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Monday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
Legislature drills down on hundreds of millions of dollars for local projects
With the big ticket items in the state budget resolved or in the hands of the top leaders in the House and Senate, the rest of the Florida Legislature hunkered down into marathon negotiations over the weekend to dole or hundreds of millions of dollars for local projects back home. [Source: Times/Herald]
See also:
» Lawmakers head into final week with issues pending
» As clock ticks, lawmakers’ compromises on education policy remain a mystery
» Mental health, drug abuse care among remaining Florida budget concerns
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to retire from Congress
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the dean of the Florida legislative delegation and the first Cuban American elected to Congress, is retiring at the end of her term next year, saying it’s time to move on after more than 35 years in elected office. More from the Miami Herald and the AP.
See also:
» Dems inch closer to House takeover with Miami Republican's retirement
» The Life and Times of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
House hunting in Florida, millennial style
In Florida, buyers age 25 to 34 constituted 13 percent of home buyers, according to a Florida Association of Realtors study. As a major force in the home buying economy, millennials are changing the game and Realtors are charged with keeping up. [Source: Ocala Star-Banner]
Florida voters give Trump slight thumbs up
National polls consistently show that more Americans disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing than give him a thumbs up. But a new survey of Floridians likely to vote in the 2018 mid-term elections finds that the president remains above water in the Sunshine State. [Source: Naples Daily News]
Florida affordable housing funds likely to get shifted
Florida’s 25-year-old solution to affordable housing — funding down-payment assistance and subsidized rentals with real estate taxes — operates with half the money it had a decade ago, even as Floridians are further stretched to pay the rent. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
› Spirit's quarterly profit declines, but airline sees itself well-positioned for summer
Miramar-based Spirit Airlines said its first quarter profits plunged by nearly 50 percent year over year, but the company still produced strong results in the face of winter storms and the January shooting tragedy at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
› Lake Wales juice company offering 2nd round of incentives for planting citrus trees
A 2014 Florida’s Natural Growers’ program offering $10 million in incentives to plant new orange groves was so successful the company has come back with an even bigger effort.
› Numbers suggest St. Johns County is in the midst of another building boom
While it’s impossible to predict exactly what is going to happen in the housing market, statistics and opinions point to this being a blast-off point for an era of robust — and likely record-breaking — residential construction in St. Johns County.
› SpaceX scrubs 1st government satellite launch
SpaceX’s planned entry into government launches will have to wait another day. On Sunday morning, a planned launch was scrubbed less than one minute from liftoff. A new window for the launch will open Monday.
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