Friday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 6/14/2013

Florida needs more college graduates

Florida has slightly improved its level of college attainment, but still has a distance to go if it is to meet the state's workforce needs, according to a new Lumina Foundation report. According to the report, 37 percent of working-age Floridians held a 2- or 4-year college degree in 2011 (the latest year available), up slightly from 36.5 percent in 2010. Nationally, 38.7 percent of working-age adults held degrees. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Higher Education - Behind the Trends

Two economists argue that universities adjust costs based on how much they raise, rather than broad economic forces. Schools say they have become more efficient.

» Behind Education Costs: Buttress — or Bloat?

Ernst & Young announces 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year recipients

Ernst & Young LLP has announced the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013 Award recipients in Florida. The finalists and award recipients, selected by an independent panel of judges, were honored at a gala event at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach. [Source: Ernst & Young]

Doctors, nurses detect financial abuse against seniors

One in five doctors and nurses reported in a study that they often are dealing with elderly victims of investment fraud and financial exploitation, according to a new survey. The survey also found that some 80 percent of the medical personnel surveyed are willing to tell such abused seniors can go for help. The survey suggests the medical world could play a larger role in detecting economic crimes against seniors. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

» FRIDAY PREVIEW: Coming next week to FloridaTrend.com:

Spring woes in Florida: Silver Springs was Florida's first tourist attraction but construction of homes and roads nearby as well as farms has left the springs ailing.
Multicultural Moves: Burger King Worldwide, which has not had a restaurant in France since 1997, opened one in the Marseille Provence Airport under an agreement with Autogrill Group.
Lightweight: Florida's research talent pool is too shallow, and support for potentially transformative businesses is too meager.

» You'll find all these stories first on the Daily and Afternoon Pulse e-mails.

Redevelopment
Pompano and Circumstance

On July 1, Bethesda, Md.-based Urgo Hotels and Resorts will open a 219-room, 90-employee hotel on the oceanfront in Pompano Beach, the first resort in the city in more than a decade. Urgo bought an old 80-room hotel and adjoining condo building out of foreclosure, stripped the hotel down to its rebar and concrete and demolished the condo to build its new Marriott Resort. General manager Rich Byrd forecasts the property will draw 80% of its business from the leisure market and 20% from group business. “It’ll be a broad spectrum of opportunity for us,” Byrd says.