A Senate committee Tuesday will consider a proposal (SPB 7022) that calls for the state to take steps aimed at hiring more people with disabilities.
The bill, which will be considered by the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee, would include people with disabilities in part of state law that seeks to assure equal-employment opportunities for women and minorities.
In part, the bill also would require the state Department of Management Services to develop programs such as internships and on-the-job training geared toward people with disabilities.
Also, it would require training for state human-resources officials and managers who do hiring and would require agencies to develop plans about promoting employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
The bill comes as Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, has made clear he will focus on disability-related issues. Gardiner's son has Down syndrome.
Court Blocks Release of Bus Surveillance Videos
Rejecting arguments by an Orlando television station, an appeals court ruled Friday that security-camera footage from public buses is not subject to Florida's open-records law.
A three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal overturned a circuit judge's decision that would have given WKMG-TV access to surveillance videos from buses in Central Florida's LYNX transportation system.
The appeals court found that such videos fall under an exemption in the public-records law that blocks the release of information about security systems.
"We agree with LYNX that the video footage captured by the bus camera directly relates to and reveals information about a security system,'' said the ruling, written by Judge F. Rand Wallis and joined by judges Thomas Sawaya and Jay Cohen. "The videos, which are records, reveal the capabilities -- and as a corollary, the vulnerabilities -- of the current system."