Back in July, the State Board of Education voted in favor of requiring every Florida public school to provide at least five hours of mental health instruction to all students in grades 6-12, making the Sunshine State the third state in the country to implement these new rules.

Even then, Rep. Anna Eskamani started asking the tough questions: who’s going to fund this?

A month later, we’ve learned that we still have no idea. Sorta.

According to Orlando Weekly, school board member Angie Gallo confirmed it was an unfunded mandate at the Orange County legislative delegation.

“When it’s unfunded it becomes a burden to the school district to uphold that responsibility,” Eskamani explained.

So what’s next? That’s a good question and one we’ll continue to report out as information is made available to us.

But while on the topic of mental health in schools, Calm, an app to help manage stress, is offering free subscriptions to teachers (kindergarten through 12th grade) so they can “teach stress-reducing techniques” to children in the classroom.

If you’re a teacher or know a teacher who could use them, send ’em here for a free gift certificate.

In other news … 

Florida was just ranked as one of the least friendly states in America by travel website, Big 7 Travel. We came in hot (literally) at 42. But hey, it’s not all bad. According to the post, “Florida has its work cut out for it. Cities such as Orlando and its tourist-friendly initiatives are helping the state big time, but overall its reputation has some catching up to do.” (Fox 51)

There are now 2,266 reported cases of Hepatitis A in Florida, that’s 700 more since June for those of you who are counting. Earlier this month, Florida Surgeon General Scott A. Rivkees issued a public health emergency in response to the Hepatitis A outbreak.  (Orlando Weekly)

LeakyCon, a conference for you Potterheads, is coming back to Orlando in 2020 in celebration of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s birthdays. Early bird tickets go on sale Friday. (LeakyCon)

Autonomous vehicle maker, Waymo, will test its self-driving cars in heavy rains throughout Florida this week though there will still be a human at the wheel. 🤔 (Orlando Sentinel)

Newsflash: our library is cool. The Downtown Library is hosting another Library After Hours event and this time they’ve invited “Making a Murderer” attorney Jerome F. Buting as their featured speaker. (Orlando Weekly)

August is National Black Business Month and while we think it’s important to support black-owned businesses year-round, we also wanted to give a shoutout to some of our favorites — and your favorites too.

So we asked you on Facebook and Instagram to share your picks, and you did not disappoint.

We were happy to see many folks that we had featured previously, you loved too!

• Foodies Cafe
• Wells’Built Museum
• New Image Youth Center
• Nikki’s Place
• DaJen Eats
• Naked Bar Soap Co.
• Something Fishy
• Sister Honey’s
• Black Bee Honey

And you all really loved these guys, they got more than a few plugs:

• Miscellaneous Market (shoutout to your superfan Karla Ray!)
• Beth Autumn Art (met this cutie at East End Market’s Evening Exchange, her work is 😍)
• Eat Project Pop (Major is a driving force for Orlando; must try her popcorn!)
• Studio 17 (Phuego is a true creator and host of a few podcasts and shows in town)
• Marcia’s Workshop (Marcia is a photographer, curator, and all-around badass)

There were easily a dozen more peeps, but in trying to keep this newsletter short and sweet, we’re stopping the list here only to tell you to head to our website to read the rest!

‘Til tomorrow, Orlando.

— Pulptown