At the direction of Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida Highway Patrol is assisting the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Department of Health (DOH) with checkpoints for motorists entering Florida on I-10 and I-95.
The checkpoints were set up in late March as part of an effort to get travelers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana to self-isolate upon arriving in Florida.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana were targeted because they were hotspots for the virus.
Motorists traveling from Alabama into Florida on Interstate 10 will no longer face being stopped for COVID-19 checks.
The Florida Department of Transportation announced Friday that a checkpoint east of the Florida-Alabama border is being deactivated as part of Gov. Ron DeSantis starting the second phase of a COVID-19 economic recovery plan.

​Baton Rouge, Louisiana — Steve Gleason, the New Orleans Saints legend whose off-the-field work for those stricken with ALS earned him the Congressional Gold Medal this year, may soon be honored with a Team Gleason specialty license plate.
Members of the House Transportation Committee unanimously approved a bill by Rep. Walt Leger to create the specialty plate.
Proceeds from the plate would benefit the Team Gleason Foundation, which funds research for assistive technology for those rendered immobile from neuromuscular diseases like Gleason himself.
Gleason will always be remembered for his blocked punt on the night the New Orleans Superdome reopened for the first time after Hurricane Katrina against arch rival Atlanta.

​Currently, Louisiana has 185 special license plates. ​The state has about four million registered cars and trucks. Louisiana license plates are produced at the state prison, and by a machine invented in the early 1900s at Angola, a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named "Angola" after the former slave plantation that occupied this territory. 

​Top 20 Plates (FY 2017/2018):

​1 World Champion Saints 1,047
2 Antique Vehicle 954
3 LSU @ Baton Rouge 872
4 Army Veteran 828
5 Environmental Education 757
6 Professional Firefighter 479
7 Marine Corp Veteran 398
8 White Tail Deer 364
9 Navy Veteran 355
10 Active Duty Army 290
11 Air Force Veteran 281
12 I'm Cajun 280
13 U of Louisiana @ Lafayette 274
14 Black Bear 218
15 300th Anniversary New Orleans 209
16 Protect the Wild Dolphins 183
17 Louisiana Tech 145
18 Retired Army 140
19 Choose Life 125
20 Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club 111

The newest specialty plate in Louisiana promotes Hunters for the Hungry.
Jimmy Anthony, a retired wildlife biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, is familiar with the specialty plate program.
"It is a walking advertisement for people who want to support certain programs,” Anthony said.
Some of the cost of each plate goes to each cause -- and the plates provide work for people behind bars. "They are made by Prison Enterprises, which is at Angola, where all license plates are made Louisiana,” Anthony said.  Angola is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named "Angola" after the former slave plantation that occupied this territory
The newly issued Hunters 4 the Hungry plate will be available in less than two months -- and if you order now you may be able to choose a number that is special to you.
And in conjunction with the focus on fighting hunger, September 23 is "clean out your freezer day”, a program in which hunters can donate venison to the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana. People can drop off donations at First United Methodist Church at the head of Texas Street in Shreveport that day.

​Michael Towner