Latest news with #DBPR
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DeSantis signs bill to allow the formerly incarcerated to obtain credits for vocational licenses
4th Street Barber in St. Petersburg. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix) Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a measure (SB 472) that ensures that credits earned from prison-based classes count toward professional licensing, providing more opportunities for the formerly incarcerated to become self-sufficient. The Correctional Education Program (CEP) within the Department of Corrections provides educational programming to inmates. The CEP provides 92 career and technical education courses in 37 vocational trades that are aligned to Florida's in-demand occupations, including barbering, cosmetology, electrical contracting, landscaping, plumbing, and HVAC contracting, according to a bill analysis. The CEP has awarded 36,689 certificates and industry-recognized credentials over the last four years. However, these certificates were largely only valid while the people receiving them were incarcerated, and they are not recognized outside of prison, according to the Florida Policy Institute. 'The measure signed [Thursday] will help remedy that by ensuring that credits earned from prison-based classes are recognized and counted toward professional licensing requirements,' said institute CEO Sadaf Knight in a statement. 'Additionally, common-sense reforms like this one that bolster workforce opportunities for returning citizens can save taxpayer dollars spent on incarceration costs by reducing the rate of recidivism.' The measure requires the Department of Corrections, in coordination with applicable licensing boards within the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), or DBPR when there isn't a board, to design a program that ensures credits earned from prison classes are recognized and counted toward professional licensing requirements. The measure was sponsored in the Senate by Central Florida Republican Keith Truenow and in the House by Miami-Dade Democrat Kevin Chambliss and Seminole County Republican Rachel Plakon. 'The most important factor for reformed individuals in preventing recidivism is employment upon one's release from prison,' said Chambliss in a statement. 'For inmates that have shown that they wish to be productive members of society upon the completion of their sentence, the state has a responsibility to make their transition as smooth as possible.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Miami Herald
04-04-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
Rodents in a mall eatery among citations of 12 South Florida restaurants
Three recidivist restaurants, rodents and the usual abundance of roaches highlight the return of the Sick and Shut Down List, the Miami metropolitan area restaurants that inspectors closed. While the list covers Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties, every county doesn't shows up on every list. Such is the case this week when two counties didn't contribute to the dirty dozen. We don't do the inspections. That's the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. We don't decide who gets inspected. That's the DBPR and customers who file complaints with the DBPR, which can be done online. READ MORE: Dangerous pork and pastries among a Kendall bakery's inspection problems Unless otherwise stated, each place reopened after the first re-inspection. In alphabetical order.... Anne's Paradise Takeout & Catering, 2428 N. State Rd. 7, Lauderdale Lakes Routine inspection, 20 total violations, two High Priority violations. During a week in July 2024, running roaches and handwashing violations put Anne's on Sick and Shut Down List. As for this batch of roaches, 20 ran under a kitchen food prep table, three under cookline equipment and two in the dishwasing area under a utensil stand. One roach was seen 'crawling on a clean food container.' Clean pots and cases of produce were on the kitchen floor. In the walk-in cooler, not only was there more food on the floor, but uncovered containers with cooked legume, turkey and chicken without date marks to say they'd been made two days before the inspection. The sink compartments — wash, rinse, sanitize — were 'too small to accommodate utensils or equipment,' standing water covered the floor, and someone washed and rinsed but didn't sanitize food containers. On returning the next day, the inspector saw five roaches, including one sashaying on a food prep table and two under the table. Somebody covered the legumes, chicken and turkey, but nobody date-marked them. It took a third inspection before Anne's could get back to business. Chez Den, 4422 Forest Hill Blvd., Palm Springs Routine inspection, six total violations, five High Priority violations. In the kitchen, sewage backed up in the floor drain from a handwash sink and the three-comparment sink at the Palm Beach County restaurant. And 'the area cannot be isolated as it's in the middle of kitchen.' The reach-in freezer had takeout 'Thank You bags,' which aren't food grade material, in direct contact with food. In the kitchen, cooked rice (62 degrees), cut cabbage (53), boiled eggs (56), black rice (59) and rice and peas (55) made previous days needed to be kept at 41 degrees or under. Stop Sales crashed down on all. Cococabana Bar & Grill, 2944 S. Jog Rd., Greenacres Routine inspection, seven total violations, one High Priority violation. Ah, the dependable 'accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.' Rodents marked their territory with 10 droppings on a shelf with canned goods, four on a shelf with napkins, straws and utensils and three on a shelf with, appropriately, toilet paper. With all that rodent activity at the West Palm Beach-area restaurant, plantains were on the cookline floor. The handwash sink water couldn't get hot enough, getting it up only to 79 degrees when 85 was required. Speaking of bad temperatures, commercially processed reduced oxygen packaged fish needs to stay frozen until it's time to cook. Thawing opens the back door to bacteria. So, the salmon thawing in a cooler outside its bag was a problem. Georgia Mae's, 5029A Okeechobee Blvd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County Routine inspection, 10 total violations, eight High Priority violations. Something about the dish drying rack kills roaches, as four dead roaches sat on clean pans, eight were on a clean cutting board and another eight corpses were under the dish drying rack. Two surviving roaches crawled in an area near the dish drying rack. Three flies flitted about the dish washing area. The inspector hurled Stop Sale lightning for temperature abuse, as in not being properly cooled, at heavy cream, cooked turkey and cooked collard greens Kaluz, 3300 Commercial Blvd., Fort Lauderdale Complaint inspection, eight total violations, two High Priority violations. Beautiful modern design on the building. Unfortunately for Kaluz, inspectors have no metric for including architecture aesthetic as extra credit. Six roaches died under a firewood cart and in front of a kitchen reach-in cooler. The firewood cart got moved outside when the inspector saw eight roaches crawling on the wood and another two scaling the wall next to the cart. 'Soiled dry wiping cloth in use' at the kitchen prep table and the expo line, where the expediter getting orders out works. A reach-in cooler had standing water at the bottom. Kosher de Brazil, 1710 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd., Hallandale Beach Routine inspection, five total violations, three High Priority violations. Among the 11 living and moving roaches were four on top of the dishwashing machine. There was a case of potatoes and and case of peppers sitting directly on the walk-in cooler floor. An employee started work by working with food in the walk-in cooler without washing hands. That place mats and a container lid sat over a prep area employee handwashing sink says the handwash sink isn't a high-traffic area. Five days disappeared between the first inspection and the callback inspection. What didn't disappear: the roaches. Four living ones were counted, including two on the kitchen floor, killing this re-inspection. Passed inpsection No. 3. Kussifay, 2652 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood Complaint inspection, nine total violations, five High Priority violations. The living roaches outnumbered the dead roaches three to two. Cases of oils and a bag of onions sat directly on the kitchen floor. Standing water covered the kitchen floor next to the three-compartment sink. After baking bread rolls, someone used their bare hands to serve them to a customer. 'Frozen chicken thawed at room temperature.' That's a food safety no-no, extending several invitations to foodborne illness. Ocean Alley, 900 N. Broadwalk, Hollywood Routine inspection, 16 total violations, three High Priority violations. 'Two fly sticky tapes full of dead flying insects around the mop sink area and one in front of the cleaning equipment storage room.' As for other flies, six were around the mop sink and five took up airspace near the bar area handwash sink. We'll get back to that problem area in a moment after we talk about some of the 14 roaches. All but one hid behind things — behind a garbage can (four), behind a steam table (four) behind a cookline reach-in cooler (five). The other one strutted on a box of gravy packets in the kitchen's dry goods area. Back to the bar area handwash sink, there was no soap or method for drying hands. Plus, when they used it, the water drained onto the floor. A 'substantial buildup of grease' covered the wall at the end of the cookline. The fan in the prep room wall was 'heavily soiled with grease and dust.' The mop sink had a 'buildup of food residue and black lime substance. 'Several bags of frozen shrimp in standing water' won't end well for anybody. The Pup Tent, inside Lauderhill Mall, 1345 NW 40th Ave. Routine inspection, 10 total violations, four High Priority violations. If this place didn't sit inside a mall, you'd say maybe they should have tented Pup Tent after its roach-y January 2024 appearance on this list. Because bigger vermin moved their sleeping bags into The Tent. Rodents left 30 pieces of poop under the three-compartment sink, another 30 under the counter with the hot dog holding unit and 15 on the counter with the fries fryer. An employee cleaned up the rodent droppings, then 'proceeded to wash and dry hands without using soap.' Six flies were counted. This is a place you'd want the wiping cloths properly sitting in sanitizer solution when not used. These sat in a solution with zero sanitizer. Re-inspection: Six rodent droppings under a counter. Re-re-inspection: 'Met inspection standards.' Southport Raw Bar, 1536 SE Cordova Rd., Fort Lauderdale Complaint inspection, 22 violations, 10 High Priority violations. A roach was in a pest trap placed in the kitchen. You know how to place the pest trap, but you have to empty the pest trap. Of the 35 flies counted, 15 parked themselves on the ceiling. In the dining room chest freezer, the chocolate ice cream wasn't covered. On the cookline, an 'employee wiped gloved hands on a soiled, dry wiping cloth.' Conversely, a wiping cloth sanitizer solution at the raw oyster bar that was 200 parts per million, twice as strong as it needed to be, was stored in a way that 'could result in the cross contamination of food, equipment, utensils, linens, single-service, or single-use articles.' But the dishwasher sanitizer? Zero parts per million. 'Cases of mahi mahi, crab legs, and shrimp were stored on the floor inside the walk-in freezer.' The raw mahi mahi inside reduced oxygen packaging was thawing. That invites bacterial contamination. Stop Sale on the fish. The fish joined three dented cans of crushed tomatoes that got hit with Stop Sales. At the callback inspection, five kitchen flies kept Southport closed. Three was the magic inspection number. Tacos Al Carbon Bar & Grill, 2161 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., West Palm Beach Routine inspection, six total violations, four High Priority violations. This Tacos Al Carbon made the list in January and August, too, the first to do so three times inside of a year. This is like a restaurant version of hockey's natural hat trick. Customers should walk in and throw their hats. But be careful not to hit any of the rodents or the rodent dung. Actually, the rodents confined their regularity to the kitchen, where 15 pieces got left on a shelf over a prep table. Another five sat on the floor next to a prep table. Five got pooped in kitchen dry storage area and closets. Another three were under the dishwasher. An 'employee touched a visibly soiled wiping cloth while cleaning, then handled clean utensils, equipment and unwrapped single service takeout containers while preparing/packaging food for customers' all without washing hands. Another hint handwashing isn't a habit here — no soap or way to dry hands at the cookline handwash sink. Stop Sales for temperature abuse crashed down on too warm raw shrimp, raw chicken, raw beef and cooked potato fries. Tijuana Flats, 6201 S. Jog Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach Routine inspection, 11 total violations, four High Priority. Standing water described as a 'large puddle' in the walk-in cooler. A tray of taco shells came out of the fryer and storedon top of the trash can. Flies swarmed the beer spouts and nearby wall (17 of them) and the front counter to-go order shelves (14). Five flies landing on cleaned and sanitized dishes meant they would be cleaned and sanitized again. The manager killed flies as the inspector watched. The three-compartment sink sanitizer measured zero point zero. Stop Sales took out raw chicken and raw shrimp that measured, respectively, seven and eight degrees too warm.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Miami lawmaker proposes revoking Citizens coverage for non-compliant condos
A Miami lawmaker is proposing to end state-run property insurance for condo associations that shirk compliance with new building-safety laws passed after a 12-story residential tower in Surfside collapsed in 2021, a move that would largely impact South Florida. Most condominium buildings three stories and higher must have had a building-safety inspection and study outlining recommended budgets for future building maintenance by Dec. 31 of last year. But so far, most of the more than 11,270 condominium associations in Florida required to get the study for funding future repairs haven't followed through, the secretary for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation told House lawmakers in a panel discussion last week. There are no criminal penalties for non-compliance. Over the weekend, Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez, filed HB 913 — a 99-page bill refining the condominium laws that have been the subject of every legislative session since the Surfside tragedy. One of the provisions addresses the problem raised by the DBPR secretary last week. Lopez proposes to bar the state-run property insurer Citizens from providing coverage to condominiums that fail to comply with the new requirements. She didn't respond to a request for comment, but wrote on social media that the bill 'addresses the need for modernized, efficient, and inclusive condo management, prioritizing safety and financial sustainability for Florida's communities.' The bill also expands access to electronic voting and allows associations to take on loans or levy special assessments 'without the approval of the membership' to pay for the now-required building maintenance and repairs. READ MORE: Florida condo costs officially dropped from special session amid Republican showdown But one of Lopez's Miami-based colleagues, state Sen. Ileana Garcia, told the Herald/Times the proposal 'threatens to significantly displace thousands of condominium owners in Florida, all in an effort to pave the way for private companies to enter the market.' Garcia said Lopez is basically offering only a stick, and no carrot. 'The bill ties insurance coverage' to 'compliance, yet it fails to offer a feasible way for associations to fulfill these obligations,' Garcia said. 'As a result, many Floridians could lose their insurance, compelling associations to implement steep special assessments that will hit seniors, retirees, and low-income residents the hardest.' Garcia added: 'Citizens has long served as a safety net for residents.' Last week after the House panel met, the Miami Realtors posted a video of Lopez at their condo summit on Feb. 14 saying there would be 'no financial bailouts at all' related to the building-safety laws this legislative session after the governor and associations around the state have asked lawmakers to revisit the requirement that associations fully budget for future building repairs. 'We're not in the business of bailing people out who did not do the right thing from the get go,' Lopez said. One of last week's panel members said the idea was proposed after the House discussion as Lopez, the DBPR secretary and others were leaving the state Capitol. 'Someone simply suggested, well, they shouldn't get the benefits of Citizens if they're not complying with the law,' said Pete Dunbar, a Florida condominium law expert and lobbyist who spoke to the House last week. 'I believe that both the secretary and Rep. Lopez heard the comment made.' Should Lopez's provision make it into law, it would impact mostly South Florida. More than half of the 18,468 condominium buildings insured by Citizens are located in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, a Citizens spokesperson told the Herald/Times on Monday. There are 4,213 associations governing those condominium buildings. It's unclear how many of them have failed to comply with the law. During the discussion in the House last week, Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Melanie Griffin said the state has had a difficult time confirming that condominiums have completed the required studies to fund future building maintenance. Just more than a third — 4,096 — of the associations required to comply with that provision have actually done so. And while they are supposed to notify the department that their study is complete, they don't have to provide any additional information, making what the regulators can glean from the studies limited. Griffin said that 'of the information self-reported to us' the median cost to procure a study was $6,000. Herald/Times staff reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.
Miami Herald
25-02-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Miami lawmaker proposes revoking Citizens coverage for non-compliant condos
A Miami lawmaker is proposing to end state-run property insurance for condo associations that shirk compliance with new building-safety laws passed after a 12-story residential tower in Surfside collapsed in 2021, a move that would largely impact South Florida. Most condominium buildings three stories and higher must have had a building-safety inspection and study outlining recommended budgets for future building maintenance by Dec. 31 of last year. But so far, most of the more than 11,270 condominium associations in Florida required to get the study for funding future repairs haven't followed through, the secretary for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation told House lawmakers in a panel discussion last week. There are no criminal penalties for non-compliance. Over the weekend, Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez, filed HB 913 — a 99-page bill refining the condominium laws that have been the subject of every legislative session since the Surfside tragedy. One of the provisions addresses the problem raised by the DBPR secretary last week. Lopez proposes to bar the state-run property insurer Citizens from providing coverage to condominiums that fail to comply with the new requirements. She didn't respond to a request for comment, but wrote on social media that the bill 'addresses the need for modernized, efficient, and inclusive condo management, prioritizing safety and financial sustainability for Florida's communities.' The bill also expands access to electronic voting and allows associations to take on loans or levy special assessments 'without the approval of the membership' to pay for the now-required building maintenance and repairs. READ MORE: Florida condo costs officially dropped from special session amid Republican showdown But one of Lopez's Miami-based colleagues, state Sen. Ileana Garcia, told the Herald/Times the proposal 'threatens to significantly displace thousands of condominium owners in Florida, all in an effort to pave the way for private companies to enter the market.' Garcia said Lopez is basically offering only a stick, and no carrot. 'The bill ties insurance coverage' to 'compliance, yet it fails to offer a feasible way for associations to fulfill these obligations,' Garcia said. 'As a result, many Floridians could lose their insurance, compelling associations to implement steep special assessments that will hit seniors, retirees, and low-income and residents the hardest.' Garcia added: 'Citizens has long served as a safety net for residents.' Last week after the House panel met, the Miami Realtors posted a video of Lopez at their condo summit on Feb. 14 saying there would be 'no financial bailouts at all' related to the building-safety laws this legislative session after the governor and associations around the state have asked lawmakers to revisit the requirement that associations fully budget for future building repairs. 'We're not in the business of bailing people out who did not do the right thing from the get go,' Lopez said. One of last week's panel members said the idea was proposed after the House discussion as Lopez, the DBPR secretary and others were leaving the state Capitol. 'Someone simply suggested, well, they shouldn't get the benefits of Citizens if they're not complying with the law,' said Pete Dunbar, a Florida condominium law expert and lobbyist who spoke to the House last week. 'I believe that both the secretary and Rep. Lopez heard the comment made.' Should Lopez's provision make it into law, it would impact mostly South Florida. More than half of the 18,468 condominium buildings insured by Citizens are located in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, a Citizens spokesperson told the Herald/Times on Monday. There are 4,213 associations governing those condominium buildings. It's unclear how many of them have failed to comply with the law. During the discussion in the House last week, Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Melanie Griffin said the state has had a difficult time confirming that condominiums have completed the required studies to fund future building maintenance. Just more than a third — 4,096 — of the associations required to comply with that provision have actually done so. And while they are supposed to notify the department that their study is complete, they don't have to provide any additional information, making what the regulators can glean from the studies limited. Griffin said that 'of the information self-reported to us' the median cost to procure a study was $6,000. Herald/Times staff reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.
