Record number of tourists visited Florida

The number of tourists flocking to Florida continues to grow to record numbers. Despite the record year Florida fell a little bit short of reaching Scott's goal of having 100 million tourists visit in 2014. Nearly 94 million people visited the state the previous year. [Source: AP]

See also:
» Florida targeting Chinese tourists
» Brazilian tourists reshape business offerings in Central Florida
» Easier travel from United States to Cuba likely to divert tourists from Jacksonville area

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Professional organizers take stress out of decluttering

There are 15 certified professional organizers in Florida. Some specialize in people with attention-deficit disorder, who tend to have chronic problems with organization. Others work with seniors planning to downsize, people about to relocate or bereaved families culling loved ones' belongings. A few confine themselves to digital organizing. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

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New import rules for Cuba represent historic change

For the first time in more than a half-century, a U.S. company will be allowed to hire private Cuban workers to provide services and to import some products from independent Cuban entrepreneurs. [Source: Miami Herald]

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Lifetime alimony may be eliminated in Florida

Paying alimony for life soon could be dead in Florida, if the state Legislature approves radical reforms this year. This would be the second such attempt to do away with an alimony system that some call outdated. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

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How growing income inequality is hurting Social Security

Here’s another reason to be concerned about income inequality: it poses a direct threat to the already shaky fiscal health of Social Security, according to a report released last week by the left-leaning Center for American Progress. [Source: Washington Post]

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ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Is Tampa Bay 'Ritz-y' enough for a five-star hotel? [Tampa Bay Times]
In the past eight months, Tampa Bay has emerged as an exciting place to be in the hospitality business. Three new hotels opened in Tampa. Two upscale resorts are under construction at Clearwater Beach. A new Hyatt is planned for downtown St. Petersburg. Yet none of these is a top-rated luxury hotel.

› Rulings could breathe new life into dead foreclosure cases [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
It took seven years for Florida’s court systems to erase a backlog of nearly half a million home defaults left over from the Great Recession. But just as that logjam is clearing, a pair of recent appellate court rulings could bring thousands of seemingly dead foreclosure cases back to life.

› Unions ask Tampa to help grow skilled-trade apprenticeships [Tampa Bay Times]
In 2013, the St. Petersburg City Council passed a local hiring ordinance that, among other things, allows contractors on city projects to get paid more of their money sooner if a certain percentage of their workers are in state-registered apprenticeship programs.

› Russia sending more jets to Melbourne for maintenance [Florida Today]
Eight wide-body 747-400s from Russia's Transaero Airlines are now parked at the MidAirUSA hangar at Melbourne International Airport. But despite speculation, the planes' sudden appearance in Brevard County has nothing to do with the current turmoil in Russia,

Go to page 2 for more stories ...

› Florida's university system wants lawmakers to halt idea of guns on campus [Tampa Bay Times]
A joint statement from the university system's Board of Governors, university police chiefs and the 12 public universities expresses opposition to a legislative proposal (SB 176 and HB 4005) that would allow people with concealed-firearms licenses to carry guns at state colleges and universities.

› Vaccination rate leaves Miami-Dade at risk [Miami Herald]
More Miami-Dade kindergarteners, about 2,500 last year, enter school without their shots than in any other Florida county. The result is an overall vaccination rate on the low end of what public health experts call the “herd immunity” range needed to prevent outbreaks.
» See also: Disney World workers can get free measles vaccines

› Sarasota business leaders told to start thinking of region as a creative center [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Living in a global, digitally connected world, Southwest Florida leaders need to start thinking of the region as a creative center, futurist and author David Houle told the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

› Old-school citrus market makes Clearwater comeback [TBO.com]
Storefronts and subdivisions long ago replaced Pinellas County’s pervasive orange groves, but one of the area’s last traditional citrus markets recently made a comeback in Clearwater.