Tuesday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 6/27/2017

Visit Florida loses two key leaders in one week

Alfredo Gonzalez, Visit Florida’s vice president of global meetings and trade, has turned in his resignation and will depart the agency on July 8. Gonzalez’s departure leaves a hole in Visit Florida’s campaign to market the state's tourism industry in lucrative markets such as the United Kingdom, Germany and the Middle East. He followed International Marketing Program Director Shari Bailey, who resigned on Saturday. More from the Naples Daily News.

Limo service introduced for all Florida airports

Shelton, Conn.-based transportation brokerage company OneWayLimo now offers transportation throughout Florida to and from airports, for special events and for general ground transportation. More from the Business Observer.

JaxPort board votes full steam ahead on starting $484 million dredging project

A fast-and-furious month for lining up money to start deepening Jacksonville’s ship channel resulted Monday in the port authority board voting to move forward with the first phase of the dredging. More from the Florida Times-Union.

The Trump whisperer: Marco Rubio has the president’s ear on Latin America

Donald Trump has a distaste for the State Department and its legions of diplomats tasked with crafting the nation’s foreign policy. So when it comes to Latin America, the CEO-turned-president is listening to a man he derided on the campaign trail a year ago: Marco Rubio. More from McClatchy.

Study quantifies just how severe Miami's rental housing crunch is

Of 50 metropolitan areas across the United States, Miami is among those where building new apartment buildings is most challenging, a major obstacle to alleviating the housing crunch that has created what many experts are calling an affordability crisis. More from the South Florida Business Journal.

Sports Business
Orlando's "Sports Bid Fund"

Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs has outlined her vision for a “sports bid fund” that would use the $5 million approved last year to try to attract major sporting events to Orlando, like January’s NFL’s Pro Bowl Game, which was snagged last year in an ad-hoc manner leading to the desire create such a formal fund.

» More from Florida Politics and the Orlando Sentinel.

Profile
Shannon Kirsten Couch

When delivering a message is as easy as a click of the mouse, the thought of sending snail mail holiday cards doesn’t even cross some people’s minds. But for Bradenton illustrator Shannon Kirsten Couch, cards are a big business.