Legislature drills down on hundreds of millions of dollars for local projects

With the big ticket items in the state budget resolved or in the hands of the top leaders in the House and Senate, the rest of the Florida Legislature hunkered down into marathon negotiations over the weekend to dole or hundreds of millions of dollars for local projects back home. [Source: Times/Herald]

See also:
» Lawmakers head into final week with issues pending
» As clock ticks, lawmakers’ compromises on education policy remain a mystery
» Mental health, drug abuse care among remaining Florida budget concerns

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to retire from Congress

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the dean of the Florida legislative delegation and the first Cuban American elected to Congress, is retiring at the end of her term next year, saying it’s time to move on after more than 35 years in elected office. More from the Miami Herald and the AP.

See also:
» Dems inch closer to House takeover with Miami Republican's retirement
» The Life and Times of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

House hunting in Florida, millennial style

In Florida, buyers age 25 to 34 constituted 13 percent of home buyers, according to a Florida Association of Realtors study. As a major force in the home buying economy, millennials are changing the game and Realtors are charged with keeping up. [Source: Ocala Star-Banner]

Florida voters give Trump slight thumbs up

National polls consistently show that more Americans disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing than give him a thumbs up. But a new survey of Floridians likely to vote in the 2018 mid-term elections finds that the president remains above water in the Sunshine State. [Source: Naples Daily News]

Florida affordable housing funds likely to get shifted

Florida’s 25-year-old solution to affordable housing — funding down-payment assistance and subsidized rentals with real estate taxes — operates with half the money it had a decade ago, even as Floridians are further stretched to pay the rent. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Spirit's quarterly profit declines, but airline sees itself well-positioned for summer [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Miramar-based Spirit Airlines said its first quarter profits plunged by nearly 50 percent year over year, but the company still produced strong results in the face of winter storms and the January shooting tragedy at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

› Lake Wales juice company offering 2nd round of incentives for planting citrus trees [News Chief]
A 2014 Florida’s Natural Growers’ program offering $10 million in incentives to plant new orange groves was so successful the company has come back with an even bigger effort.

› Numbers suggest St. Johns County is in the midst of another building boom [St. Augustine Record]
While it’s impossible to predict exactly what is going to happen in the housing market, statistics and opinions point to this being a blast-off point for an era of robust — and likely record-breaking — residential construction in St. Johns County.

› SpaceX scrubs 1st government satellite launch [Orlando Sentinel]
SpaceX’s planned entry into government launches will have to wait another day. On Sunday morning, a planned launch was scrubbed less than one minute from liftoff. A new window for the launch will open Monday.

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› More than 8,000 nuisance gators nabbed in Florida in 2016 [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Alligator trappers hired by the state have captured and removed the reptiles in more than 6,500 locations in Florida in 2016, resulting in 8,050 captured animals.

› Royal Caribbean launches Cuba cruise from Port Tampa Bay [Tampa Bay Times]
The Empress is one of several cruise ships with a route from Tampa to Cuba. Over the next two years, about 40,000 cruise passengers are expected to travel to Cuba on 22 cruises from Tampa.

› UF top execs’ perks are cherry atop already-healthy salaries [Gainesville Sun]
Public records obtained by The Sun show UF executives routinely got raises in percentages above what faculty were given, and far above the public in general during lean economic times from the start of the mid-2000s through today.

› Long-delayed Bahamas resort Baha Mar will begin receiving paying guests soon [Miami Herald]
The third time wasn’t the charm for the star-crossed Bahamian mega-resort Baha Mar. Originally slated to open in December 2014, the resort missed three scheduled openings before last week’s ribbon-cutting for the first hotel in the complex.