Meg's Light Bulb Ideas: Identifying Local Opportunities

http://www.gainesville.com/news/20180126/democrats-immigration-check-of-south-florida-bus-was-arbitrary

Border Patrol Officers boarded a Greyhound bus and removed a woman. The bus was heading to Miami from Fort Lauderdale. There is a 100-mile zone along the U.S. coast and border where routine checks are allowed. People in this zone in Florida can be interrogated and searched because of this. This is a violation of privacy and can affect one's life. If someone is found suspicious, being arrested or interrogated can impact what was going on in their life at that moment. It takes unnecessary time out of traveling and causes unnecessary stress.

http://www.gainesville.com/news/20180125/judge-weighs-ban-on-smoking-medical-marijuana

A law was passed that bans smoking medical marijuana. Legislature believes they are addressing safety and health concerns. While people who do not agree with the ban, believe it is going against the constitution. This affects patients who qualify for medical marijuana and are not able to use it in other ways in the state of Florida.

http://www.gainesville.com/news/20180123/wetlands-ordinance-passes-despite-some-opposition

An ordinance was passed that will protect more wetlands in Alachua county. This ordinance will also improve water quality, cleaning up contamination. The passing of this ordinance affects a proposed economic development project that was going to be constructed on wetlands in Hawthorne. This economic development was going to provide about 4,000 jobs. The cities in the county are going to have to find ways to work around this ordinance.

There has been an usually high outbreak in the flu this year. Shands is restricting visitors to patients with the flu. They are recommending the flu shot for people who even have already had the flu this year. This outbreak is putting stress on hospitals, stores that sell medicine, and people who are getting the flu. With so many people getting sick, it is hard to take off work. People having to be out while sick, further spreads the sickness. Stores are running out of medicine and hospitals and clinics are swamped with patients.

A bill might be passed allowing free speech anywhere outside on campuses. Currently UF has free speech zones, but if this bill is passed, free speech would be permitted in all outdoor areas. This would affect people who dislike hearing people yell and preach ideas that they disagree with. Today, people can avoid the free speech areas on campus. If the bill is passed students and faculty will not be able to avoid someone practicing free speech.

Mitch ThiemannJanuary 27, 2018 at 1:14 PM
Megan,

I think problem number four has the most potential for success. You described a snowball effect of people getting sick. In my mind, this snowball effect means there are more and more people that need their problem solved. For example, if one was to create a vaccine or a small hospital to help these people with the flu, you may capitalize on a huge market. On the other hand, some of your other problems seems like it would be tough to create a market because these problems are being created by laws that will be hard to change or create solutions for. For example, the medical marijuana ban causes complications for fixing this problem because you would have to work around strict laws.
Mitch ThiemannJanuary 27, 2018 at 1:14 PM
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UnknownJanuary 28, 2018 at 2:35 PM
Hey Megan,
I think that the fiver stories that you picked out definitely embodied what the assignment was about. I really liked the fact that you decided to use "The Alligator" as your local newspaper source. The story that I found to be most interesting/ could have the biggest impact would be #3 or #4, mostly because they are already being identified as problems and can have a greater rate of return when solving the issue. Overall, I think you did a great job on the assignment and I enjoyed it!

Meg's Light Bulb Ideas