Valerie Crowder
Valerie Crowder is a freelance reporter based in Panama City, Florida. Before moving to Florida, she covered politics and education for Public Radio East in New Bern, North Carolina. While at PRE, she was also a fill-in host during All Things Considered. She got her start in public radio at WAER-FM in Syracuse, New York, where she was a part-time reporter, assistant producer and host. She has a B.A. in newspaper online journalism and political science from Syracuse University. When she’s not reporting the news, she enjoys reading classic fiction and thrillers, hiking with members of the Florida Trail Association and doing yoga.
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The law ends the practice of confining students with disabilities to a room by themselves. Another bill signed Monday allows for higher payments to parents of infants born with a brain injury. -
Panama City Beach is limiting the number of people who may gather together on the sand during spring break. It's the only pandemic-related restriction in place at the start of the busy month for tourism. -
Florida’s Hispanic residents are more likely than whites to die from COVID, yet early vaccination data show they’re getting the shot at lower rates. Public misinformation contributes to the disparity. -
The Panama City area's coronavirus case incidence rate is the sixth highest in the nation, according to The New York Times' COVID-19 data tracker. -
A White House Coronavirus Task Force report states Florida is in full coronavirus resurgence, “which will drive significant fatalities for many weeks and stress the staffing of the hospital system.” -
County health departments are largely taking on administering the vaccine to community members older than 65, while hospitals have been prioritizing medical staff. -
As statewide coronavirus cases rise, residents wanting to assess the risk of holiday get-togethers can get help through an interactive map from Georgia Tech. -
Gov. DeSantis visited the Panhandle ahead of the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Michael to announce that a rural hospital and an early learning center would get $15 million in state long-term recovery funds. -
K-12 schools across the state began sending people home to self-isolate within days of classes starting. Some districts are releasing the names of schools where close contact with a confirmed positive case has occurred, while others are not disclosing this information. -
Several teachers at an elementary school in Bay County have taken it upon themselves to make sure a colleague, who's been diagnosed with cancer, can isolate in her classroom and still provide instruction.
