SHARE:
Thursday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today.
› HCA hospital nurses win wage, staffing concessions in union agreement
Reinforcements and higher wages are on the way for nurses at 10 of the 15 Florida hospitals owned by Hospital Corporation of America.
The union representing roughly 3,100 nurses at the hospitals reached a contract agreement with Tennessee-based HCA earlier this month that will guarantee pay increases and bolster nursing ranks.
› April brought mixed results for South Florida hoteliers
Average hotel rates rose in April compared to the previous year throughout South Florida, but occupancy and revenue dropped in Broward.
Hotels were 74 percent full in Broward, down 2.8 percent from last April, according to a report released this week by Smith Travel Research. It’s the first time Broward hotel occupancy has dropped compared to the previous year since November of 2009.
› UF, other universities can seek $200M for faster Internet networks
An alliance of research universities that includes the University of Florida now has $200 million available for up to six projects bringing ultra high-speed Internet service to their communities.
A start-up company, Gigabit Squared, announced Wednesday that the money would be available for projects building broadband networks with speeds 100 to 1,000 times faster than available now in the United States.
› Miami's downtown authority funds UM business incubator
Weary of seeing young entrepreneurs get educations here and then accept jobs elsewhere, Miami's Downtown Development Authority will partner with the University of Miami's Launch Pad to create a business incubator in the Terremark Network Access Point of the Americas on Northeast Ninth Street.
