-Dade’s largest city, Miami, which imposed a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew that begins Friday night. \n
\nRaúl Valdés-Fauli, mayor of Coral Gables, said he’s in favor of measures that take people off the street as much as possible. But he said his city is launching a curfew during the COVID-19 crisis because Miami did.
\n“I’m trying to prevent people from Miami from coming to Coral Gables and doing whatever they can,” he said. “This is a very defensive measure.”
\nOther cities with 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfews include: Miami Beach and Sunny Isles Beach. Other 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfews include Homestead and North Miami Beach.
\nAll the curfews include exceptions for work and seeking medical attention. On Wednesday, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he did not see a need for a\n countywide curfew, and that enforcing one would be a needless burden on county police. \n
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Alcohol, cocaine, pain pills — since he was a teenager, Derrick consumed them all, at one time or another, to ease his racing mind. His addictions landed in and out of rehab centers.
\nFinally, at 35, Derrick was in a better place. He made a good living working construction in Miami. He exercised regularly. Derrick completed one year of sobriety through a 12-step program, attended five or more meetings a week and met often with his sponsor to improve his spiritual health.
\nThen, the coronavirus upended his recovery.
\nDerrick’s group meetings have been shut down. He’s working fewer hours. And when he’s at a construction site, he’s terrified of catching the highly infectious respiratory virus because of his asthma.
\n“I went like 2 1/2 weeks without a meeting and I was starting to get a little messed up in the head,” said Derrick, who asked that his last name not be used. “The anxiety and fear was starting to get to me.”
\nBut like many recovering addicts grappling with the sudden shutdown of society, Derrick has turned to meetings through teleconferencing services such as \n Zoom and \n In The Rooms, a free website that specializes in hosting recovery groups. Virtual 12-step meetings are attracting thousands of new users, many stuck in isolation, without work, resisting the temptation to use. \n
\nGetting clean is challenging enough in regular times, and the coronavirus has also upended South Florida’s fragile care system for people battling alcohol and substance abuse, putting many more at risk of relapsing and overdosing.
\nSubstance-abuse therapists have traded in couches for platforms such as Skype or Facetime as some South Florida residential rehab centers have stopped accepting new patients for fear they might infect existing clients. Because there’s been a steep drop-off in patient visits, clinics are bracing for private insurance and federal government reimbursements to vanish, forcing layoffs of counselors and staff.
\nDoctors fear Medicaid patients will run out of their supplies of drugs such as suboxone, which is used to treat opioid addiction, because of strict state requirements that they get drug tested and visit doctors in person.
\nAnd fewer people are turning to the judicial system to push their loved ones into treatment. Normally, Miami-Dade courts process about 10 petitions a week for hearings known as “Marchman Acts.” Since March 16, only one to two petitions are being received weekly.
\n“Social distancing in a court setting is of great concern,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Yvonne Colodny, who is working to arrange virtual hearings during the ongoing global pandemic.
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\nSubstance abuse itself has been a long-running crisis in the United States. In 2017, an estimated 20.7 million people ages 12 or older needed treatment for substance use treatment — or about 1 in 13 people, according to the \n National Survey on Drug Use and Health.\n
\nThe \n country’s opioid addiction problem has been well chronicled in the United States and in Miami, where deaths associated with \n fentanyl and other types of synthetic heroin jumped dramatically a few years ago. Crystal meth has \n made a comeback in South Florida. So has cocaine, \n according to federal researchers and law enforcement.\n
\nIn South Florida, there is no uniform way for drug and alcohol abusers to get treatment. Clinics, rehab centers and individual therapists get paid through a patchwork of public money, private health insurance companies and families paying out of their own pockets.
\nThriving Mind, which was formerly known as the South Florida Behavioral Health Network, manages state funding that each year helps about 50,000 people dealing with mental illness or substance abuse, or both. The organization contracts with about 40 providers, clinics big and small, rehab centers and companies that provide in-home treatment.
\nThriving Mind said it is working with the Florida Department of Children and Families to try to \n keep payments to providers flowing, to ensure rehab professionals don’t lose their jobs and patients are still getting help.\n
\n“For the most part, it’s hobbling along,” said Thriving Mind CEO John Newcomer, adding: \n “We may well see an uptick in the need for services as we move on. We’re just trying to make sure the system is intact.”\n
\n\n Even if DCF keeps payments flowing, many clinics that treat substance abuse will still suffer because private insurance companies and Medicaid will not reimburse them if they’re not seeing patients, he said.\n
\nMedicaid has also become a concern for Dr. Hansel Tookes, of the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine division of infectious diseases. Tookes works with opioid addicts, and has been lobbying Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration to lift strict requirements for getting refills of medication used to treat their illness.
\nThose requirements include in-person drug screenings at labs, group therapies and visits to doctors, all tough asks when you’re supposed to be sheltering at home. If addicts run out of their medications such as suboxone, they may wind up overdosing on poor quality street drugs — and they’ll crowd hospital emergency rooms needed to treat COVID-19 patients, Tookes said.
\n“This is a time of anxiety for a lot of people, and we need to be making it easier for them to get these medications,” said Tookes, who also founded a \n pioneering needle exchange program in Overtown that is still operating, albeit with staffers in masks and gloves accepting dirty needles through a window.\n
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\nFor now, rehab facilities — of which there are hundreds in Florida — are taking it day by day.
\nBanyan Treatment Centers, which has five locations in Florida, says it is “\n reducing the amount of close contact among patients and staff,” and doing a “thorough cleaning and sanitation of facilities and supplies on a regular basis.”\n
\nSouth Beach Detox, a private 34-bed adult residential program in North Miami Beach, is still accepting patients but “under strict protocols” including a pre-screening by phone, and another one once the client arrives at the facility.
\nOutside of treatment centers, recovering addicts have turned to virtual platforms.
\nMark, a Miami Beach lawyer who asked his real name not be used, has seven years sober and is a regular member of a Miami Beach Alcoholics Anonymous group. When city officials began curbing mass gatherings, his group moved meetings to a nearby park, where gatherings were limited to less than 10 people.
\nThen, Miami Beach ordered its parks closed. Meetings went entirely online onto Zoom. “My problem is that I’m out of my routine. Addicts and alcoholics don’t like change, and my reality changes every 72 hours,” Mark said. “I’ve joined a Zoom group from New York, and it’s given me a different perspective and introspection in my own recovery.”
\nKevin Sullivan knows how a global crisis can wreck sobriety.
\nThe New York restaurateur spent more than two decades clean until 2009, when the worldwide recession destroyed his finances. Before long, his family relationships ruined, Sullivan was again drinking beers, snorting cocaine and taking ecstasy.
\nSullivan, 59, is sober again, seven years in and living in Miami Beach. He’s been doing Zoom meetings, and helping homeless addicts get meals and set up apps on their phones. He worries that people who are new in recovery will suffer the most because they won’t have access to people with many years under their belts.
\n“This is hard on everybody,” he said. “But even harder for those who really need that face-to-face support.”
\nSubstance abuse expert Dr. David Fawcett, of Wilton Manors, said rehab professionals have pivoted quickly to online, even if it doesn’t quite replace face-to-face meetings.
\n“Communication is a little more awkward and people talk over each other,” Fawcett said. “You don’ t have the social cues you do if you are sitting in a room with somebody, but it’s better than nothing.”
\nFawcett hosts a group meeting for gay men addicted to “chemsex,” or sex enhanced by drugs such as cocaine and meth, on the website In The Rooms.
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\nUser traffic has swelled at In The Rooms, a free recovery website that virtually hosts meets such as Alcohol Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Overeaters Anonymous. The website, started by South Florida businessmen and recovering alcoholics Ronald Tannebaum and Kenny Pomerance, surpassed 625,000 members this week.
\nThis month, the site is averaging about 2,000 new members per day. In The Rooms, which is supported by some advertising and donations, has added a slew of new meetings and a slate of around-the-clock AA meetings.
\n\n “We just started a coronavirus support group,” Tannebaum said. “We’ve had some days of over 3,500 sign-ups.”\n
\nOn the screen, the person running the meeting appears in a box on the upper lefthand corner, the person speaking in the middle, a queue of people waiting to speak on the right.
\nOne recent afternoon meeting for alcohol recovery featured over 400 people, with people sharing their stories in two-minute segments. Some showed their faces on camera; many others did not. One Canadian woman was attending virtually while in self-isolation because she’d just returned from a trip to Florida: “I’m grateful we have a roof over our heads and food to eat.”
\nSaid Pomerance: “Solitude is a killer for us. People are reaching out during such a weird disjointed time. People are thirsting for that connection.”
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From Italy to Spain to India, videos of people on their balconies singing, dancing and \n cheering on medical professionals on the frontlines of the novel coronavirus pandemic have taken the world by storm. \n
\nOn Friday, city of Miami residents showed that same support for caregivers. They didn’t let coronavirus-caused curfews dull their fun as videos poured onto social media showing cheering, clapping, singing and dancing.
\nOn Wednesday, Miami’s five commissioners voted unanimously to start a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on Friday night. During the curfew, police would be able to stop, question and arrest anyone outside.
\nAs Miami’s first curfew began, its residents might have stayed home but they didn’t do it quietly. At The Mint Condominium, 92 SW Third St., residents chanted “Miami! Miami! Miami!” from their balconies.
\nAdrian Brito, who was visiting a cousin, grabbed his phone and started recording.
\n“Believe it or not, at that moment I was proud to be a Miamian,” Brito said.
\nAfter chanting, residents blasted classic Miami house music from their condos and danced, Brito said. Some apartments had party lights and at one point someone lit a flare on a balcony.
\nNear Brickell World Plaza, Twitter user Nicole, @xoxonicolee_, recordered residents dancing and cheering from nearby apartments as music carried over Brickell Avenue.
\n\n \n \n \n
\nOver by Brickell City Centre, Christopher Medeiros tweeted video of residents banging pots and pans, whistling and clapping as music played low somewhere in downtown Miami.
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\nTania Leets also caught video from her balcony of Brickell residents clapping for caregivers.
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\nThis is something countries all over the world have taken part in. CNN reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for the people to express gratitude for the nation’s healthcare workers. The people did just that. They stood in their doorways and on balconies applauding, ringing bells and blowing conch shells
\nMiami residents be under the curfew until further notice. There are only six exceptions to the curfew:
\n\n ▪ Essential state, county and city emergency personnel, such as police, fire rescue and ambulances\n
\n\n ▪ Utility emergency repair crews\n
\n\n ▪ Emergency calls by physicians\n
\n\n ▪ Food delivery and third-party food delivery services\n
\n\n ▪ Walking dogs within 250 feet of the owner’s home\n
\n \n ","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/17724872","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"highline_factoids":[{"id":"1"},{"id":"2"},{"id":"3"},{"id":"4"},{"id":"5"}],"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":""},{"id":"17724812","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17724812.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Seven Florida Department of Corrections employees test positive for COVID-19","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585583299,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Seven Florida prison employees test positive for COVID-19","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241589236.html","meta_description":"Officials would not release the positions held by infected prison workers, but said the employees either worked for the corrections department or one of its contractors at five prisons and two probation offices.","published_date":1585421517,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/kma068/picture167622647/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/everglades","authors":[{"name":"Ana Ceballos","email":"News Service of Florida "}],"keywords":"Florida, prisons, corrections, workers, coronavirus, COVID-19, positive tests","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","7282","7273","3986","7287"],"credit":"","dateline":"TALLAHASSEE","summary":"Officials would not release the positions held by infected prison workers, but said the employees either worked for the corrections department or one of its contractors at five prisons and two probation offices.","content":"\n
Seven Florida Department of Corrections employees who work at separate facilities across the state have tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, agency officials said late Friday.
\nAgency officials would not release the positions held by the infected prison workers, but in a statement said the employees either worked for the corrections department or one of its contractors at five prisons and two probation offices.
\nThe staffers work at Century Correctional Institute in Escambia County; Everglades Correctional Institution in Miami-Dade County; Florida Women’s Reception Center and Marion Correctional Institution, both in Ocala; Zephyrhills Correctional Institution in Pasco County; and community corrections regional offices in Lake Butler and West Palm Beach.
\nThe employees will not return to work until they have been cleared by health officials, the agency said.
\nAn investigation is underway to identify inmates and staff who may need to go into isolation after coming into close contact with the employees infected with the highly contagious virus, officials said in the statement.
\nWhile the number of people exposed to the employees is unknown, the department confirmed Tuesday that three workers at the Marion Correctional Institution have been placed in self-isolation after being exposed by an infected employee there.
\nThere are no confirmed coronavirus cases within the inmate population as of 9 a.m. Friday, officials said.
\nAny inmates who show COVID-19 symptoms or who have been in contact with an employee who tested positive for the virus will be placed in medical isolation, according to the department. Symptomatic inmates will be isolated in their dormitories until they are medically cleared, and local health officials will determine whether those inmates need to be tested, corrections officials said.
\nA corrections department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for information about how many inmates or workers have been tested statewide.
\nBut corrections officials said they are working with the Florida Department of Health to monitor and contain potential outbreaks in the prison system, which has 143 facilities, more than 23,000 employees and roughly 96,000 inmates — including thousands of elderly offenders.
\nTo prevent the virus from spreading, the department has suspended face-to-face inmate visitations, restricted the intake of county jail inmates and started screening anyone who enters a correctional institution.
\nOnly employees who are considered “essential” are allowed to come to work, the department said.
\nAs of Thursday, essential employees included some educators who have been asked to “provide as much education programming as possible” while programs are temporarily adjusted, according to a memo obtained by The News Service of Florida.
\n“Programming will not only keep our students engaged and their brains active, it will serve to decrease the boredom inherent with restrictions of this scope and scale. We see it as our role to promote the safety and security of our institutions by providing positive activity options for our resident population,” officials wrote to employees on Thursday.
\nState workers who have to stay home because they have COVID-19 symptoms, such as a fever or cough, are pushing the DeSantis administration to give them administration leave, instead of forcing them to use their own accrued paid time off.
\nDuring a press conference Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis did not appear to have a full grasp of the type of work flexibility offered to corrections employees with COVID-19 symptoms.
\nWhen asked by reporters if it was reasonable to require symptomatic corrections workers to use their paid time off to self-quarantine, DeSantis said: “I don’t know if those reports are true.”
\nDepartment of Corrections Secretary Mark Inch “is a very reasonable guy, so I would talk to him to see whether that is true or not,” the governor said Friday.
\n ","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/17724812","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"highline_factoids":[{"id":"1"},{"id":"2"},{"id":"3"},{"id":"4"},{"id":"5"}],"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","lead_media":{"id":"17724815","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/kma068/picture167622647","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"everglades","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7292","modified_date":1585420412,"allow_comments":false,"allow_index":false,"allow_follow":false,"published_date":1502922457,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/kma068/picture167622647/alternates/FREE_1140/everglades","href":"/web/v1/content/17724815","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7292"],"credit":"Miami Herald Staff","dateline":"","caption":"The Everglades Correctional Institution south of Florida City","photographer":"Peter Andrew Bosch","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/kma068/picture167622647/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/everglades"},{"id":"17724590","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17724590.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Three TSA employees at Miami International Airport test positive for the coronavirus","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585583270,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Three TSA employees at MIA test positive for COVID-19","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241608476.html","meta_description":"Three Transportation Security Administration employees stationed at Miami International Airport tested positive for COVID-19, officials said. Airport leaders say the airport has since been deep cleaned.","published_date":1585528956,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/tb3bvd/picture224543030/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/tsa%20creole.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Monique O. Madan","email":"mmadan@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"tsa, coronavirus, covid 19, covid19, mia, miami, miami international airport, florida, Transportation Security Administration","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","3986","7292","7336","7287"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Three Transportation Security Administration employees stationed at Miami International Airport tested positive for COVID-19, officials said. Airport leaders say the airport has since been deep cleaned.","content":"\n
Three Transportation Security Administration agents at Miami International Airport have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to federal officials.
\nThe three screening officers — which were based at checkpoints D3, F and H — last reported to work on March 16, 20 and 22. It is unclear if coworkers who had contact with the agents that tested positive for COVID-19 were told to stay home as well.
\nMIA airport spokesman Gregory Chin told the Miami Herald that the work areas were immediately deep cleaned.
\n“The Miami-Dade Aviation Department was notified by the TSA each day that they were made aware of a positive test result, and each work area was deep cleaned that day as well,” Chin told the Herald.“
\nAccording to TSA, the agency recently began to provide eye protection and N-95 masks to its employees. Prior to that, officials offered their employees optional surgical masks. Agents have always been required to wear gloves.
\n“TSA remains committed to the health and safety of our workforce and is now authorizing the use of eye protection and N95 respirators for employees,” said TSA spokesman Mark J. Howell. “Employees have had the option to wear surgical masks since the beginning of the pandemic, and use of TSA standard nitrile gloves continues to be mandatory when screening an individual or their property, which adds an additional layer of protection. Any swabs utilized as part of a screening procedure [checkpoint and checked baggage] will not be reused for multiple passengers.”
\n ","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/17724590","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"highline_factoids":[{"id":"1"},{"id":"2"},{"id":"3"},{"id":"4"},{"id":"5"}],"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","lead_media":{"id":"17724599","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/tb3bvd/picture224543030","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"tsa creole.jpg","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/3986","modified_date":1585524745,"allow_comments":false,"allow_index":false,"allow_follow":false,"published_date":1547514233,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/tb3bvd/picture224543030/alternates/FREE_1140/tsa%20creole.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/17724599","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["3986"],"credit":"dhanks@miamiherald.com","dateline":"","caption":"TSA workers at Miami International Airport load up free meals donated by the Chef Créole restaurant for federal employees working without pay during the shutdown. This was the first day of the giveaway, on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, and the restaurant had distributed more than 300 free meals at the airport.","photographer":"DOUGLAS HANKS","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/tb3bvd/picture224543030/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/tsa%20creole.jpg"},{"id":"17724533","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article17724533.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Retail tenants are seeking rent relief. Some landlords take a long view; others say no.","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7277","home_section":{"name":"Real Estate News","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/"},"modified_date":1585566012,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Miami restaurant and retail owners ask for rent relief","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article241531996.html","meta_description":"South Florida restaurant and retail owners are asking landlords for rent relief after they are either forced to close or see business drastically dip due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Some landlords say ‘no.’","published_date":1585566000,"authors":[{"name":"Rebecca San Juan","email":"rsanjuan@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"Miami, real estate, commercial, retail, rent, coronavirus, landlord, dispute, tenant, restaurant","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7277","7290","7264","93341","7292"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"South Florida restaurant and retail owners are asking landlords for rent relief after they are either forced to close or see business drastically dip due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Some landlords say ‘no.’","content":"\n
With tourism at a standstill and nonessential businesses closed, local commercial tenants are looking for rent breaks as the coronavirus crisis heads into April.
\nThey’re finding mixed results.
\nAmong those retailers are Nick Sharp, co-owner of Threefold Cafe, with six locations, and Ricky Patel, president of The Spot Classic Barbershop, with 15 locations. Some landlords immediately agreed to some form of rent reliefe, they said, while others declined to negotiate.
\nBut as the weeks move on, many attorneys and landlords are advising abatements.
\nJason Kellogg, partner at the downtown Miami-based law firm Levine, Kellogg, Lehman, Schneider and Grossman, is advising clients including shopping center owners to renegotiate leases for the next two months.
\n\n Related content\n \n \n
\n“Everyone is going to feel pain right now,” Kellogg said. “It’s a matter of alleviating that pain.
\n“You can’t get blood from a stone,” he said.
\nBut most landlords will want to see restaurant and retail owners make an effort before agreeing to rent changes, said Javier Lopez, managing partner of the Coral Gables-based law firm Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton. “Businesses have the responsibility to take proactive steps to meet contractual obligations.”
\nThat may include laying off employees to preserve the cash flow needed to pay rent, Lopez said.
\n\n Legally, landlords can demand tenants pay rent, Kellogg said. \n
\nThe exception would be tenants with \n force majeure lease clauses that protect tenants who cannot fulfill their obligations due to an unforeseen event such as an earthquake, hurricane or tornado — or pandemic. \n
\nTenants may also argue frustration of purpose, arguing that an unforeseen event undermined their intent for having entered into an agreement with their landlord, Lopez said.
\nBut whether COVID-19 is a legally considered a natural disaster, and whether it was an unforeseen event, may be disputed by some landlords and insurers, Lopez said — and may ultimately end up in litigation.
\n\n For now, lease practices vary by the property owner and by tenant. Some landlords are offering rent relief, no questions asked. Others are dealing with tenants on a case-by-case basis. Yet others are declining to offer any relief — at least for now. \n
\nTricera Capital, a Brickell-based commercial real estate property owner and management firm, wrote an email two weeks ago informing all of its 30 tenants that it would defer rent payments for April and allow them make it up the amount owed over the following six months, said co-founders Ben Mandell and Scott Sherman
\n“We are playing the long game,” Mandell said. “Tenants are the lifeblood of our assets.”
\nThe company is well capitalized, Sherman said, and took 50% to 60% financing for each of their commercial spaces. “Other property owners may need 75% financing,” Sherman said. “You may pay less up front but you have less breathing room.”
\n\n Related content\n \n \n \n
\nThe luxury-oriented Bal Harbour Shops are looking at hardships on a case-by-case basis, said Matthew Whitman Lazenby, president and chief executive officer of Whitman Family Development, which owns and manages the shops. “Our tenants know we stand with them through this and we are currently in discussions with our tenants to determine the best strategy for each moving forward,” he wrote via email.
\nRegardless of the landlord, tenants with a history of late payments may well be at a loss, said Lopez, of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton.
\n“I’ve seen some tenants that were hanging on by the skin of their teeth. They had already spoken about rent abatement and being short on rent since November. This may be the nail in the coffin but the coffin was already built. The landlord, in that case, would likely have a winning argument.”
\nSome landlords are refusing any relief.
\nThreefold’s Sharp said he reached out a month ago to his six landlords. Four said “’don’t worry about it,’” Sharp said. He is talking with them about lease extensions. Another landlord has yet to give a definite answer, wanting to first explore options.
\nBut one, Sharp said, “gave a hard ‘no.’”
\n“We never missed a rent payment,” Sharp said. “We wrote back saying vacancies are going to be everywhere and your best option would be to work with us.”
\nIn the interim, his cafes\n have become grocery stores.\n
\nThe Spot Barbershops closed its 15 South Florida locations more than two weeks ago, Patel said, to ensure safety.
\nHis landlords have given mixed responses. Three told him they would work with him, proposing a lease extension of 60 days and suggesting they take “one month at a time,” he said.
\nBut the majority, 12 landlords, told Patel he has to pay rent.
\n“It felt like a knife to the heart because we always pay on time,” Patel said.
\nHe is considering federal loans and incentives to pay bills, including insurance and utilities.
\nAnd he’s looking for ways to help his barbers, who live off commission. His barbers average $60,000 per year, or $5,000 per month. For now, they’re earning nothing.
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"Restaurant and retail owners asked for rent breaks after Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez ordered all restaurants to close their indoor dining options. ","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":""},{"id":"17724773","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article17724773.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"With hopes coronavirus outbreak will subside, Miami’s III Points fest moves to October","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7292","home_section":{"name":"Miami-Dade County","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/"},"modified_date":1585427198,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"As COVID-19 spreads, III Points festival moved to October","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article241585926.html","meta_description":"Organizers of Miami music and arts festival III Points announced they have rescheduled the two-day event for October 16-17. Some major headliners, such as The Strokes, Robyn and Wu-Tang Clan.","published_date":1585422273,"authors":[{"name":"Joey Flechas","email":"jflechas@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, miami, covid-19, iii points, festival, concert, postpone, strokes, wu-tang","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7292","93341","3985","3986","7226"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Organizers of Miami music and arts festival III Points announced they have rescheduled the two-day event for October 16-17. Some major headliners, such as The Strokes, Robyn and Wu-Tang Clan.","content":"\n
III Points music and arts festival has been rescheduled for Oct. 16-17, making the event the latest Miami gathering to be disrupted by the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
\nOrganizers of the event, originally scheduled for May 1-2, announced the postponement Saturday as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continued to rise in Florida and across the U.S. The festival’s founder, David Sinopoli, told the Miami Herald he was able to secure commitments from more than 95 percent of the artists to play the new October dates, including The Strokes, Wu-Tang Clan and Robyn. Very few couldn’t make the change, including one headliner, Disclosure. New artists to join the lineup include Rufus Du Sol, Artbat and Peaches.
\nSinopoli said he and his team worked for weeks to iron out schedules and work within their budget to organize a production later this year. The new dates give his team and fans something to look forward to.
\n“We wanted to put out something positive,” he said. “I just feel like, even if it isn’t until October, we’re trying to show our fans that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
\nHe acknowledged that the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic could alter \n III Points’ plans again. \n
\n“If we’re in a negative situation three to four months from now, and we’re looking at another pivot, I think that my team is ready for that,” Sinopoli said.
\nTicketholders who have paid in full are set. For those who are on the payment plan, payments will not resume until “it is ethically okay,” Sinopoli said, referencing the number of people who have lost their jobs during the pandemic.
\nIII Points has made a habit of pivoting to accommodate the festival’s growth or react to unexpected circumstances. This year’s change actually moves III Points onto a familiar part of the calendar.
\nThis year’s festival will be the seventh installment. For the first five years, the event was held in October, initially at various venues across the arts district and eventually landing at \n Mana Wynwood. In 2017, the potential impact of Hurricane Matthew forced some performers to cancel their sets, including LCD Soundsystem and Earl Sweatshirt. \n
\nFollowing a 16-month gap, III Points \n returned to Mana in February 2019. Headliners included Erykah Badu, Beach House and Herbie Hancock. This year, a February festival proved logistically challenging with Miami-Dade hosting Super Bowl 54 and a host of associated events and activities. \n
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":""},{"id":"17724926","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article17724926.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Federal judge not convinced former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel’s rights violated","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7290","home_section":{"name":"Broward County","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/"},"modified_date":1585355702,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Judge appears skeptical of former Broward sheriff’s arguments","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article241575626.html","meta_description":"Gov. Ron DeSantis made the suspension of Scott Israel one of his first acts. He accused Israel of “incompetence” and “neglect of duty” for the handling of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.","published_date":1585355701,"thumbnail":"https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/jit/5618154292001/275490fa-4711-45fd-86c8-b9434ac4b6a8/main/480x270/1m21s77ms/match/image.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Dara Kam","email":""}],"keywords":"Scott Israel, Broward Sheriff, Ron DeSantis, Mark Walker, judge, due-process rights, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, massacre, airport shooting","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7290","3985","3986"],"credit":"News Service of Florida","dateline":"TALLAHASSEE","summary":"Gov. Ron DeSantis made the suspension of Scott Israel one of his first acts. He accused Israel of “incompetence” and “neglect of duty” for the handling of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.","content":"\n
A federal judge appeared unconvinced Friday that state proceedings resulting in the ouster of former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel violated the veteran law enforcement officer’s due-process rights.
\nGov. Ron DeSantis made the suspension of Israel one of his first acts after taking office last year. He accused Israel of “incompetence” and “neglect of duty” for the handling of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 students and faculty members and a 2017 mass shooting at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that killed five people.
\nThe Senate formally removed Israel from office during an October special session, prompting the former sheriff to file a federal lawsuit alleging the Senate process was unfair.
\nLawyers for DeSantis and Senate President Bill Galvano asked U.S. District Judge Mark Walker to dismiss the case. The governor’s attorneys have argued that DeSantis is not responsible for any alleged violation of Israel’s rights, because the Senate conducted the proceedings leading to the vote that resulted in the sheriff’s removal. The Senate’s lawyers argue, in part, that the Senate is shielded from liability for legislative acts.
\nDuring a 3 1/2-hour hearing conducted by telephone Friday, Israel’s lawyer, Ben Kuehne, told Walker that the legislative immunity did not apply in the Senate’s removal of Israel because the Senate essentially was behaving as a court and not as a legislative body deciding on political or policy-related matters.
\nKuehne argued that the Florida Constitution requires that the removal of an elected official be based on “evidentiary consideration.” He maintains that the Senate changed its rules after a special master, appointed by Galvano, held a trial, concluded that DeSantis’ lawyers failed to present adequate evidence to justify Israel’s removal and recommended that the lawman be reinstated.
\nThe Senate Rules Committee in October considered Special Master Dudley Goodlette’s report and heard emotional testimony from members of the public, including two parents of children who died in the Parkland school massacre. Days before the meeting, the committee accepted testimony that had not been submitted during the June trial. The committee supported removing Israel, a Democrat, from office. In a 25-15 vote on Oct. 23, the Republican-dominated full Senate stripped Israel from office.
\nKuehne insisted throughout Friday’s hearing that, following the trial, Israel was denied a “meaningful” opportunity to be heard as required by the due-process clause of the 14th Amendment.
\nDeSantis and the governor “decided to throw the rules of fairness out the window and utilize either raw political power or the inability of Sheriff Israel to do anything to present facts and contest positions taken by the governor that were not established” during the special master process, Kuehne told Walker.
\nBut Walker appeared unpersuaded by his arguments.
\n“For the life of me, I don’t understand where … the fact that there was a deviation from the Senate rules is determinative of if there is or is not a due-process claim,” the judge said. “At each step of the way, he had an opportunity to respond and be heard. Help me understand why that’s not the right way to look at the allegations in your complaint.”
\nBut “it was not real notice,” Kuehne argued.
\n“It was not a real opportunity to contest, and it was not a real opportunity to be heard and submit our version in contrast to what the governor’s office did submit,” he added.
\nThe removal process “is subject to review by this court if the process does not comport with federal constitutional standards,” Kuehne told Walker.
\nBut Walker told Israel’s lawyer he did not “see a single allegation where you’re told you can’t talk,” a position DeSantis attorney Nicholas Primrose backed.
\n“There’s no allegation that Scott Israel was denied the same opportunity the governor’s office was to present information” to the Senate committee, Primrose said.
\nKuehne said the state Constitution “imbues in the Florida constitutional officer a right to that office that cannot be taken away, cannot be deprived, absent an evidentiary foundation.”
\nGalvano lawyer Jeremiah Hawkes, however, said Kuehne’s focus on the need for an elected official’s removal to be based on evidence ignores the subjectivity involved in determinations about incompetence and neglect of duty.
\nCase law establishes that the governor has discretion when exercising his authority to remove someone from office, Hawkes argued.
\n“What one person thinks is incompetence may not be what the next person thinks is incompetence,” he said. “There is a policy element to this. Are the people of Florida being well-served by this official?”
\nThe governor makes that determination, and legislators decide if they agree, Hawkes added.
\nPrimrose, a deputy general counsel in the governor’s office, told the judge that “federal courts should be very reluctant to decide” about the way a state removes its officials.
\n“There are certainly aspects that Scott Israel is grumbling about and (he) doesn’t like the outcome,” but Israel failed to demonstrate that he was denied due process, Primrose argued.
\nKuehne is asking Walker to order DeSantis to restore Israel as sheriff. The complaint strikes at the heart of citizens’ ability to choose their leaders, Kuehne argued in closing.
\n“The result of this case essentially will, without being overly dramatic, test whether the people in Florida have the right to elect their elected officials or instead officials, when elected, are subject to the arbitrary and capricious action of a governor and a Senate without any opportunity for fairness, for due process and to have those decisions based on a fair and meaningful presentation of evidence and an opportunity to discuss the impact of that evidence,” he said.
\nThe Senate proceedings last fall sparked an emotional outcry from Parkland parents, who supported DeSantis’ decision to remove the former sheriff. Israel’s backers, meanwhile, showed up en masse to defend the long-serving law enforcement officer.
\nSpeaking to reporters in October, Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was among the 14 students slain at the Parkland school, said the “systemic failures can only be blamed on incompetent leadership.”
\nHe called it “unfathomable” that Israel is seeking to be reinstated to his old job.
\n“Our 17 families have learned that without safety and security, nothing else matters,” Montalto said, adding that Israel and his deputies “failed us when we needed them the most.”
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The River Cities Gazette announced Thursday that it has temporarily suspended publication of its newspaper due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
\nA longtime Miami Herald news partner, the Gazette has served the communities of Miami Springs, Virginia Gardens and Medley for about 40 years.
\n“With all the business closings, the economics make it impossible to continue with the smaller circulation weekly issues,” said Gazette publisher Tom Curtis, who was part of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins Super Bowl team.
\nCurtis hopes to publish another Gazette issue on April 23.
\n“We will resume our regular publication schedule when the businesses reopen and the war against the coronavirus has been won,” Curtis said.
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","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":""},{"id":"17724935","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article17724935.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"As Miami Beach clinic rolls out $125 coronavirus tests, DeSantis calls out price gouging","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7307","home_section":{"name":"Miami Beach","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/"},"modified_date":1585354315,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Miami Beach clinic to charge $125 for coronavirus test","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article241557346.html","meta_description":"Miami Beach’s first drive-thru coronavirus testing center plans to charge the uninsured up to $125 for COVID-19 tests. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed the state to investigate ‘price gouging’ at a Hialeah center.","published_date":1585352882,"authors":[{"name":"Martin Vassolo","email":"mvassolo@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"drive thru, coronavirus, test, miami beach, price gouging, price, desantis, florida, insurance, hialeah","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7307","93341","3986","7292","7287"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Miami Beach’s first drive-thru coronavirus testing center plans to charge the uninsured up to $125 for COVID-19 tests. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed the state to investigate ‘price gouging’ at a Hialeah center.","content":"\n
Hours after the city of Miami Beach announced its first drive-thru coronavirus testing center, which will charge up to $125 per test for the uninsured, Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a “price gouging” investigation into a Hialeah testing center charging $25 more.
\nThe Miami Beach testing center, which will be operated by the private clinic MedRite Urgent Care, is scheduled to begin offering tests on Wednesday at the 4621 Collins Ave. municipal parking lot.
\nBut the announced investigation into a similar operation less than 20 miles west may bring about a change of plan.
\n“Whatever the law requires, we’ll have to be compliant,” said Mayor Dan Gelber. “Nobody anticipates supporting illicit tests.”
\nThe Miami Beach testing center will charge up to $125 per test for those without insurance, according to a marketing firm representing MedRite. The firm, HXECUTE, “pivoted to support launching COVID-19 testing sites” after doing work at Art Basel.
\nThere has been no mention of free testing at the Miami Beach center, despite a \n federal law passed March 18 that offers reimbursement to healthcare providers that offer free testing to the uninsured. Private insurance companies have \n generally waived testing fees during the national emergency. \n
\n“MedRite will allocate a percentage of the daily tests at reduced pricing in an effort to accommodate as many patients as possible,” said Matt McKenna, deputy adviser for HXECUTE.
\nOther drive-thru testing sites in South Florida operated by the state emergency management office and regional hospitals offer COVID-19 testing for free. Medicare is paying between \n $36 to $51 for the test, according to the New York Times.\n
\nTesting at the Miami Beach drive-thru will be conducted by appointment only and will be available only to those who have been pre-approved by a doctor. That includes people with symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, or those who have been in recent contact with someone who tested positive for the disease or who traveled to areas where the spread is more concentrated.
\nDuring a press conference Friday afternoon, DeSantis directed Attorney General Ashley Moody to investigate the \n $150 coronavirus tests being sold at a Hialeah testing site. While DeSantis did not name the hospital, Larkin Community Hospital opened a drive-thru testing site in Hialeah on March 20 and charges $150 per test. \n
\n\n “Our Miami Beach testing center is an extension of our existing Urgent Care facility in Miami Beach,” MedRite said in a statement. “We certainly are not breaking any laws but offering this valuable service to the Miami Beach community. We will certainly comply with any state or federal mandates regarding fees for testing.”\n
\nThe company, which runs a drive-thru testing site in New York, has not yet had its special events permit finalized with the city of Miami Beach, a city spokeswoman said. \n \n
\nMiami Beach Commissioner Steven Meiner, who has pushed for two weeks to get a drive-thru testing center in Miami Beach, said he was “not involved in these discussions” and directed a reporter to contact the city administration or MedRite for further comment.
\nCommissioner David Richardson said he informed the city administration of the state’s announced price-gouging investigation. He said no one should be turned away because they can’t afford the price of a test.
\n“From our first discussions about a testing site in Miami Beach, I raised questions about how and who would pay for the service,” he said. “Initially, the provider was going to perform tests for those symptomatic individuals either insured or who have the ability to pay $125 per test. I have insisted that any program must be available to all, including those who are unable to pay for the service.”
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A $367 billion \n plan by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to help small businesses decimated by the coronavirus won universal praise in Congress as part of a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill that \n became law on Friday, including from liberals like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. \n
\nBut Rubio acknowledged that passing a bill is easy compared to getting the money into the hands of small business owners as fast as possible. \n \n
\n \n
“\n We’re going to need a lot of help,” Rubio said. “I just talked to Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber on how we can use local governments as a conduit to expedite and make this process easier.” \n
\nAn exact date for the start of the small business program has not been officially announced, though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wants it up and running by the end of next week.
\nThe concerns about how the process will work aren’t limited to Rubio’s small business plan. An expansion of unemployment insurance by $600 per week for four months in addition to state-issued benefits doesn’t matter much if laid-off workers can’t access the state’s unemployment website, which \n happened repeatedly in Florida this week. \n
\nThe Internal Revenue Service plans to dole out individual checks to millions of Americans in the coming weeks, and Mnuchin wants the big-ticket items in the bill to be implemented quickly.
\nBut such a rapid expansion of government programs — combined with an unprecedented demand for benefits after unemployment claims skyrocketed around the country this week — is a recipe for bureaucratic nightmare. The website for people to \n enroll in Obamacare crashed after it went live in 2013 and it took weeks for the technical issues to be resolved. \n
\nLaid-off workers and small businesses trying to cover expenses don’t have weeks to wait.
\n“What I’m concerned about is getting organized, that is tougher than voting on this bill,” said Miami Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala, who served as Secretary of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration. “They’ve got to figure out a way to do this quickly. That takes teams of people within the [federal] agencies, and they should have been doing this two and three weeks ago.”
\nShalala said she’s met with officials from various federal agencies responsible for implementing the coronavirus relief package that was signed into law by President Donald Trump on Friday, and she’s hopeful that administration officials are prepared to deal with a rush of visitors to websites and applications for unemployment insurance. She also noted that most of the big-ticket items in the package that must be implemented quickly use existing infrastructure instead of building new websites and applications from the ground up.
\nFor example, the IRS is responsible for sending out checks to Americans who qualify, the loans to small businesses that don’t have to be paid back use an application process through the Small Business Administration that already exists and states have their own websites for applying for unemployment insurance.
\nBut there are already signs that the government’s response could be troubled.
\nBroward Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Thursday the Small Business Administration’s website was already crashing due to high demand, and laid-off workers in states like \n Florida, Michigan, Washington and Ohio were cut off from phone systems after hours of being on hold and being unable to access websites to apply for unemployment insurance. \n
\n“\n I hope the Trump administration beefs up the capacity of what the SBA website can handle,” Wasserman Schultz said. \n
\nRubio said the small business loan program is purposely designed to be as efficient as possible for applicants, the federal government and financial institutions like banks and credit unions who process the loan paperwork.
\n\n “They can turn the loan around in 36 hours with no credit check. It’s a pretty straightforward process,” Rubio said. “It’s important because we want to preserve their small businesses and their payrolls as much as possible.” \n
\nBut he acknowledged that existing financial institutions may not work well during government-mandated social distancing measures that have forced many bank employees to work from home and resulted in physical branches reducing or eliminating their hours of operation. And relying on electronic loan applications only works as long as the websites are able to handle demand.
\n“Most states do not have the infrastructure to handle the volume they’re facing,” Rubio said.
\nRubio’s office is working with the SBA, the Treasury Department, small business organizations and lenders to ensure the bill is implemented quickly and that relief to small businesses happens as soon as possible. Rubio tweeted Friday morning he’s working on “suggestions for implementing regulations.”
\nMiami Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson said her office is overwhelmed with calls from small business owners and laid-off workers. She said the federal government will need to hire more people to ensure that the benefits can be given out quickly. But hiring and training workers takes time.
\n\n “I think that we’re going to have to create a robust hiring process. We’ve got to hire more people and this is a good time to hire because so many people lost their jobs,” Wilson said. “Tomorrow or Monday, we will see openings for people with different technical skills to join that organization, whether in person or working from home, to mitigate that situation.” \n
\nMost members of Congress from Miami, including Shalala, Wilson and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell are already announcing virtual events for constituents who need help applying for state and federal assistance.
\n“The states do not have the capacity for the thousands of employees that are going to be applying,” Shalala said. “It’s going to take a little bit of patience until they have that capacity. Many of our elected leaders are going to have to give people very clear information about how and where they can apply. \n We have a lot of work to do in terms of getting accurate information. If they call unemployment or the [Small Business Administration], their calls haven’t been answered.” \n
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The highest-ranking judge in Venezuela — on par with the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court — doled out legal favors to obtain millions in bribes paid through Miami and foreign bank accounts that he spent on chartered private jets, expensive watches and other luxury goods in South Florida, federal prosecutors say.
\nMaikel Moreno, president of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, was charged on Thursday with laundering bribes that he accepted from white-collar defendants seeking breaks in their high-stakes fraud and financial cases in Venezuela.
\nMoreno, whose criminal case was filed in Miami on the same day that President Nicolás\n Maduro and others were charged in New York with narco-terrorism, is portrayed in a complaint as a judge who deploys his power to enrich himself at the expense of justice.\n
\nOn Thursday, Miami U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan said Moreno is yet another figure in a long line of Venezuelan officials who have stolen billions from the nation’s government and oil resources and who have spent their dirty money in Miami’s upscale real estate market and high-end retail stores.
\n\n “An independent judiciary is the last line of defense against the powerful and corrupt stealing the financial assets, natural resources and other treasures of the Venezuelan nation,” Fajardo said, noting that her office has already seized more than $450 million in bank accounts and assets in several cases involving more than a dozen Venezuelan defendants, including a former national treasurer.\n
\n\n “The charges against Chief Justice Moreno demonstrate that this last line of \n defense in Venezuela has crumbled, creating a system without the rule of law and without justice,” she said during a video news conference with U.S. Attorney General William Barr in Washington, D.C., and U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in New York. “In short, Venezuela has descended into a state of corruption, resulting in a massive treasure grab for the rich and powerful.”\n
\n\n According to a criminal affidavit, Moreno has been the president of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice since 2017 and had headed the criminal division of Venezuela’s highest court and other judicial positions before that major promotion. Federal prosecutor Michael Berger and agents with Homeland Security Investigations began focusing on Moreno’s alleged misconduct after digging into kickback and money-laundering schemes between officials with Venezuela’s national oil company, PDVSA, and contractors based in Miami and elsewhere.\n
\nWhen Moreno once applied for a U.S. visa in 2016, he reported that he made $12,000 a year from his job in the Venezuela judicial system. But investigators later discovered that he had received about $3 million in his Bank of America account in Miami between 2012 and 2016.
\nAccording to the affidavit, an unidentified Venezuelan described as a former criminal defense attorney who controls a media company made two wire transfers into Moreno’s Miami account — the first for $500,000 from a Swiss bank and the second for $300,000 from an Austrian bank. The Miami Herald has learned that the person who wired the money is \n Raúl Gorrín, a politically connected businessman close to Maduro and to his predecessor, the late President Hugo Chávez. Gorrín is wanted in a separate money-laundering case in Miami on charges of bribing the former national treasurer, \n Alejandro Andrade, to embezzle hundreds of millions from Venezuela’s government. Andrade is now serving a 10-year prison term in the United States.\n
\nThe affidavit says Moreno spent $1 million on private jets and pilots in travel from Venezuela to Miami and other destinations, $600,000 in credit card purchases for Prada, Ferragamo and other designer goods at Bal Harbour Shops, $50,000 at a luxury watch repair shop in Aventura, and a $40,000 payment to a Venezuelan beauty pageant director.
\nIn 2017, the U.S. Treasury Department froze Moreno’s bank account and other assets in the United States after the supreme court in Venezuela stripped away authority from the nation’s legislature.
\nTwo cooperating witnesses — an associate of Moreno’s and an attorney in Venezuela — told federal investigators that the chief justice accepted bribes in dozens of instances from parties in both criminal and civil cases, according to the affidavit.
\nIn one civil case between a General Motors plant and Venezuelan GM auto dealers in 2017, Moreno ruled in favor of closing the $100 million GM facility rather than keeping it open for thousands of workers, the affidavit says. In exchange, he was promised by the auto dealers’ attorney a “significant percentage of the proceeds” from the eventual sale of the GM plant after its seizure. The payment is still pending because the facility has not been sold.
\nA white-collar defendant had his criminal case dismissed by Moreno after he gave the judge a “luxurious residence” in the affluent neighborhood of Alto Hatillo in Caracas, according to the affidavit. The judge kept his watch collection in the house, including one timepiece worth $1 million, the affidavit says.
\nAlthough the defendant in the Venezuelan case is not identified, the Herald has learned he is \n Francisco Convit. He is the lead defendant in a $1 billion money-laundering case in Miami, accusing him and several others of making sham loans to the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, and receiving astronomical sums from the government in return. Most of the money was moved to Europe, but some ended up in U.S. bank accounts and Miami real estate.\n
\nBoth cooperating witnesses told federal investigators that Moreno received $1 million in a bribe payment from Miami to ensure the release of an oil contractor from custody who was charged in a PDVSA corruption case in Venezuela, according to the affidavit. They said that instead of directly receiving the actual money, it was used to buy a commercial property for Moreno in Caracas.
\nThe payoff was arranged through a second PDVSA contractor based in Miami who had received a $100 million contract from the national oil company for drilling equipment.
\nEventually, the Miami contractor sent $700,000 from a Bank of America account to another account in Puerto Rico for the benefit of the seller of the Caracas commercial property. A second transfer of $300,000 was sent from a bank account in Panama to another account in Portugal for the seller’s benefit.
\nFajardo, the U.S. attorney in Miami, said Moreno has specialized in cases involving fraud and financial crimes so that he could take advantage of deep-pocketed business defendants willing to pay bribes for their freedom. She said the chief justice “\n received large bribes to authorize the dismissal of charges or the release from custody of multiple Venezuelans who literally stole billions of dollars from Venezuela’s state-owned oil proceeds.”\n
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While we are all watching the news about the explosion of COVID-19 cases in the United States, Spain and Italy, we will soon face a bigger problem.
\nAfter talking with almost a dozen experts from some of the world’s leading universities, I’m much more worried about what might soon happen in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean than about the latest U.S. or European pandemic statistics.
\nWe may see a much more severe crisis in the developing world, where billions of people live in cramped places, and don’t have access to running water, soap, hand sanitizers or the possibility to benefit from $2.3 trillion emergency relief packages like the one approved by Congress.
\nNearly 3 billion people — 40 percent of the world’s population — “lack basic hand washing facilities,” according to a 2019 joint study by the United Nations World Health Organization and the UNICEF, the U.N.’s children’s agency. The vast majority of these people live in developing countries, the report says.
\nLikewise, while U.S. hospitals are in dire need for more ventilators — the mechanical breathing machines used to treat severe coronavirus patients — to supplement the estimated 160,000 in U.S. hospitals and the additional 12,700 in the national strategic stockpile, many hospitals in poverty-stricken countries don’t have any of these devices.
\nIn Haiti, according to a tweet by my Miami Herald colleague Jacquie Charles, government officials estimate there are only 100 ventilators in the whole country, and local press reports say the real number may be closer to 50. In Venezuela, many hospitals, at times, lack soap and water.
\nEconomically, the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the developing world will be much more severe than in rich countries, unless there is a global effort to mitigate its affect on poorer countries.
\nOnce the pandemic is over, the United States is likely to recover much faster than poorer ones, and not just because it has the ability to literally print U.S. dollars, the world’s strongest currency. Many American workers will be reasonably well-equipped to compete in the post-coronavirus world economy.
\nAmericans’ work and study habits will probably change for good, since the coronavirus quarantine will accelerate ongoing trends toward working from home, e-learning and e-commerce, which for tens of millions will become the new normal.
\nIt will mean that many Americans no longer will have to go through the waste of time — and stress — of driving hours to and from where they work. That, in turn, will leave people with more disposable time to spend with their families, and it will help reduce traffic and pollution in big cities.
\nBut in many Latin American countries, tens of millions of people live in poverty. They don’t have laptops, or an internet connection, or a decent education to insert themselves in the global internet economy.
\n“In Mexico, more than 4.5 million people aged 15 and older don’t even know how to read and write,” José Narro, the former president of Mexico’s biggest university, UNAM, told me. “For them, the gap between rich and poor will widen.”
\nHarvard University professor Ricardo Hausmann, an expert in global-development issues, told me that the United States and other rich countries should offer financial-relief measures — perhaps administered by the International Monetary Fund — to help Latin American countries cope with the crisis.
\n“This is the first crisis in which the United States is not trying to coordinate with other countries to try to find a global response to the problem,” Hausmann told me.
\nHe’s right. President Trump, a populist nationalist, minimized the COVID-19 crisis for two months before acknowledging its seriousness, and then treated it as a “Chinese” and “foreign” problem.
\nThat’s outright stupidity. This is a global phenomenon. There is no way the United States will be able to seal its borders permanently once it contains the crisis. Lacking U.S. leadership and a coordinated international response, the virus will eventually make its way back to America if it infects the billions of people who don’t have soap nor water in the developing world.
\n\n Don’t miss the “Oppenheimer Presenta” TV show at 8 p.m. E.T. Sunday on CNN en Español. Twitter: @oppenheimera\n
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":""},{"id":"17724968","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17724968.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"4 Broward Sheriff’s Office employees have COVID-19 and 100 others self-isolated, BSO says","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585348478,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Four BSO employees test positive for coronavirus","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241560181.html","meta_description":"The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Friday that the quickly-spreading coronavirus has affected 207 employees, with four of them testing positive for the virus. The others are either in self-isolation or have already returned to work.","published_date":1585333431,"authors":[{"name":"Charles Rabin","email":"crabin@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, COVID-19, Broward Sheriff's Office, virus, Miami-Dade Police Department, Hialeah, Miami police, Brazil","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","7290","7295","7319","7302","3986","7292","7287"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Friday that the quickly-spreading coronavirus has affected 207 employees, with four of them testing positive for the virus. The others are either in self-isolation or have already returned to work.","content":"\n
Four employees at the Broward Sheriff’s Office have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the quickly spreading coronavirus. And, 103 other workers at the agency are in self-isolation as they either await a test result or because they may have come in contact with the virus, BSO said Friday.
\nThe announcement by the agency, which has close to 2,800 sworn officers and 5,400 employees overall, adds to the growing list of first responders in South Florida who have been affected by the disease. BSO did not say if the workers infected were sworn or civilian personnel.
\n“There are 107 cases in various degrees, still,” said BSO spokeswoman Miranda Grossman.
\nGrossman said that 100 BSO employees who had isolated have already returned to work.
\nAlso Friday, Coral Gables confirmed that two members of its \n almost 200-person sworn police department who had been quarantined had tested positive for the virus. \n
\nOn Thursday, Miami police, an agency of 1,300 sworn officers in which dozens have self-isolated the past two weeks, said its first two officers who tested positive for the disease were home recovering. Most of the Miami cops who went into self-isolation have already returned to work.
\nThe city’s \n entire motorcycle squad was quarantined two weeks ago after learning that several people in a diplomatic corps from Brazil that the officers had escorted through South Florida, had tested positive.\n
\nAlso confirmed to have contracted the virus were a \n Hialeah Police Department detective and one police officer with the Miami-Dade County Police Department, the largest in the southeastern U.S., with 3,000 sworn personnel and over 5,000 employees. Spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said 19 Miami-Dade cops are home after being self-quarantined. He said most of them took the precaution after returning from travel.\n
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":""},{"id":"17725001","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article17725001.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Cruises didn’t get taxpayer funds in coronavirus bill, but help could be coming","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7280","home_section":{"name":"Tourism & Cruises","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/"},"modified_date":1585344879,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Congress considers future bailout for cruise industry","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article241555951.html","meta_description":"Cruise lines were left out of a $2 trillion bill to fight the economic and health effects of coronavirus, but Frederica Wilson said Congress will pursue taxpayer help for cruises in future legislation.","published_date":1585342795,"authors":[{"name":"Alex Daugherty","email":"adaugherty@mcclatchydc.com"},{"name":"Alex Harris","email":"aharris@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, covid-19, cruise, cruise industry, bailout, coronavirus relief bill, 500 billion for corporations, frederica wilson, corporate bailout","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7280","93341","7321","7283"],"credit":"","dateline":"WASHINGTON ","summary":"Cruise lines were left out of a $2 trillion bill to fight the economic and health effects of coronavirus, but Frederica Wilson said Congress will pursue taxpayer help for cruises in future legislation.","content":"\n
Cruise lines were \n left out of a $2 trillion bill to fight the economic and health effects of coronavirus, but the industry’s advocates in Washington say they will pursue taxpayer help in future legislation. \n
\nMiami Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson, who leads a congressional caucus dedicated to Florida’s ports, said in an interview with the Miami Herald that she pushed for the cruise line industry to get loans and loan guarantees as part of a $500 billion fund administered by the Treasury Department for large corporations who are negatively affected by the coronavirus.
\nWilson also said she plans to get the cruise industry “some relief” in future coronavirus-related legislation.
\n“We’re looking for the next package that perhaps we will be able to get some sort of relief in there for the cruise industry,” Wilson said. “There are a group of people, mainly from I think California who are anti-cruise ship, but being anti-cruise ship is different than being anti-people who work on the cruise ship and who are part of the community where the cruise ship is a robust engine for our community.”
\nAccording to the Cruise Lines Industry Association, the industry \n contributes $53 billion annually to the U.S. economy. About $9 billion of \n that is in Florida, primarily South Florida, where the industry employs about 10,000. \n
\nWhile the cruise industry did not explicitly lobby for a cash bailout, one cruise line executive said the idea of access to potential loans would have been welcome news.
\nRepresentatives from Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and MSC Cruises did not respond to requests for comment about their industry’s exclusion from the aid package.
\nThe industry will not get access to $500 billion set aside by Congress for large corporations to recover from a government-inducted recession because the largest cruise companies are registered overseas.
\nWhile the three largest cruise companies are all headquartered in Miami, they are registered in other countries: Carnival Corporation in Panama, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in Liberia and Norwegian Cruise Line in Bermuda.
\nThe fourth largest company, privately held MSC Cruises, has a U.S. headquarters in Broward County, but is based in Switzerland. Their ships are registered abroad too, including in the Bahamas, Panama, Bermuda, Italy, Malta and the Netherlands.
\nPresident Donald Trump said at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak that the U.S. government wants “to protect our shipping industry, our cruise industry, cruise ships,” though he did not offer details.
\nBut during a White House briefing on Thursday, Trump appeared to echo the concerns of lawmakers from both parties who oppose a cruise industry bailout because the largest companies are headquartered overseas and claim exemption from U.S. income taxes.
\n“I do like the concept of, perhaps, coming in and registering here. Coming into the United States,” Trump said at Thursday’s White House briefing. “It’s very tough to make a loan to a company when they’re based in a different country.”
\nWhite House officials, including the president and his top economic advisers, have been unable to articulate what an acceptable form of aid to the cruise industry would look like.
\nMiami Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala, who represents PortMiami in Congress, said she’s unsure if cruise companies should get direct government assistance like airlines in response to coronavirus.
\n“\n I’d have to think about that,” Shalala said. \n
\nShalala also said industry representatives who spoke to her in recent days were mostly concerned about Congress helping small businesses like travel agents who could see business dry up in the coming months.
\n“We made significant investments that will protect [the cruise industry’s] current workers who they are furloughing or laying off,” Shalala said. “When they came to talk to me they talked about travel agents.” \n \n
\nBut prominent liberals like New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed opposition to\n taxpayer help for cruise lines after \n CNBC reported that a group of U.S. senators were also discussing the possibility of future help for the industry.\n
\n“The cruise industry registers as foreign companies to avoid paying U.S. taxes,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday evening. “Now they want U.S. bailout money. Now the same Republicans who say immigrants who pay U.S. taxes shouldn’t get help are bending over backwards to give to foreign companies who DON’T pay taxes. Insane.”
\nAnd environmental groups on Friday called on the Treasury Department to explicitly state that cruise companies are not eligible to apply for coronavirus-related loans and loan guarantees.
\n“The final text of the stimulus bill unfortunately makes no reference to where businesses are incorporated, only that they must be ‘created or organized’ in the U.S. or under U.S. laws to qualify for loans or loan guarantees,” said Kendra Ulrich, Shipping Campaigns Director at Stand.earth. “With the headquarters for cruise majors Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian all in Miami, Florida, these corporations could certainly try to argue they are ‘organized’ within the U.S.”
\nThe advocacy groups also were concerned that the cruise companies could try to claim that their on-board workers, the vast majority of their workforce, are contractors and that workers in U.S.-based offices are employees, which could make the companies eligible for federal coronavirus funds.
\n“Since the three cruise majors are all headquartered in the U.S., it is likely they could argue the vast majority of their ‘employees’ are in the U.S. and the rest are foreign contractors,” Ulrich said. “We are calling on the Treasury Department to issue a ruling enforcing the exclusion of cruise companies from the stimulus package.”
\nThe cruise industry is a political player in South Florida, where most of their offices are based. Wilson and Miami Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell are \n among the top 20 members of Congress to receive money from the industry during the 2020 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.\n
\nWilson said even though the coronavirus relief bill that became law on Friday doesn’t include explicit assistance for cruises, it does help cruise industry employees or contractors who were laid off or otherwise negatively affected by a steep drop-off in cruises.
\n“We’re concerned about the workers who work for the cruise industry,” Wilson said. “There are thousands of them who live in Miami, who live in Florida. We have enough cruise ports to impact the economy not only of the cruise industry but the ports because cruise ships have to pay fees and tariffs to ports and to the different unions who work at the ports.”
\nAccording to PortMiami’s last annual report, cruise lines paid about $77 million in wharf fees in 2018.
\nShe said the bill’s expansion of unemployment insurance and direct cash payments will help laid-off employees, and money for small businesses to continue paying their employees will help contractors who work with the industry stay in business.
\nBut she also said loans will help the cruise lines.
\n”The cruise industry outlined to us what they were looking for and it was loans,” Wilson said. “They wanted to be able to borrow from the federal government to brace themselves from bankruptcy and to include enough access to cash to bolster the workers who work on the cruise ships and the ports that work on the cruises.”
\n\n McClatchy DC White House correspondent Michael Wilner contributed to this report.\n
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":""},{"id":"17725034","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/doral/article17725034.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Doral councilwoman ends self-isolation after testing negative for coronavirus","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7298","home_section":{"name":"Doral","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/doral/"},"modified_date":1585342919,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Doral politician ends isolation, tests negative for COVID-19","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/doral/article241567841.html","meta_description":"Claudia Mariaca tested negative for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. She self-isolated for two weeks after meeting Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Some members of his staff have tested positive.","published_date":1585341877,"authors":[{"name":"Joey Flechas","email":"jflechas@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, covid-19, miami, doral, claudia mariaca, isolation","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7298","93341","7285","3986","7292"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Claudia Mariaca tested negative for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. She self-isolated for two weeks after meeting Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Some members of his staff have tested positive.","content":"\n
Doral Councilwoman Claudia Mariaca has tested negative for COVID-19, the city announced on Friday, following a two-week self-isolation after she had contact with officials from Brazil who visited South Florida in early March.
\nMariaca briefly had contact with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who said he tested negative on March 17. Members of Bolsonaro’s staff, some of whom joined the president on his trip to South Florida, have tested positive. Less than a week after being in the vicinity of Bolsonaro and his delegation, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez \n tested positive for the virus. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who also attended the event, tested negative and self-isolated for 14 days.\n
\nMariaca, who only briefly had contact with Bolsonaro, had no contact with the public during the last 14 days, according to a city news release. The Florida Department of Health decided to test Mariaca a few days ago as a precaution.
\n“Throughout this time, neither her nor any of her family members experienced any symptoms of the virus,” the release reads.
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