Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Monday's Daily Pulse

Citrus growers desperate for more weapons to battle greening

After a costly eight-year battle against citrus greening, including a punishing 2012-13 season during which the disease likely caused about 13 percent of the orange crop to drop to the ground before it could be harvested, Florida growers have implored scientists for a better life preserver. [Source: Lakeland Ledger]

Related:
» UCF awarded $1.2 million for citrus research
» Travel Citrus Safe this Summer


Housing, not tuition, is biggest cost for many Florida students

While Florida's tuition ranks among the lowest in the country, state universities' room prices are above the national average. In fact, students pay more, on average, to live at a public university in Florida than they do at a private one, according to 2010-11 data from the National Center for Education Statistics. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]


Cyber criminals target little guys too

Technology is becoming an increasingly important part of running a business, and this means the risk of incurring a cybersecurity breach is becoming more likely. A cybersecurity breach, which can often result in a data breach, can come in many forms ranging from hackers to employee error. And any size business, no matter how small, can become a victim. [Source: Fort Myers News-Press]


For Common Core, a new challenge — from the left

Conventional wisdom held that liberals and teachers supported the new Common Core curriculum standards. Until the Badass Teachers Association crashed the party. “It’s not just the Tea Party that’s skeptical of the Common Core,” said Bonnie Cunard, a Fort Myers teacher who manages the Facebook page for the 1,200 Florida BATs. “We on the left, like the folks on the right, are saying we want local control.” [Source: Miami Herald]


How to make reusable rockets for cheap space travel

For decades, the aerospace industry has sought to build a fully reusable rocket launch system to bring down the cost of ferrying people and payloads into orbit. Despite dozens of concepts and millions of dollars directed at that goal, no truly reusable system has been created yet. What does it take to build one? [Source: Space.com]

Related:
» California vies for new space industry


ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Workforce Central Florida offers 'Develop you' job-skills classes
Workforce Central Florida is offering a variety of classes to help build job skills for those seeking a new career or employment. The "Develop You" classes cover such topics as resume writing, coping with unemployment, networking, social media and overcoming challenges of being overqualified for a position.

› UF Research funding stays constant despite federal budget sequestration
Research awards to the University of Florida held steady last year at $640.6 million despite a slowdown in federal funding brought on by the budget sequestration. The total is within 1 percent of 2012’s $644.4 million.

› 2 companies bid on downtown Orlando bike-share program
Two companies, one with a local connection, are vying to start a bicycle-sharing program in and around downtown Orlando. Cyclehop LLC, which absorbed Orlando-based SunCycles, and B-cycle LLC, of Waterloo, Wis., have submitted bids to the city, which will provide free spots for bike racks.

› Business community largely silent on St. Pete mayor's race
Amid all the talk about crime and bettering neighborhoods, business leaders were waiting for mayoral candidates to differentiate themselves on their plans to grow the city before Tuesday's primary. It never happened.


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› Boca's first large-scale luxury development in nearly a decade is in the pipeline
In Boca Raton, it seems the real estate market is ready to party like it's 2005 again. The city's zoning board unanimously approved the first large scale, single-family home project in nearly a decade.

› Florida Hospital enters health-insurance business
In October, Florida Hospital will launch into the health-insurance business, executives announced today. In partnership with Health First Health Plans, the hospital system expects ultimately to offer both Medicare and private health insurance in as many as 11 Central Florida counties.

› Goodwill places some workers with below minimum wage jobs
On the factory floor at Goodwill Industries of South Florida, cerebral palsy doesn’t stop Donnie Williams from stitching one button hole after another into the military trousers the Miami non-profit makes for the Pentagon. But Williams earns $4.22 an hour, according to a Goodwill supervisor, about 45 percent below Florida’s minimum hourly wage of $7.79.

› Hillsborough code enforcement squad cleans up wasteland of deserted foreclosures
One of every three empty foreclosed homes in America sits within the Sunshine State, including 10,000 across Tampa Bay, RealtyTrac data show. When banks fail to care for them, or homeowners turn and run, it becomes the job of public patrols to keep the chaos in check.