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The article reports on the study of the reaction of the University of Florida's students on the free edition of "Gainesville Sun" and on their campus newspaper titled "Independent Florida Alligator." The study aims to examine the students' reaction on the campus-centered edition of "Gainesville Sun." It uses a survey data which are given to the online economics students of the University of Florida. It also explores the effects of childhood exposure, race, ethnicity and education on newspaper readership.

In 1985, Florida established a groundbreaking approach to growth management and intergovernmental relations, which the state's 2011 Community Planning Act is widely described as ending. This paper presents a history and institutional analysis of policy changes for the State's core consistency doctrine. It concludes that the CPA did not end growth management since Florida retains the mandate for local planning consistent with state growth management criteria and subject to state review. However, it does formalize diminished state authority over local planning. Florida's current institutional arrangement for planning involves an assertive state rule-making stance, but shifts planning responsibility to local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption in pharmacy experiential learning as clinical practice sites restricted student access to onsite rotations. Therefore, colleges of pharmacy across the country likely included virtual advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) to fulfill experiential education requirements. The objective of this paper is to evaluate students' perceptions of virtual APPEs during the 2020-2021 academic year. Methods: Experiential directors and faculty at 3 colleges of pharmacy in the south Florida region developed a survey to assess students' perceptions of their virtual APPE rotations during the 2020-2021 academic year. Students who took at least one fully virtual APPE rotation were asked about their perceptions of these rotations. Results: A total of 349 students were invited to take the survey and 92 (26.3%) completed the survey. Of these, 77 students (83.7%) completed at least one virtual rotation. These students completed a total of 152 virtual rotations, with elective and ambulatory care rotations being the most frequent. Most students agreed that rotation objectives were clear, and preceptors offered resources needed to be successful during the rotation. Responses regarding engagement during virtual rotations, rotation expectations being met, and rotations expanding students' knowledge were mixed. Conclusions: Virtual rotations may present unique experiential opportunities for students. Colleges of pharmacy and preceptors can benefit from additional guidance regarding how to incorporate virtual rotations into the experiential curriculum. Best practices for virtual rotations include high frequency of interactions with preceptors, clear objectives and responsibilities, and the use of a rotation calendar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insurance-linked securitization (ILS) plays an increasingly important role in the protection of valuable real estate markets from devaluation due to climate risk. This paper critically investigates ILS in the Florida context, where billions of dollars of residential hurricane wind exposure are securitized on behalf of re/insurers and institutional investors each year. Building on Harvey's seminal concept of the spatial fix, it is argued that ILS represents a real estate risk fix. ILS transforms uncertain property catastrophe exposures into a liquid asset class, and in doing so turns institutional investor funds into re/insurance capacity for capital-hungry 'peak peril' re/insurers. Securitization helps to sustain the circulation of capital through risky built environments by absorbing the catastrophe exposures of mortgages and other forms of property-linked finance. In this way, ILS provides a fix for the Harveyian spatial fix, one which momentarily offsets growing environmental barriers to property-led accumulation. The paper shows how specific modes of urbanization and property finance, waves of 'natural' catastrophe, patterns of public and private institutional intervention, transnational flows of risk capital, and the creation of new market-making devices have constituted ILS as a provisional (if extractive) fix. To this end, the paper furthers our conceptual and empirical understandings of the operation of ILS and re/insurance at specific urban conjunctures, while also highlighting key dilemmas associated with securing the real estate-finance system from climate risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminal justice system fines and fees are a source of revenue for courts, district attorneys, probation departments, and other actors both inside and outside of the justice system. Because these departments rely on fine and fee revenue to partially fund their budgets, they may be incentivized to oppose reforms that would reduce fine and fee collections. Using budget documents from counties and a sample of municipalities in Florida and New York, the authors find that budget reports provide more detailed data on fines and fees than are available from other data sources, including information on which types of fines and fees are collected and how much revenue criminal justice fines and fees provide, both on a per-capita basis and as a share of the total jurisdiction budget. This paper presents a replicable methodology for future research in how to use local government budget documents to evaluate fine and fee collections. A larger, forthcoming study will use this methodology to examine fine and fee collections in five states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the emergence of the media reform movement in the state of Florida in 2008. Focusing on the development of a statewide coalition, the paper details the tensions between local and national policy agendas, the barriers faced by local activists as they attempt to build support for the concept of media reform in their communities, and the diversity of interests represented under the banner of media reform. This case study also reveals an ideological bias toward the left among the movement activists currently working in Florida, signaling a need to harness the broad-based dissatisfaction that exists across the political spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is in respectful challenge to two streams in urban social geography and planning literatures: the question of how gendered geographies of fear help constitute identities spatially, and the related question of how gendered urban space can be made and remade to be more egalitarian. I argue that the first of these bodies of literature is often trapped in an unhelpful public - private divide, which reflects the inability of mainstream crime prevention to include violence committed within families and households as a central focus of concern. I further argue that the question of how urban space can become more egalitarian needs to be concerned with violence and fear in the private realm as well as the public realm. Although the paper is primarily a review of recent academic and policy-oriented literature, my arguments are illustrated by a research project on how grassroots organizations serving new-arrival women in the outer suburbs of Melbourne and Toronto, as well as their funders, are redefining violence and safer space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous national surveys and surveillance programs have shown a substantial rise in the abuse of prescription opioids over the past 15 years. Accessibility of these drugs to non-patients is the result of their unlawful channeling from legal sources to the illicit marketplace (diversion). Empirical data on diversion remain absent from the literature. This paper examines abusers' sources of diverted drugs from two large studies: 1) a national sample of opioid treatment clients (N=1983), and 2) a South Florida study targeting diverse populations of opioid abusers (N=782). The most common sources of diverted medications were dealers, sharing/trading, legitimate medical practice (e.g., unknowing medical providers), illegitimate medical practice (e.g., pill mills), and theft, in that order. Sources varied by users' age, gender, ethnicity, risk-aversiveness, primary opioid of abuse, injection drug use, physical health, drug dependence, and either access [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The federal Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program requires mental health screening of Medicaid-eligible children as part of primary care medical assessments. However, decisions related to selection of a screening tool remain with the states. States need access to brief, cost effective, easily administered screening tools to comply with these regulations. This paper examines the psychometric properties of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) reported on 6,590 children ages 6-22 enrolled in Florida's Medicaid program across seven areas of the state, whose caregivers participated in a mail survey at least once between 1998 and 2007. Results suggest the PSC has both good internal consistency and stability over time across children with varying health and mental health conditions. The PSC demonstrated excellent discriminant validity regarding its ability to differentiate among children with varying levels of disabilities. Evidence of the PSCs construct validity was found based on its significant associations with other measures in predicted directions. At the recommended cut-off score of 28, the PSC exhibited good sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. Collectively, these findings support the use of the PSC as an appropriate measure for screening the psychosocial needs of children enrolled in Medicaid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While urban disamenities and pollution sources have received considerable attention in environmental justice research, few studies have examined sociospatial inequities associated with the distribution of desirable land uses. In this paper we focus on addressing this limitation by investigating the environmental equity implications of street trees-an important publicly financed amenity that provides several direct and indirect benefits to urban residents. The specific objective was to determine if the spatial distribution of public right-of-way trees is equitable with respect to race and ethnicity, income, and housing tenure in the city of Tampa, Florida, USA. We seek to extend research on equity analysis of urban amenities through several methodological innovations, including: (a) accounting for the heterogeneity of urban land use; (b) utilizing high-resolution remote sensing techniques to quantify parcel-specific tree cover; and (c) using multivariate regression models that control for spatial dependence within the data. The results support the inequity hypothesis by indicating a significantly lower proportion of tree cover on public right-of-way in neighborhoods containing a higher proportion of African-Americans, low-income residents, and renters. These findings have important implications for local public investment and policy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critiques the proposition that way-finding strategies can be differentiated by sex. We argue that way-finding is better understood as a function of gender differences where gender is understood as a lived social relation, a product of the interaction between an embodied habitus and a particular social field. The use of survey versus landmark way-finding strategies is linked to an individual's gendered experiences of urban life. The study examines way-finding strategies from a sample of 127 gay men and lesbians from the Tallahassee, Florida metropolitan region to explore urban habitation patterns. We find that different way-finding strategies (most commonly a survey or landmark approach) are influenced by the habitus and gendered experiences of fear and anxiety in urban areas. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses suggest that individuals who perceive that their own gender presentation violates gender norms (gender dissonance) experience higher levels of social sanctions (harassment, hostility, and discrimination). In multivariate analysis, the study finds that gender-dissonant men tend to navigate using the landmark way-finding approach usually associated with women, whereas gender-dissonant women navigate using the survey way-finding approach usually associated with men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research wax to discover materials and methods used and examine influences on how and. why sight-singing is taught in Florida middle-school choral programs. Members of the Florida Vocal Association completed an online or paper version of a questionnaire (N = 152). Data yielded several results that support previous research and provide an in-depth look at respondents' instructional practices and techniques. Additional research must be cond.uc.ted. to make more specific conclusions about the teaching of sight-singing in the middle grades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key component of drug courts is the use of graduated sanctions and rewards to encourage compliance; however, little is known about how such systems are actually implemented. The current paper documents the specific behaviors that are sanctioned and rewarded and the sanctions and rewards used, perceptions of the efficacy of sanctions, the level of standardization in the application of sanctions and rewards, participants' understanding of the sanctioning system, and the decision making process regarding sanctioning in five judicial circuits in Florida. Using qualitative data gathered from interviews with 86 key stakeholders and analyzed using NUD*IST software, we conducted comparisons between drug courts and traditional courts, as well as by respondent role (staff vs. offender). Our main findings are that (1) many more sanctions were used and more behaviors were identified as being likely to result in a sanction in drug courts compared to traditional courts, (2) the sanctions used in drug courts were more treatment oriented than in traditional courts, and (3) the drug courts appeared to emphasize tailoring the sanction to the individual participant rather than applying sanctions in a standardized manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how experience with the criminal justice system contextualizes the relationship between people's attitudes toward informal and formal social controls. In a survey of residents of Leon County, Florida, we asked respondents whether or not they knew someone who had been incarcerated. We also asked about their assessment of informal controls in their neighborhoods and about public control with questions about police, judges, and the criminal justice system as a whole. We find that knowing someone who has been incarcerated makes people with a low assessment of formal control also have a low opinion of informal control. Blacks are more likely than nonblacks to have a low opinion of informal social control only if they have not been exposed to incarceration. Knowing someone why has been incarcerated makes blacks and nonblacks just as likely to hold a negative assessment of informal social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional wisdom among the law enforcement community is that drug use causes crime and that stringent enforcement of drug laws is an effective tool to combat property and violent crime. Previous research by some of these authors found that a sharp increase in drug enforcement in Florida during 1984–1989 resulted in a reallocation of police resources which reduced the effectiveness of property crime enforcement and increased the property crime rate. Some have suspected that this result is the product of the very large increase in drug enforcement during this time period and that under “normal” circumstances greater drug enforcement would not result in higher property crime. This paper rebuts that suspicion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the responses of more than 1,000 urban high school students in "Lake City" to a questionnaire assessing contact with the law, attitudes toward the law, and knowledge of the law. It shows that "legal knowledge" is not an "all or none" phenomenon--students have knowledge of some laws and are uninformed about other laws--and it demonstrates that legal knowledge is independent of respect for the law and disruptive behavior. These findings suggest that the city's current legal education program concentrates on the cognitive aspects of legal education and does not address the affective and behavioral needs of the students. The disassociation of students' legal knowledge and their personal characteristics suggests that legal knowledge is dependent on institutional structures rather than societal expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights the 2003 TAPPI Polymers, Laminations, Adhesives, Coatings and Extrusions (PLACE) Conference held on August 3-7, 2003 in Orlando, Florida. Attendees; Presentation of the Best Paper Award to John Perdikoulias and Jiri Vicek for the paper "Analysis of Film Extrusion Problems with Flow Simulation"; Recipients of the Best Paper Honorable Mention Awards; Grant of the 2003 TAPPI PLACE Division Technical Award to Gary D. Oliver, senior corporate scientist at Cloeren Inc.

Public health training centers were established to enhance competencies in skills required to meet 21st-century public health challenges. In 2011, the Puerto Rico–Florida Public Health Training Center conducted surveys to assess the training needs of two populations of public health workers serving Hispanic communities: Florida Department of Health employees and workers at the regional and central offices of the Puerto Rico Department of Health. The two surveys were similar, but not identical in content and administration. A 52.6% response rate was achieved in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where limited computer access necessitated use of a pen-and-paper survey. A 20.7% response rate was achieved in Florida, where an online survey was used and incomplete responses were problematic. Puerto Rico respondents (n = 1,414) were similar in age (Mdn age = 48 years) to Hispanic Florida respondents (n = 546, Mdn age =45 years). They also reported higher levels of academic achievement and more years of experience in public health. Nevertheless, self-assessed public health competency scores were in the low- to mid-range for Hispanic respondents in both locales. Although self-assessed training priorities differed, Hispanic employees in both jurisdictions preferred hands-on and face-to-face training to distance learning. Findings indicate a need for training based on adult learning theory, targeted to entry-level employees, and addressing the top five self-assessed training needs, especially health promotion and disease prevention and public health law and policy, which emerged as priority training areas in both survey populations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article provides information on the FlexPackCon held in Orlando, Florida on December 14 to 16, 2006. The event was organized by the Society of Plastics Engineers' Flexible Plastics Packaging Division and the topics include Flex Pack industry issues and sustainable materials. The keynote speakers were Marla Donahue, the president of the Flexible Packaging Association, Kay Cooksey and JoAnn Hines.