5A – Identifying Local Opportunities


1. Grandmother trampled, hurt by crowd at Boynton cinema

  • http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/1697CB91BB795B68?p=WORLDNEWS
  • Description: Around 300 teenagers had gathered at the Boynton cinema loitering because they heard there was to be a fight on Instagram. The teens were going to see a movie at 10:30, but were standing around the theater at 9. The grandmother, Sheryl Cohen, was leaving the theater after 9 and as she was walking out, someone in the theater yelled "gun." She kept walking towards the exit, but a crowd of teenagers began running towards her and ended up trampling her, breaking several of her bones, bruising her face, and making her lose a $3,000 hearing aid. There ended up being no gun or gunshots at the theater that night and 11 juveniles were arrested.
  • Problem: The problem in this story is that an innocent person was trampled because of a false pretense and ended up with huge consequences. The grandmother suffered broken bones, a bruised face, and lost her expensive hearing aid. 
  • Who: The grandmother is the one with the problem, as now she must get surgery for her broken bones, get a new hearing aid, and must suffer weeks of pain from her injuries.
2. Fire rescue in chaos over chief
  • http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/1697CB91D5E2EBA8?p=WORLDNEWS
  • Description: Chief Jeffrey Collins of the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue nulled his previous decision to resign as Chief, which has caused much controversy all over the state because there is a series of lawsuits and allegations against him. In the workplace, he has been accused of sexual harassment, which he denies is true. This is an issue because someone else was already named to be the Chief, and now he decided to cancel his resignation and continue as chief. Due to the lawsuits of sexual harassment, many people are conflicted over this issue and if he should be allowed to do this. 
  • Problem: The problem is that the Chief has done bad things and having a series of lawsuits against you is not good for a firefighter chief. Additionally, he already resigned and someone else was put in his place, and now he is taking his job back without asking for permission or apologizing to the community. 
  • Who: The people of Palm Beach County, the firefighters, and the girls the Chief sexually assaulted suffer from this. Having a corrupt Chief does not look good for a society or politically. The girls will have to deal with the struggle that the Chief is not suffering any consequences from his behavior. The firefighters have to continue working under a corrupt man. 
3. Gulfstream hotel partners continue battling in court
  • http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/1697CB91B88325D8?p=WORLDNEWS
  • Description: Two business partners who were building the Gulfstream Hotel in Lake Worth, FL have been arguing in court because one partner, Hudson Holdings is trying to buy the other party's interests in the partnership. The other partner owns 51% of the project while Hudson owns 41%. The other partner agreed to sell their share of the project, but hasn't gone through with it yet. Both partners say that the other person has not been doing what they promise and both are trying to protect themselves, so they want the court to make sure that each person follows through with their obligations of their agreement.
  • Problem: The problem is that there is a disagreement between two business partners, which can be detrimental to the building of a brand new hotel and affect the business down the road. Also, it is a problem that the other partner will not give up their share of the hotel to Hudson.
  • Who: Hudson is affect by this because he is not able to continue working on his hotel without being held back by his partner or owns the majority of the project as of now. Also, he has to deal with having someone who is not putting their best effort into the hotel and has to deal with making up contractual agreements.
4. Judge rejects school board request on charter money payment 
  • http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/16967ABD6A2B1AE0?p=WORLDNEWS
  • Description: The Palm Beach County School Board has been trying to block a new state law requiring them to give more money to charter schools. A judge denied their request and now they must pay Charter Schools in Palm Beach County $9 million dollars by the beginning of February. Further, with this new law, the public school system will see a loss of $230 million dollars over the next 10 years if it remains in place. The school board feels as though they need this money in order to finish construction on schools in a timely manner and provide services to students. However, the charter schools feel as though they deserve a portion of their money because they feel they are a public school that deserves money for their students just as any school would. This problem will be looked into as the board is going to find out if this new law is unconstitutional within the next few months. Till then, the school board has to pay charter schools the $9 million. 
  • Problem: The Palm Beach County School Board is losing out on millions of dollars that could be used to better their facilities for students' learning. Also, this new law could be unconstitutional, which would not make it right.
  • Who: The school board, the students who go to their schools, and people who pay taxes are affected because it is their money that is being lost to charter schools. Charter schools and their students are affected positively because they are getting more money to be used in their favor.
5. Bike man's trailer stolen
  • http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/16967ABD4C97D0E0?p=WORLDNEWS
  • Description: Jack the Bike Man Inc. is a non-for-profit organization that gives out bicycles and helmets to children and others in need in West Palm Beach. He uses a trailer to deliver the bicycles from his warehouse. Recently, his volunteer workers found that the trailer had been stolen, as it wasn't chained in the back where it usually is. The police are investigating the incident, but until then, their trailer is missing.
  • Problem: This is a problem for  Jack the Bike Man Inc and its workers because they cannot give out their bikes as normally promised. Additionally, this is a problem for the children and those in need, who look forward to receiving a bicycle. 
  • Who: Jack the Bike Man Inc. is affected because they lost their trailer and need it to do their work. The owner is affected because he bought this and is now losing money and may have to buy a new trailer. The children and those in need are affected because now they may not receive any more bicycles.

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 27, 2018 at 2:33 PM

    I enjoy reading the articles you found. It is interesting to see how many companies and people are facing opportunities and try to provide solutions. Sometimes things do not go how expected and this can lead to have to do with big problem, such as the case of the Palm Beach Country School Board. I think it is nice to spend some time reading these articles and become aware of what is happening in the world at a local level. It is thought-provoking to realize the amount of problems that people have to face in the every day life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arielle SusterJanuary 27, 2018 at 6:34 PM

    Your first story really grabbed my attention. Just this past winter vacation, there was a false alarm at the Aventura Mall, the largest mall in Florida. A similar incident happened where several people claimed to have heard gun shots resulting in the evacuation of the whole mall. After police investigated they found no evidence of a shooting. Disturbing people are taking advantage of the fear instilled in civilians from all the recent violent news.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lauren AbeloveJanuary 28, 2018 at 4:13 PM

    You picked out some really interesting articles. Your fourth articles hits home for me because I was raised in palm beach county and was educated in that school district. I agree with the school board on this matter and further more it cost students money to attend charter school unlike public school, so the money should really be going more towards the public counterparts. Sometimes it is so easy to forget about the chaos going on in the world when you don't read the news too often.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amanda HollowayJanuary 28, 2018 at 10:39 PM

    You picked out articles that had some very large problems aka opportunities. The one that probably stood out the most to me was the fact that a man had his bike trailer stolen. To me this is a huge problem because the trailer was not for personal use. The man was using it to help those in need so when it was stolen, it affected so many more people than just one!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

1) This person is an Apple technician. He's worked at Apple for 2 years and has answered questions and sold apple products and dealt with fixing apple products. 2) I would say this man is a domain expert in that he knows a lot of information about Apple's policies and making appointments and phones but not too much about the technology itself. He is an expert in providing customer service. 3) I recently had to get my apple watch replaced because it had a cracked screen. So when I did this and took it to the store, I was able to talk to an Apple worker. 4) The person took my watch and packed it in a box to be sent to an Apple factory for them to replace it with a new one.  5) If I included him in my network, I would be able to find out more about the current problems a lot of consumers deal with when they go to Apple and he could tell me how I could provide a better service than what already exists. 1) This person works at an phone repair shop in Gainesville.  2) ...
Read more

12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Choose a Segment: My segment is college students. I am choosing this population because I have easy access to college students being on a large college campus in a college-town. Additionally, this segment is a group of people who deal with the problem I am offering to fix and are very prone to damaging their phones or needing a repair. This population would definitely make use of my service. My interviewees are a male sophomore business major from  South Florida, a female freshman engineer major from Tampa, and a male junior business student from South Florida. Interviews: In my interviews, my participants strongly agreed that there was a need for an easy way to repair our phones. They were all heavy users of there phones. The girl I interviewed is involved in many organizations on campus and needs her phone every minute of the day to respond to notifications and know about meetings, etc. Also, just to get around using the bus systems and Uber, my participants said they relied...
Read more