SHARE:
Thursday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Will seaweed on Florida beaches be bad in 2024? Here's the latest outlook
Just over a year ago, several Florida beaches were inundated by a smelly, irritating seaweed known as sargassum. Will the same thing happen in 2024? The University of South Florida reported earlier this month the amount of sargassum moving into the eastern Caribbean continued to increase over late February and "this trend will continue in the coming months." More from TC Palm and Click Orlando.
Panhandle students get pipeline to construction jobs at Career Days
District 3 of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) hosted its fourth-annual Construction Career Days (CCD) event on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Santa Rosa County Fairground, bringing together more than 1,000 high school students from Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties and introducing them to the various career paths available across the construction industry. More from the Pensacola News Journal.
Masonite shareholders sue to block $3.9B deal on claims of self-dealing, faulty info
Three Masonite International Corp. shareholders filed lawsuits to block the Tampa-based manufacturer’s $3.9 billion sale to Owens Corning until allegedly incomplete and misleading information in a proxy statement regarding the transaction is corrected. The shareholders made a wide range of allegations in their complaints, including that faulty financial projections used in the deal undervalue Masonite by an estimated $630 million. More from the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
A hotel, hundreds of homes and retail in the Ag Reserve? A proposal is in the pipeline
Another mixed-use development may be coming to part of Palm Beach County’s Agricultural Reserve, one of the few swaths of relatively open land left in all of South Florida. While supporters applaud the possible arrival of the project’s workforce housing, opponents call out potential traffic concerns and opening the door for other developers to mimic the changes called for by the proposal, effectively altering the Ag Reserve in irreversible ways, they argue. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Orange County ramps up $100 million in transportation work after tax effort suspended
Orange County has started work on several transportation projects in a $100 million initiative. Mayor Jerry Demings said that the county has started to make progress on the Accelerated Transportation Safety Program it approved in 2023. The progress comes on the heels of the county commission in April tabling the effort to get a transportation sales tax on the 2024 ballot. More from the Orlando Business Journal.
Event
Science of Wine returns to Orlando Science Center
Science is delicious. In fact, it’s inherent in everything we eat, whether you’re studying the processes that see seeds along their journey to becoming fruit or — in the case of the Orlando Science Center‘s most popular fundraising event — fruit becoming wine. And on April 27, when Science of Wine returns, there will be all-new programming for guests to sample (much of it quite literally).
» More from the Orlando Sentinel.
Profile
The air traffic controller
Born in Jamaica to a family of “helpers,” Audrey Gregory, executive vice president and CEO of the AdventHealth East Florida Division, is also a spiritual leader for the large faith-based health care system. She compares the job’s pace and intensity to being an air traffic controller.
» Read more from Florida Trend.
In case you missed it:
