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Monday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Reports of glitchy encounters with state’s unemployment system still linger after pandemic
The specter of more than a million unemployed Floridians coming up against a glitchy, crashing benefit claims system to keep food on the table as the COVID-19 emergency spiraled has long faded from headlines amid rosy unemployment numbers. There’s evidence, however, that the benefit claims system is still causing headaches. More from Florida Politics.
New disturbance emerges in Gulf; tropical depression to form in Atlantic by midweek
Activity is heating back up in the tropics, with National Hurricane Center forecasters watching for potential development of a low-pressure system in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and another off Africa. A tropical depression is expected to form by midweek from the tropical wave off Africa as it moves west. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Would Great Wolf Lodge have come to Southwest Florida without $15 million in incentives?
As Great Wolf Lodge nears completion and Collier County Commissioner Rick LoCastro seeks re-election, he continues to bring up at commission gatherings that the $15 million in incentives approved two years ago for the resort and mammoth indoor water park were merely a "Christmas gift." "I'm not saying Great Wolf Lodge isn't going to be great and wonderful and everything. I just didn't agree with giving them a $15 million Christmas gift," LoCastro said. More from the Naples Daily News.
Halloween sales bring vacant Oviedo Mall space back from the dead
Spooky shoppers across the country are spending big this year, benefiting retail centers such as Oviedo Mall where Spirit Halloween has brought back from the dead a part of the vacant Sears store. The holiday’s spending is slated to reach a record $12.2 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytic More from the Orlando Sentinel.
150-year-old Florida Keys lighthouse illuminated for first time in a decade
A 150-year-old beacon that helped guide ships through the treacherous Florida Keys coral reefs before GPS, sonar and other technology made it obsolete is shining again as part of a national effort to save historic lighthouses that have dotted the U.S. coast for more than a century. More from the AP.
Entertainment
Rebooted Ringling Bros. show born in Manatee County aims to fill arenas
It's been 16 months since Feld Entertainment announced plans to reboot the “Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.” Manatee County-based live production and performance giant Feld Entertainment has spent that past year and change in preparation mode, from casting to scripting to rehearsing. The result is a show titled “The Greatest Show on Earth,” scheduled to debut Sept. 29.
» More from the Business Observer.
Recreation Trends
Aventura has a public park pickleball problem. It’s green space vs. new courts
Thwack, smack, clack! Those are the sounds you’re likely to hear from a pickleball court as the plastic ball filled with holes bounces between rackets. The pickleball craze has swept much of the country with 44,094 courts and growing. Yet, despite being the fastest growing sport in the world, a pesky pickleball battle has hit Aventura, with residents criticizing the city for demolishing a park to add pickleball courts as opposed to maintaining the green space and their community gardens.
» Read more from the Miami Herald.
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