Latest news with #Leek
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
New penalties for using tracking devices like AirTags to commit crimes set to take effect
New penalties for criminals that use tracking devices like AirTags to help them commit crimes will soon hit the books in Florida. An AirTag is just $25 and is small enough to be dropped into a purse or tossed into a vehicle without someone's knowledge. Back in 2022, Action News Jax spoke with Jessica Egger, the mother of a University of North Florida student who was alerted a tracker had been detected on her car. 'It was petrifying. Think as the days go on, and we don't really have any clear answers, it's even scarier,' Egger said at the time. Last year, lawmakers made it a third-degree felony to track another person with devices like AirTags without their consent. Now, starting July 1, criminals who use the trackers to help commit dangerous crimes will face even an harsher punishment. 'Before you had this technology, you think about the effort that had to take place to stalk someone. Now, you can buy one of these things on the internet and have it sent to you and drop it in somebody's purse or drop it in their car in a matter of seconds,' State Sen. Tom Leek (R-St. Augustine) said. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] Leek sponsored the legislation, which was just signed by the Governor. Under the new law, use of an AirTag or similar device to commit 26 various crimes like stalking, domestic violence, and human trafficking will carry the weight of a second-degree felony, which can land a person 15 years in prison. 'We're trying to catch it. We're trying to stay in front of it. And I think it'll do a lot of good for a lot of people, just simply because the technology is so readily available. It's so easy to misuse it,' Leek said. 'This is going to be the right bill for the time.' [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Leek noted most phones will automatically alert you if a Bluetooth tracking device like an AirTag is detected moving with you. He said if you don't recognize the device, it's important to call police and locate the device. Leek added it's also important to hold onto the device, so it can be handed over to police to help them identify who the device belongs to. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
BBC News
23-05-2025
- BBC News
Pedestrian dies in crash involving car in Leek
A man in has died in a crash involving a car and a pedestrian in were called at about 17:45 BST on Thursday to the junction of Selbourne Road and Cheddleton Road in Leek.A spokesperson for the ambulance service said bystanders performed CPR and a defibrillator was used, as the pedestrian was in cardiac receiving advanced life support, he was confirmed dead at the scene, they said. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Coalition wants DeSantis to veto bill expanding scope of noncompete agreements
(Via New York State Bar Association) While several states have imposed bans on noncompete agreements, the Florida Legislature went the opposite way during its recent session and made it easier for employers to impose these agreements on workers. That's prompted a coalition of organizations and law professors to ask Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto the measure (HB 1219) — known as the CHOICE Act — when it reaches his desk. The name stands for Contracts Honoring Opportunity, Investment, Confidentiality, and Economic Growth. The bill would allow an employer to restrict an employee from taking competitive employment for up to four years, through either a 'garden-leave' provision or a noncompete agreement. Any company with employees who are 'reasonably expected' to earn more than twice the annual mean wage of the county in which the business is located can subject workers to noncompete agreements. It would also apply to independent contractors and out-of-state employees. The proposal is strongly opposed by the Economic Innovation Group, which along with more than a dozen law professors sent a letter to the governor last week, calling upon him to veto it. 'The CHOICE Act would codify one of the most anti-innovative, anti-startup, and anti-worker policies to be found anywhere in the country,' said John Lettieri, president and CEO of the organization, in a written statement. 'While dozens of other states are enacting limitations on the use of noncompete agreements, this legislation would take Florida in the opposite direction – locking in talent, stifling wage growth, and undermining efforts to build a cutting-edge ecosystem in the Sunshine State.' Under the bill, if a company uses a properly drafted noncompete or garden-leave agreement, Florida courts would have to issue preliminary injunctions to stop a former employee from working for a competitor unless the employee can convince the court otherwise. Employers and employees would need to provide advance notice of up to, but no more than, four years before terminating the employment or contractor relationship. During a committee stop in the Senate, Jacksonville Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis noted that most noncompete agreements last between one and two years. She asked Northeast Florida GOP Sen. Tom Leek (the bill sponsor) why the state should bind workers for four years. Leek referenced moves made by the Federal Trade Commission last year to adopt a comprehensive ban on new noncompetes with all workers, including senior executives. A federal judge in Texas overturned the ban in August. 'Florida is poised to become one of the finance capitals of the world,' Leek said at the time. 'And if we want to attract those kinds of clean, high-paying jobs, you have to provide those businesses protection on the investment that they're making and their employees.' A noncompete lasting for four years would be the longest of any state in the country, according to the Economic Innovation Group. 'There is an abundance of economic research demonstrating that the strict enforcement of noncompete agreements sharply reduces employee wages, the quality and quantity of new patents, and jobs created by new businesses,' the coalition writes in the letter to DeSantis. 'The CHOICE Act would accelerate these economically harmful trends by enacting the following changes to state noncompete law for exactly the type of workers Florida aims to attract to grow its middle class.' While that alliance is urging the governor to veto the bill, some well-heeled supporters of DeSantis support it. Among those are Citadel, the Miami hedge fund and financial services company, according to Bloomberg. Citadel is led by Ken Griffin, a well-known GOP megadonor and financial backer to DeSantis who gave $12 million last year to Keep Florida Clean, the political committee formed to oppose the failed constitutional amendment aimed to legalize recreational cannabis for adults 21 and over. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
BBC News
09-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Leek Library to temporarily move during £4m revamp
A town's library will be moved temporarily while the building its based in is refurbished this Library in Leek, Staffordshire, will relocate to Moorlands House from its current base in the Grade II-listed Nicholson was scheduled to move towards the end of May, but the relocation was delayed after revisions were made to the programme of works on the Nicholson Institute's £4m Mann, of Staffordshire County Council, said the authority was "delighted" to be refurbishing the library, one of 43 it currently runs. An exact date for the library's relocation has not been confirmed but the council said it would be "later this summer".The refurbishment has been funded through a £17.1m government grant, awarded in 2023, for town centre improvements. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
13-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Workington AFC investigates alleged racist abuse
A football club in Cumbria has said it is investigating allegations of racist abuse at an away AFC released a statement following its 1-0 away defeat to Leek in the Northern Premier League Premier Division club said it had received the names of two people in connection with the incident and it was "strongly encouraging" those individuals to come added: "We will be working closely as a club to ensure appropriate action is taken." The statement added: "Let us be absolutely clear, there is no place for racism in football, at our club, or in our community."The club was treating the matter with the "utmost seriousness" and was "committed to identifying those responsible", a spokesman added. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
