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Monday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
› Auctions survive high tech, low economy
As Titusville auctioneer Cliff Shuler spanned the crowd of hundreds milling through the long aisles of merchandise he was selling at his auction last Sunday, he put on hold his 36 years of auctioning experience and then pondered. “It’s just crazy here, isn’t it?” Shuler said of Cliff Shuler Auctioners and Liquidators. “And these people are hard core.” “Crazy” might also be a way Shuler could describe how well his auction business is doing.
› Analysts: Worst is over for Darden?
Have things gotten as bad as they're going to get for Darden Restaurants? After two quarters of falling profit, the Orlando-based company's performance should improve slowly as the casual-dining industry recovers from a bleak winter, some analysts say.
› Blackstone, other investors snap up thousands of Tampa Bay rental homes
Bad credit, ravaged savings and evolving attitudes are driving more Americans to rent houses, and big-money investors are waging war to win their business. Few are mightier than the Blackstone Group, which dropped $150 million to buy 1,000 Tampa Bay homes — in just the last six months.
› CEO’s focus on business loans helps Gulfstream weather storms
As its Treasure Coast rivals sank or took on water, Gulfstream Business Bank weathered the Great Recession with only modest damage. True, the Stuart-based bank posted $3.3 million in red ink for 2009. But after that blip, Gulfstream Business Bank quickly returned to profitability.
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