Tuesday's Daily Pulse
State returns $212 million in unclaimed money, property
Florida returned a record $212 million in unclaimed cash and property in the fiscal year that ended June 30 after companies couldn't find the owners, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater announced Monday. That was a $23 million yearly increase in returned money and merchandise. The stage's Bureau of Unclaimed Property approved 327,313 claims, another record, for the fiscal year that ended last month. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Florida Trend Exclusive
Best Companies Sounding Board
Employees answer:
"What do you like best about your company?"
Below are responses from 8 of the large companies on our Florida's Best Companies to Work For 2013 list.
| Large Company Employees Answer | |
| Duke Realty No. 1 - Real Estate |
Power Design No. 35 - Construction |
| Hyatt Regency Coconut Point No. 10 - Hospitality |
Infinite Energy No. 23 - Energy Supplier |
| Weatherby Healthcare No. 11 - Staffing |
Fairwinds Credit Union No. 28 - Banking |
| Peak 10 No. 15 - Technology |
Page-Theus Funeral Home & Cremation Services No. 36 - Funeral, cemetary management |
Column: How to bring in the money, over and over again
Are you constantly looking for new customers for your small business? Do you need a steady stream of first-time clients just to survive? Are you a designer, lawyer, consultant, architect? A wedding planner? If so, it’s time to get excited about a seemingly boring subject: creating recurring revenue. [Source: Florida Today]
SunPass now works in North Carolina
SunPass can now be used to pay for tolls in North Carolina, the first step toward similar arrangements with other states. SunPass drivers in three years should be able to breeze through toll booths anywhere outside Florida without having to buy a new transponder or enroll in another state's toll program. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Landline Mag.
Wheels get a little wobbly on food-truck culture
A little air has gone out of the tires of the social-media-fueled, counter-culture revolution on wheels. Stringent government regulations, increasing consumer sophistication and the reality of long, hard hours have cooled the food truck frenzy, both for starry-eyed would-be vendors and the hungry hoards they serve. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
» Meals on wheels: Food trucks are rolling across Florida
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› A business growing, organically [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Mitch Blumenthal's Global Organic Specialty Source, which began in a converted barn at his 10-acre east Sarasota farm, has become an important regional conduit for getting pesticide-free fruits and vegetables from farms to grocery store shelves.
› Report: Education Commissioner Tony Bennett changed school grade [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett pressed for changes to the Indiana school grading formula to help a donor's charter school, according to an Associated Press report. Bennett was the schools chief in Indiana at the time.
› Video-game creator targets EA's Maitland unit for royalties [Orlando Sentinel]
Buoyed by a recent verdict in a copyright lawsuit against Electronic Arts Inc., the developer of the first Madden-football video game decades ago plans to seek millions of dollars in damages from EA's Maitland-based game studio, which now produces the "Madden NFL" series.
› State Farm sues Ask Gary empire, wants money back [Tampa Bay Times]
Alleging a "massive fraud scheme" of kickbacks and patient brokering, insurance giant State Farm has filed a federal lawsuit against chiropractor Gary Kompothecras and enterprises tied to the Ask Gary referral service.
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› Judge allows Major League Baseball to pursue case against South Florida doping clinic [Miami Herald]
After pondering such thorny issues as stale cookies and a Major League baseball player who used the alias “Al Capone” to buy performance enhancing drugs, a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge denied a motion to toss out the sport’s civil lawsuit against Biogenesis.
› AAA club, Lake Mary firm launch online portal for tickets to competing theme parks [Orlando Sentinel]
In a move billed as an industry first, the second-largest American Automobile Association club in North America has launched an online portal selling electronic tickets to all five of Florida's major theme-park resorts.
› Nonprofit health center tries to recover stolen millions [Miami Herald]
The Miami Beach Community Health Center has sued its former leader in an attempt to recoup $7 million she plundered from the organization. The center has also partially settled a lawsuit against its auditors, claiming they failed to notify the board of directors about the years-long theft.
› Dale Gordon to head Tampa Hillsborough Film and Digital Media Commission [Tampa Bay Times]
Hollywood: Tampa and Hillsborough County want you. Frustrated by a fall-off in film activity, both movie- and ad-making, Hillsborough economic development officials on Monday announced a fresh initiative to reinvigorate its film-recruiting business.