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Monday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
State budget stuffed with turkeys poses election risks for Scott
During the Great Recession, budget deficits and tea party protests meant pork barrel spending gave way to austerity. But now it's an election year and legislators are looking at a $1.2 billion surplus in what is expected to be a total budget of around $75 billion. So lawmakers are scrambling to haul in projects to benefit their districts. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
Florida's gambling growth fuels legislative push
Florida's Seminole casinos perform above many of their peers around the nation in terms of revenue. This is what keeps casino giants Las Vegas Sands and the Genting Group coming back to the state's capitol every year since 2010, hoping to get into the game. [Source: AP]
Working and advancing in 'retirement' years
A growing number of baby boomers are transforming the 21st-century workplace. By choice or chance, they are pushing their retirement dates into an uncharted future. By remaining — and even thriving — on the job, they may be toppling many subtle but stubborn assumptions about older workers that helped push previous generations into retirement. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Cruise industry booming despite rough seas
At first glance, the cruise industry's public-relations disasters during the past two years would seem like enough to make almost any business take on water. Yet despite repeated images of stranded, frustrated passengers, business has been booming — and the trend is unlikely to stop anytime soon, industry watchers say. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Feds investigate Florida's Bright Futures scholarship program
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has quietly revived an investigation of Florida's Bright Futures scholarships, a move that could reignite long-simmering complaints about the fairness of the popular program. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Getting to know the horse business
Marion County has dubbed itself Horse Capital of the World. But for many people who live or visit here, evidence of the thoroughbred part of that business is largely out of sight.
› Proposed legislation would benefit charities
A major piece of legislation that will impact every nonprofit in Florida is making its way through the Florida Legislature. Leaders of the Florida Nonprofit Alliance describe why this is a proposal that nonprofits and funders can endorse.
› Miami tech company .CO Internet to be acquired for $109 million
Thousands of flying pigs — symbolizing anything is possible — flew across website screens on .CO Internet’sã??launch day in 2010. Now, nearly four years later, CEO Juan Diego Calle shared in the company’s blog that "it's onward and upward for .CO" — the young Miami technology company is being purchased.
› Port Tampa Bay pines for Latin America's pineapples
There's a great future in pineapples, or so the Tampa Port Authority hopes. The port hosted the International Pineapple Organization's second annual Global Pineapple Conference this past week.
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