COUNTIES 

Tampa Bay Times 

Hillsborough bus stop accessibility remain work in progress, decades after the ADA 

TAMPA — Old City Hall shone purple on the last Tuesday of July to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. But scattered across Tampa and surrounding Hillsborough County stand an untold number of bus stops that don’t meet standards set by the landmark legislation that affords people with disabilities the right to access all areas of public life, including public transportation. 

 

Sarasota Herald Tribune 

New Sarasota-Manatee housing collaborative may offer immediate help to struggling renters 

With an affordable housing crisis pricing out long-time residents, area leaders in Sarasota and Manatee counties have come together for a project that could possibly help hundreds of families in a matter of months.  

 

BROADBAND  

Wear-TV 

Northwest Florida counties encouraging internet ‘speed testing’ 

SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. — A meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Santa Rosa County to discuss guidelines for how an over $400 million dollar state grant will be used to improve high speed internet access. 

 

WASTEWATER 

Florida Trend 

As polio surfaces in other states, how vulnerable are Floridians? 

For the first time since the U.S. declared polio officially eradicated in 1979, Floridians are concerned about their odds of getting the disease. Florida is beginning the groundwork to learn if polio is in the state after one person was diagnosed with paralytic polio in Rockland County, New York, and the disease was discovered in New York City’s wastewater.  

 

WPTV  

How wastewater testing is keeping communities safe from pathogens  

Lessons learned during COVID-19 are helping health officials keep us safer from other pathogens. Wastewater testing, which became widely used during the pandemic, is becoming more common for things like monkeypox, opioid use, and polio. 

 

AROUND THE COUNT(R)Y 

Route-Fifty.com 

New Semiconductor Law Aims to Create ‘Silicon Valleys’ Across US 

$10 billion in funding will go to support 20 research hubs with a third of them set to be in small or rural communities. Little noticed in the bipartisan CHIPS semiconductor bill President Biden signed into law earlier this month are funds aimed at transforming where innovation happens in the U.S. 

 

Inside Towers 

“Counties Must be Ready to Compete” for Federal Infrastructure Dollars 

Maryland is guaranteed to receive at least $7.8 billion in federal infrastructure funding over the next five years. The money will be used to deploy broadband, rehab roads and bridges, upgrade water and sewer systems, and bolster mass transit.