HUD’s Role in Hurricane Relief
It’s been nearly a week since Hurricane Milton tore through Central Florida and residents are still assessing the damage and preparing property claims. Its still too early to put a dollar amount on the impact – but the loss of twenty-two people has been far more costly.
While FEMA has become the ubiquitous face of the federal government in communities that have experienced natural disasters, other federal agencies are working in the background to provide support for people in distress.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is one of those agencies. HUD is typically associated to facilitating and subsidizing housing in urban markets, it also fills the funding gaps after FEMA and the Small Business Administration’s primary response. Engage speaks with HUD’s Acting Secretary, Adrianne Todman, about her agency’s role following natural disasters.
High School NIL
Last month, the students of Edgewater High School in Orlando were told members of the school’s football team – both current and alumni – would be included in Electronic Arts’ marquee football games – Madden NFL '25 and College Football '25. Players could download the Edgewater team and play them against teams like the Kansas City Chiefs or the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Yesterday was the last day the download was available.
This wouldn’t have been possible without a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for amateur athletes – including high school and college athletes – to receive compensation for the use of their names, images and likeness – their “NIL.”
In August, the Florida High School Athletic Association approved NIL compensation for high school athletes – effectively allowing them to get paid by sponsors.
So what kind of exposure does this open a high school student to? To answer this question, Cheryn Stone spoke with Adrien Bouchet, the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation Endowed Chair and Director of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF.
Shell Shock II Cancellations
The Shell Shock II rock festival is organized by Tyler Hoover – an Orlando-based podcaster and concert promoter. It’s scheduled to take place on Saturday in the Lake Fairview section of Orlando . . . and it was initially billed as a charity event benefiting veterans with PTSD and was to include several regional metal and punk bands, including Jacksonville’s Evergreen Terrace and Southpaw FLHC and West Palm Beach’s Let Me Bleed.
Another guest is on the bill for Shell Shock II – Kyle Rittenhouse – who, in 2020, at the age of 17, drove from his home in Antioch, Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin – the site of a protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake. There, Rittenhouse used his AR-15 style rifle to kill tow protesters and wound a third. During his homicide trial, he claimed self-defense and was acquitted. Since his 2021 acquittal, Rittenhouse has become a cause-celebre in right-wing circles – meeting with conservative figureheads like Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson and appearing at events sponsored by Turning Point USA.
It was Rittenhouse’s inclusion as a VIP guest at Shell Shock Two that caused those three bands as well as a fourth – American Hollow – to drop out of the event. They were replaced by a Slipknot cover band. Engage speaks with one of the bands that pulled out and the concert’s organizer about the dangers of mixing music with politics. Engage talks with both Eddie Cotter, lead singer of Let Me Bleed, and Tyler Hoover - the event's organizer.
Navigating the Dark Side of the Moon
America is looking to return to the moon – it’s been more than fifty years since the last Apollo mission and the Artemis program has set a goal of putting people back on the lunar surface by 2026. The mission is focused on the moon’s south pole, where there is believed to be a presence of ice. Because this is an relatively unexplored region, NASA has initiated a challenge to professional and citizen scientists – devise a navigation and mapping system to help astronauts orient their way to and from a lunar lander without getting lost.
This may seem like a simple concept in 2024, but remember – this is the moon: no GPS, no compasses, no Google Maps or Wayze.
The prospect of getting lost on the lunar surface is terrifying so we asked Dr. Addie Dove, a planetary scientist and associate professor in the Department of Physics at UCF to set us at ease.
