LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK

VOLUNTEERISM, Jeff Hayward, president and CEO, Heart of Florida United Way:

With the new year, I encourage you to start 2023 off right by getting involved in our community. Volunteering is a great way to do this and Heart of Florida United Way is seeking more than 300 volunteers to join us for Week of Action, which runs from Jan. 15-21. This annual volunteer event is in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and it is a great chance to get involved and personally make a difference. There is something for everyone, including individuals and professional groups with some great opportunities to volunteer as a family! Visit HFUW.org for more information.

PATENT POWER, Alex Martins, chair, UCF Board of Trustees; CEO, Orlando Magic:

Researchers from the Florida High Tech Corridor’s three universities enter the new year driving discoveries and inventions for the people of Florida. In the latest National Academy of Inventors report, the universities of Central Florida, Florida and South Florida’s combined annual patent total (272) would rank No. 3 in the world, behind only the University of California system and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Patents are critical to bringing to the marketplace new technologies in engineering, science, medicine and other fields that make our society safer and healthier and advance our quality of life.

LABOR CHALLENGES CONTINUE,

Pamela Nabors, president/CEO, CareerSource Central Florida: A recently released national labor report indicated that U.S. worker challenges will continue well into 2023. Many Americans appear to be more interested in creating a life that doesn’t involve traditional work — nearly 3.5 million workers are missing from the workforce. Companies are continuing to see the effects of the “great resignation” and “quiet quitting,” both of which make a rebound to pre-pandemic labor participation rates unlikely. Despite current record-high inflation, consumer spending is still rising and employers are searching for workers to meet continued demand.

MILLS 50 UPGRADE,

Brendan O’Connor, editor in chief, Bungalower.com: St. Matthew’s Tavern in Mills 50 was just purchased by Team Market Group, the company behind fancy watering holes like The Robinson Room, Mather’s, and The Wellborn, and the local scenesters are pretty upset about it. Dive bars along 17-92 seem to be a thing of the past as operators with more resources snatch them up for something newer and flashier, with operating restrooms and light switches, and less drug-dealing bartenders and late-night street brawls. It’s a big change for Mills 50, and one that heralds a future for the neighborhood with a little less grime and a little more expensive cocktail offerings. With the same lack of parking.

HUMAN COMPOST, Jim Philips, retired longtime radio talk-show host: Could Florida soon join other states that have embraced the “natural burial movement”? That’s right! Instead of cremation or being placed in the ground, your body can be turned into soil after it’s “curtains,” so to speak. Why not? We’re running out of cemetery space and cremation releases heat trapping gases. Here’s how it works. After you give up the ghost, your body is placed in something like a big cement mixer along with loads of organic material like alfalfa or palm fronds. Round and round it goes for several weeks as microbes do their thing. Before you know it ... voila! ... you’re ready for anything. Maybe you can be mixed with fertilizer for the garden. That would be some tasty lettuce indeed. Alkaline hydrolysis is relatively inexpensive compared to the King Tut method or something like coal-fired pizza. Please mix me with legal weed and bake some brownies ... it’s high on my list.

ACADEMIC FREEDOM UNDER ATTACK,

Gloria Pickar, president emerita, League of Women Voters of Orange County: After George Floyd’s murder, we embraced diversity, equity and inclusion education. Now, under cover of the anti-woke law, Gov. DeSantis has directed our colleges and universities to develop a list by Friday of DEI and critical race theory programs, including assigned funding. The law has been challenged as a violation of the First Amendment. This threatens academic freedom, free speech and university funding. While DeSantis promotes Florida as the “free state,” our constitutional rights are steadily eroded. Learn more about the “State of Democracy in Florida” at the League’s Hot Topics Luncheon Wednesday: LWVOC.org/HotTopics. Free state? Hardly!

THE ACCIDENTAL POPE,

Larry Pino, attorney and entrepreneur: When Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was elected to succeed the popular Pope John Paul II, the world anticipated a less ebullient but more formidable theological behemoth able to right the challenges Roman Catholicism had encountered. The pope, however, who never wanted the role, fell to its crosscurrents in the face of entrenched Vatican bureaucracy, a persistent hierarchical reluctance to deal with sexual abuse in the clergy and the ongoing secularization of daily life. While his resignation in 2013 deprived the world of an intellectual powerhouse who could have been a formidable agent of change, it should be noted that the pope never stopped reminding us that God must remain relevant.

IMPACT FEES, Nicole Wilson, Orange County commissioner, District 1:

In the coming week, the Orange County Board of Commissioners will discuss new impact fee schedules for services provided by law enforcement, fire rescue, and parks. The impacts of new development are supposed to be offset by impact fees so that existing residents aren’t burdened with the cost of expanded services. Our residents rely on services paid for by each new dwelling through impact fees. They are a crucial tool for ensuring our residents maintain a high quality of life and must be updated to provide adequate funding for these critical services.