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Wednesday's Afternoon Update
What You Need to Know About Florida Today
Technology Tops 2011 Resolutions for Small Biz
Charlie Raines has resolved to become more Web savvy in the New Year in order to haul in business overseas for his fledgling Florida-based seafood company. "I realize that being on the Internet is definitely the way to go," said Raines, 49, who began his career as a fisherman in 1986. He later ran a seafood business in Thailand before reestablishing in Tampa last year as Florida Fresh Stone Crab. "You have to follow the market wherever it is if you want to stay in business year-round." Raines's ecommerce site will go live in early January, well ahead of March's Boston Seafood Show, where he hopes to make a splash with potential customers. It will allow sourcing of fish from markets such as Canada and China after Florida season slows in April. Raines eventually wants to host seafood auctions online. Raise a glass to search engine optimization, Twitter, Facebook and the myriad other online tools that let small companies, like Florida Fresh Stone Crab, compete with bigger fish. Commitments for Internet-related improvements, simple to complex, are emerging as the focus of many owners setting New Year's resolutions for the coming year. [Source: Reuters]MUST-KNOW FLORIDIAN
Meet Dr. Barth A. Green, professor and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Within 20 hours of the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, his chartered airplane landed at the damaged Port-au-Prince airport. Within five minutes of his arrival, the neurosurgeon and his team of physicians were already treating some of the most critically wounded. |
Rules Freeze Might Cause Confusion
Can an off-road vehicle have two seats in Florida? Should pain clinics get safety reviews every year or every three years? And may produce stands avoid extra fees to get a permit for setting up shop in the Southwest Florida Water Management District?
For Florida businesses, answers to questions big and small (but mostly small) will likely be delayed under Gov. Rick Scott's order freezing new rules coming out of Tallahassee. The Executive Order No. 11-01 commands agencies under Scott's direction to ``immediately suspend all rulemaking'' until a new watchdog can screen the proposed regulations.
The dramatic decree -- the former CEO's first official order as governor -- echoes Scott's campaign pledge to make Florida a business-friendly state.
But the actual impact will be felt in the reams of regulatory minutia that agencies propose almost daily -- a stream of pending changes that Scott has declared frozen.
[Source: Miami Herald]
Attorney General Details Foreclosure Chaos
Sweeping evidence of the case the state attorney general's office has built in its pursuit of foreclosure justice for Florida homeowners is outlined in a 98-page presentation complete with copies of allegedly forged signatures, false notarizations, bogus witnesses and improper mortgage assignments.
The presentation, titled "Unfair, Deceptive and Unconscionable Acts in Foreclosure Cases," was given during an early December conference of the Florida Association of Court Clerks and Comptrollers by the attorney general's economic crimes division.
It is one of the first examples of what the state has compiled in its exploration of foreclosure malpractice, condemning banks, mortgage servicers and law firms for contributing to the crisis by cutting corners.
"What we got from this is the state has had the opportunity to see where the laws have been broken, and frankly, it is in large part thanks to the work of the defense attorneys," said Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock. "They've been bringing these defenses up in foreclosure cases for years now."
[Source: Palm Beach Post]
Sarasota's The HuB Moves into Larger Building
Formed in summer 2009, the loosely affiliated creative group has quickly expanded its list of clients for marketing, Internet design and video production.
"A year ago, there were only six of us," said Matt Orr, a former Realtor who co-founded The HuB.
Now there are 15, working mostly as freelancers but pooling their jobs -- a mix of film-making, marketing, advertising and web design.
The move to 1413 Boulevard of the Arts will roughly double their space to 4,400 square feet. The group will fill some of the space by bringing in a couple of sub-tenants.
All told, about two dozen people will be using the new site as their business home, Orr said.
The HuB, in addition to making money, enjoys taking up group missions aimed at making Sarasota a more interesting place to live for people under 40.
Starting last spring, the HuB became a primary instigator in pushing Google Inc. to consider Sarasota as a viable candidate for a planned experiment in ultra-high-speed broadband service. Inspired largely by the folks at the HuB, Sarasota's mayor jumped into a tank of sharks at Mote Marine to create one memorable promotional video. City Hall temporarily renamed City Island "Google Island."
[Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Downtown Miami to Get New Restaurants, Clubs
Downtown Miami could get a boost at revitalization this year.
Six new restaurants and night life operators are expected to occupy 20,000 square feet on the ground floor of Macy's west building, 2 W. Flagler St., in downtown Miami by June 1, said Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla II, managing partners of the Miami-based Barlington Group, which holds the master lease on the space.
Barlington Group is subleasing the space, which has been empty for five years, to the restaurants and night life operators. The partners declined to disclose the operators' names, but said each will have between 1,000 and 9,000 square feet of space.
[Source: Miami Herald]
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