ICYMI

Apopka doesn’t want poors littering its city center, Disney backs off its planned Imagineers move to Lake Nona, another case of monkeypox in Central Florida, and other news you may have missed last week.

» Another case of monkeypox confirmed in Orange County

Last week, the Florida Department of Health confirmed the second case of monkeypox in Central Florida. The FDOH reports that the case came from a person in their 30s in Orange County who has not traveled recently. They are being kept in isolation. That totals 10 cases in Florida, with South Florida accounting for the majority of reported infections. According to the CDC, there are 99 confirmed cases in all the U.S. The current outbreak has resulted in 2,166 recorded cases in 37 countries. Symptoms of monkeypox usually start with the flu with a fever, chills and a headache. Then a distinctive rash can start forming on the face and then move to your body. Monkeypox spreads via direct contact with infectious rashes, surface transmission and eating an infected animal. According to the CDC, it is very difficult to spread monkeypox without close contact, and the threat of the disease in the US is still very low. The government agency notes that public should not be alarmed because unlike COVID, it is hard to contract and does not spread easily.

» Developer sues City of Apopka to build affordable housing in planned city center

A housing developer is suing the City of Apopka for declining a permit to build affordable housing in the sprawling town’s planned city center. Wendover Housing Partners sued the city after the local council and mayor struck down the permit for a 195-unit affordable apartment building on the site. The group behind the project, which has been in the works for more than a decade, sued under the Florida Fair Housing Act. City leaders shared, in pretty clear language, that they don’t want poor people being drawn to the area. During the meeting in May, Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson said that they hoped the site would be used for luxury apartments. “We’re looking for people that can walk to our downtown and get a cup of coffee, and they don’t mind spending $4 or $5 or buy a beer after work or whatever,” Nelson said. Wendover has already received millions of dollars in government grants — more than $8 million from the state and $2 million from Orange County — to build affordable housing on the site. They noted in the suit that the city had previously approved their plans including housing for workers and lower-income families. The developer is asking the court to strike down the language forbidding affordable housing in the area, so that they may continue to build.

» Disney delays plans to move 2,000 jobs to Lake Nona by four years

Disney is pushing its plans to move employees to Lake Nona to 2026. The company announced the new date this week, citing delays in construction and a desire not to rush such a massive move. Disney previously told the Orlando Sentinel that the offices were expected to be open in December 2022. The move to Lake Nona would put Disney in the position of receiving Florida tax breaks that total $570 million, moving 2,000 jobs in the division of Parks, Experiences and Products into the state. Most of the employees marked for relocation work in Disney’s creative design division, called Imagineers. “Florida is known for its rich culture of hospitality and active lifestyle as well as a lower cost of living with no state income tax,” Disney Parks chairman Josh D’Amaro said in the announcement of the move. “As someone who has moved with my family from California to Florida and back again, I understand that relocation is a big change, not only for the employee, but also for their families.” There is an ongoing dispute between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over DeSantis’ controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law. After Disney spoke out against the discriminatory law, DeSantis and Florida Republicans pushed to strip Disney of its special independent government, a status it has held since the 1960s. Disney denied the speculation that the delayed move has anything to do with their ongoing feud.

» Two men arrested following racially motivated attack on Black teen’s car

A Sanford teen’s car was badly damaged as he was driving to a friend’s house last Wednesday. Jermaine Jones, 16, was confronted by a trio of residents who allegedly tossed a rock through his rear driver’s side window and told him to leave the neighborhood. In a video shared by Jones, Donald Corsi and Howard Hughes can be seen yelling at Jones and closing the distance between themselves and the high-schooler. In the clip, the men admit to smashing his window. “Burning out racing through my fucking neighborhood,” Corsi said. “Get out of my neighborhood, fuckwad.” A woman identified as Cindy Hughes yelled at Jones to “get out of the neighborhood” and added, “You don’t belong here.” Hughes was arrested by Seminole County officers and charged with criminal property damage and throwing a “deadly missile.” The charges could carry up to 15 years in prison. Corsi was charged with criminal property damage and battery, according to the police report.

» Influential Florida NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer, who ushered through ‘Stand Your Ground’ law, retires after 44 years

Marion Hammer, a titan of gun-rights advocacy who played an outsized role in shaping Florida’s gun laws as a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, retired last week. Hammer, 83, spent 44 years as a lobbyist for the NRA and served as the first woman president of the national gun-rights group. Among the slew of gunrelated measures that Hammer shepherded through the process over the years was the state’s 2005 “stand your ground” law. The first of its kind in the nation, the law expanded the more-traditional “Castle Doctrine,” which allowed people to use deadly force to defend themselves in their homes, to more broadly say that people don’t have a “duty to retreat” if they believe it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm. Hammer was last in the news in 2020, after she lost a harassment lawsuit. Hammer claimed two emails containing gruesome images of children’s bodies after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shootings in Parkland, sent to her by attorney Lawrence Sorenson, constituted “cyberstalking, harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Sorenson said he was attempting to “engage with [NRA lobbyist] Hammer in a debate on the damage that assault weapons can inflict on human beings.” The judge dismissed Hammer’s suit.