Thursday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 1/4/2018

Florida employers trim fewer jobs in December than year ago

Florida employers announced fewer planned job cuts, 356, in December than the 1,738 in the same month a year ago, according to a report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But the state’s year-end total was higher than a year ago: 15,356 announced job cuts compared with 13,288 in December 2016.More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

With one year to go, numbers sum up Rick Scott’s governing legacy

One cornerstone of Scott's legacy is secure: He’s the tireless and nerdy CEO with a singular focus on jobs that bordered on an obsession while he was governor, who’ll be remembered chiefly for leading his state out of the Great Recession. The rest of Scott’s legacy is less glowing. More from the Times/Herald.

Insurance companies send settlement checks to Hurricane Irma victims with string attached

Some Florida homeowners are discovering their insurance companies are employing an interesting strategy to avoid future claims costs. Settlement checks sent by at least three companies include language stating that accepting the check releases the companies from further obligations connected to the claim. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

SunTrust appoints Florida leadership team

Scott Cathcart, who serves as Central Florida division president, was named Florida division president and now will have responsibility for SunTrust’s commercial banking products and services across the state. More from the Orlando Business Journal.

FPL delays plan to bill customers for Hurricane Irma costs

After saying in October it expected to collect an estimated $1.3 billion, Florida Power & Light has put on hold a plan to bill customers for the costs of restoring electricity after Hurricane Irma. More from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Nature
Will the cold snap kill any of Florida’s pesky pythons?

Even as parts of Florida brace for record low temperatures, it likely won’t be cold enough for long enough to kill large numbers of one of the state’s most troublesome invasive species, the Burmese python.

» More from the Tampa Bay Times.

Out of the Box
Florida Key Lime Pie Festival

Lou Morehead, owner of the Florida Key Lime Pie Co. in Cocoa Beach, is ready to best the Conch Republic, and anybody else, for that matter, when it comes to key lime pies. Morehead, who also organizes the annual Florida Key Lime Pie Festival, will soon orchestrate a key lime pie for the record books, since one of the festival’s highlights includes the making of the world’s largest key lime pie.