March 18, 2024

Thursday's Daily Pulse

What you need to know about Florida today

| 2/11/2016

House, Senate start state budget debate with big differences to resolve

As the 2016 session reached the midway point Wednesday, the Senate and House tentatively approved separate budgets in advance of floor votes Thursday and the start of marathon budget negotiations by next week. More at the Times/Herald, the AP, and the Palm Beach Post. Earlier coverage: Florida's House and Senate are $1 billion apart on budget.

Legislative Roundup:
» Gut check: Legislative session reaches midpoint
» Senator blasts budget process for blocking restoration of Florida Forever land-buying program
» Yet another session, yet another fight over Florida retirement system
» Florida Legislature locked in death penalty debate over unanimous jury sentences
» The best and worst of Florida’s legislative session so far

Lady Liberty

CAE Healthcare President Robert Amyot wants simulated patients to become more widely used in nursing programs. [Photo: Mark Wemple]

Florida Trend Exclusive
Flesh, blood and plastic

Sarasota-based CAE Healthcare is hoping a study that touts the benefits of patient simulators that can talk, breathe, blink and respond to medications and treatments will translate into sales. (This story is part of a business news roundup for Southwest Florida.) Access full story.

2016 is the year companies focus on compensation

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says it will push large employers to disclose employee pay data, a move designed to increase transparency and reduce pay discrimination. [Source: Florida Times-Union]

Even fewer jobless Floridians are receiving unemployment benefits

Only 11 percent of jobless Floridians received any money through unemployment insurance last year, cementing the Sunshine State's status as the worst in the nation in that category. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

More registered drone operators than registered planes

The Federal Aviation Administration says there are now more registered drone operators in the U.S. than there are registered manned aircraft. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said that the agency passed the milestone last week when it topped 325,000 registered drone owners. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Brian and Kathryn Ballard donate building to house entrepreneurship school at FSU
Brian Ballard, CEO of Ballard Partners, and Kathryn Ballard, a Florida State University alumna and member of the FSU Board of Trustees, are giving the university a building valued at $1.1 million in downtown Tallahassee.

› More than $800 million in luxury yachts on display in new Miami show
You can still enjoy an eyeful of the floating mansions during the inaugural edition of the Superyacht Miami Show running Thursday through Monday at the new Island Gardens Deep Harbour Marina on Watson Island.

› Four Floridians among most charitable Americans
Four people in Florida are among the 50 Americans who donated the most to charity last year, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual Philanthropy 50 list.

› FanDuel to lay off dozens in Maitland less than a year after arrival
Fantasy sports website FanDuel will lay off dozens of employees in Maitland, according to records. The company notified the state that it would lay off 55 people on April 10, less than a year after it hired 38 former Zynga workers in Orlando.

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