Hurricane Nicole makes landfall at 3 a.m. near Vero Beach, weakens to tropical storm

Hurricane Nicole made landfall at 3 a.m. Thursday on North Hutchinson Island just south of Vero Beach but quickly weakened to a tropical storm with 70 mph winds, the National Hurricane Center said. Despite the storm’s weakening, most of Florida is in for a day of rainy, windy weather. At 4 a.m., the storm’s center was about 60 miles southeast of Orlando, moving west-northwest at 14 mph. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Gainesville Sun.

Florida ranks No. 1 in new report for attracting and retaining skilled workers

Florida ranked No. 1 in the nation for maintaining its skilled talent pipeline, according to a new scorecard from labor analytics company Lightcast. In addition, Hillsborough County is the No. 1 large county in the state and No. 8 in the nation for attracting and retaining skilled workers, according to the same scorecard. Hillsborough’s nationwide ranking is up from No. 20 in 2019. Incentive and marketing programs are becoming increasingly popular post-pandemic as highly qualified workers retain leverage despite fears of a recession. [Source: Tampa Bay Business Journal]

Preliminary estimates put Hurricane Ian's economic impact to the ag industry between $786 million and $1.56 billion

Hurricane Ian made landfall along the coast of Southwest Florida on September 28 as a powerful Category 4 storm bringing high winds, heavy rains, and storm surge levels this part of the state hasn’t seen in more than 150 years. While it will still take time to know the full extent of economic damages caused by Ian, preliminary estimates range from around 65-billion to as much as 120-billion dollars. Ian will rank among the top 10 costliest storms in U.S. history — possibly as high as third behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Harvey in 2017. [Source: WGCU]

Republicans dominated Florida elections. What happened to Democrats?

Nationwide, Florida was an outlier. Despite predictions of dominant Republican performance across the board, Democrats in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan found success. Across the nation, Democrats put up tight margins — all of which makes Florida’s poor Democratic performance, and low turnout, more stark. More from the Tampa Bay Times and the Orlando Sentinel.

Florida doctors use saliva test to reveal someone’s future risk for Alzheimer’s

Florida doctors are using a new test to determine someone’s future risk for Alzheimer’s disease from a few drops of spit. At a time when the disease’s prevalence is rising, the saliva test called genoSCORE analyzes more than 114,000 different genes to provide a score of 0 to 1 for your risk of getting Alzheimer’s. A score of .5, for example, means you have a 50% of developing Alzheimer’s at some point in your life. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

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ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Curious about listing your place on Airbnb? New Airbnb Academy teaches Miami hosts [Miami Herald]
Winter is coming and that means Miami is about to be flooded with tourists. Before the international event that kicks it off — Art Basel — Airbnb is launching an Airbnb Entrepreneurship Academy to help Miami locals learn how to use the platform and earn some extra cash from the visitors who need a temporary place to stay.

› Tales from 100 years of spring baseball in St. Petersburg shared in new book [Tampa Bay Times]
The first time Rick Vaughn saw Al Lang Stadium, stepping off the Orioles team bus for a 1985 spring training game against the Mets, he was in awe of the postcard setting on the shimmering downtown St. Petersburg waterfront. “It was like another world,” Vaughn said. “The ballpark was like nothing I’d ever seen before.” Vaughn ended up writing a richly detailed book: “100 Years of Baseball on St. Petersburg’s Waterfront — How the Game Helped Shape a City.”

› NASA pushes Artemis I launch attempt to Nov. 16 [Orlando Sentinel]
NASA officials opted to delay any attempt to launch the Artemis I mission to the moon from Kennedy Space Center until at least Nov. 16. The move allows for safe conditions for employees to return to work along with time to assess any damage to the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft and mobile launcher at KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B, where it will be riding out the storm, NASA stated on an update to its website.

› Hard Rock casinos accused of pocketing millions by shortchanging gamblers at payout time [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
A New York man is suing the Hard Rock casino and resort chain over what he claims is a scheme to pocket millions of dollars in change unclaimed by thousands of gamblers each day. The proposed class action suit seeks more than $5 million on behalf of thousands of customers it says were shortchanged at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City and other Hard Rock casinos in the United States. Hard Rock Cafe International is owned by the Seminole Tribe and headquartered on tribe-owned property in Davie that is also home to the company’s flagship South Florida resort and casino.

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› What’s next for Veransa, the new company consolidating Florida’s green waste composting market [WasteDive]
Veransa is rolling up the Florida green waste market via acquisitions, with three deals within the past year and further expansion on the way. Backed by private equity firm RFE Investment Partners, Veransa Group officially launched last summer with the acquisition of two companies. This included Consolidated Resource Recovery, described as “the largest yard waste collections and recycling network in Florida,” and Florida Organic Solutions, an organic compost manufacturer.

› 75 years later: A look back on how veterans transformed FSU [FSU News]
As Florida State University celebrates Veterans Day on Nov. 11, it also provides the university community an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of military veterans to the university over the past 75 years and how they’ve helped shape today’s Top 20 public institution. The end of World War II in 1945 created a post-war boom and set in motion transformative changes for higher education in Tallahassee. Large numbers of veterans returned from war and enrolled in college, using the G.I. Bill of the era to finance their educations.

› North Port to revisit charging Ian victims $27,000 to reconnect to water and sewer service [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
The city of North Port will revisit provisions that currently require people who temporarily disconnect, then reconnect to city water and sewer service to pay roughly $27,000 in fees to rejoin the utility. Once the staff has determined how a $55.95 base fee for service is tied to the payment of bonds issued for sewer expansion, they will return to the City Commission with options for providing relief to customers facing steep fees because of Hurricane Ian.

› Want to donate, Tampa Bay? Metropolitan Ministries has holiday tents, pop-ups [Tampa Bay Times]
At a tent the size of a football field, humming refrigerated trailers await donated turkeys and hams. Volunteers are just starting to stack cans of green beans, corn and sweet potatoes that will soon to be part of holiday meals for neighbors in need. A section of the tent where they’ll put donated Christmas presents — the bikes, the Barbies — is cleared and at the ready. It’s almost like a moment of calm before the party gets started.