Tuesday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 2/5/2013

Companies consider healthcare cost strategies

Florida businesses are busy hiring advisers, hearing from experts and crunching numbers to analyze the looming costs of health insurance reform. Businesses with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees will have to provide health insurance coverage in 2014. Those that don't comply will have to pay a $2,000 fine per employee. More at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Citrus industry: We're "fighting for our lives"

Growing citrus in your backyard used to be one of the pleasures of living in Florida, but first citrus canker and now citrus greening are turning it into a difficult proposition. The stakes are even higher for the Sunshine State's $9 billion citrus industry, a major economic engine. More at the South Florida Business Journal.

Progress Energy will retire its nuclear plant

Business Profile

The Garage

Pranam Ben's The Garage immediately reminds visitors of a home workshop.

The exposed brick, writing on the walls and windows, and gray vinyl floors of the downtown Orlando office evoke the feel of a garage where people brainstorm ideas.

» More from the Orlando Sentinel.

» The Garage official site

Progress Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, announced this morning that it will retire its nuclear plant near Crystal River, which has been shut down since late 2009 for upgrades and then extensive cracking in the unit's protective concrete shielding. More at the Orlando Sentinel

and the Tampa Bay Times.

Washington Nationals want $36.6M to move to Fort Myers

The Nationals have been training in Viera since the Montreal Expos left Canada and moved to Washington and changed their name in 2005. The team has a lease with Brevard County to use the Space Coast Stadium complex for spring training until 2017. However, they can leave after this year without having to pay a significant financial penalty. More at Florida Today.

Non-profit offers hope for abandoned homes

Neighborhood Champions researches the ownership and mortgage trail of the abandoned homes, attempts to obtain the deed, pay back taxes and liens, and get the lender to extinguish the mortgage. After fixing up the homes, Neighborhood Champions plans to sell, rent or donate them. More at the Palm Beach Post.

Out of the Box
Art Heist

It's not exactly a Hollywood heist pulled by a master art thief, but Orlando City Hall nonetheless has a mystery on its hands. Years after banishing a $175,000 sculpture to a forgotten corner of a city storage lot, officials conducting a routine inventory made a shocking discovery: A human-shaped metal figure that was part of the massive public-art sculpture was gone, cut off at the ankles. Was it a crafty art thief who knew its history and value? Probably not. City officials think the aluminum figure was chopped up and sold as scrap for a tiny fraction of its true value.