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Thursday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Florida jobless claims inch up, highest in a month
Unemployment claims in Florida last week were the highest since mid-September, but the number of applications remained similar to levels before the COVID-19 pandemic crashed the economy in 2020. The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 7,987 first-time claims were filed in Florida during the week that ended Oct. 23, up from a revised count of 7,481 claims for the week ending Oct. 16. More from the News Service of Florida.
Government receiving ‘a steady stream of complaints' about CSX
Before CSX Corp. reported third-quarter earnings, CEO James Foote received a letter from the railroad company’s primary regulator questioning its service level for customers. “The reason for my request is that over the past several months the Board has continued to receive a steady stream of complaints about the adequacy of rail service provided by CSX,” said the Oct. 18 letter from U.S. Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman. More from the Jacksonville Daily Record.
Tampa Bay retailers outpacing the nation in COVID recovery, report says
It’s been more than a year and a half since the coronavirus was first detected in Florida and stores had to adjust to stay in business amid the global public health crisis. But the stressors of the pandemic are seemingly in the rearview for a number of Tampa Bay businesses, as many are performing as well as they did before COVID-19, if not better, according to a report from Franklin Street, a Tampa-based commercial real estate firm. More from the Tampa Bay Times.
Attendance sagged at Magic Kingdom but it’s still world’s most-visited theme park
Almost 7 million people went to Magic Kingdom theme park in 2020. But that represents a 67% decrease from 2019, according to an annual attendance report from the Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM, an infrastructure consulting firm and Fortune 500 company. The COVID-19 pandemic curbed the visitor count for attractions across the board last year. Although Walt Disney World’s parks were closed to the public from mid-March to mid-July, Magic Kingdom again was the most-visited theme park on Earth. More from the Orlando Sentinel.
Swimming Hall of Fame complex might be in line for stunner of a makeover. The cost: $90 million.
An extreme makeover could be coming to two International Swimming Hall of Fame buildings that perch like bookends on either side of Fort Lauderdale’s aquatic center. The $90 million project would bring two sleek new towers — a five-story museum and a five-story welcome center — to the city-owned parcel between the Intracoastal and Seabreeze Boulevard, just south of Las Olas Boulevard. The deal still needs city approval but received an initial nod from the Fort Lauderdale commission last week. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Paramedics with an iPad: Live streaming stroke & patient care
If a person in Coral Gables suffered what paramedics thought was a stroke, how could they best assess the patient’s condition and prepare doctors at a nearby emergency department for their arrival? How could they even be sure it was a stroke? What once was a radio call now is a video “call” that allows stroke specialists to see the inbound patient. [Sponsored report]
Event
Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
Now in its 36th year, FLIFF also is caught in a state of neither here nor there. It is clearly distanced from the pandemic darkness that chilled last year’s events, but planning for the 2021 festival coincided with the unsettling Delta phase of COVID, limiting celebrity travel and the parties that provide FLIFF with its customary buzz.
» More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Florida History
Meet “Tampa’s Elliot Ness,” who took on the mafia in the mid-20th century
When Tampa was a hotbed of organized crime from the late 1800s through mid 1900s, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office charged the Vice Squad with cleaning up what the federal government deemed one of the most corrupt cities in the nation. The Tampa Bay Times has obtained a cache of Vice Squad reports from the 1950s and 1960s, which offer insight into their investigations and what they were up against.
» Read more from the Tampa Bay Times.
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