Tuesday's Daily Pulse
STEM education comes with a price tag
It's the jumper cables to America's dead battery, they say, the lighter fluid to a cooling economy. STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math — is being touted by lawmakers and business people as the key to future job creation and international competitiveness. But as campuses move to aggressively bulk up their STEM programs, they are grappling with an age-old question: How to pay for it? [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
Tropicana goes back to using only Florida oranges
PepsiCo Inc. is returning to using only oranges from Florida in its Tropicana Pure Premium orange juices, a decision made several months ago, before low levels of fungicide were found in oranges from Brazil, the company confirmed on Monday.
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Legislature's redistricting handiwork destined for courts
After more than two years of bickering over reforms meant to curb political abuses, the Florida Senate on Tuesday plans to debate maps for congressional and legislative districts that preserve Republican majorities and, its authors say, meet legal muster with Fair Districts.
But it will be far from the final word.
[Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
» The Game of Redistricting
Should guns be banned in hospitals?
In Florida, it's against the law to carry a gun into a school, an athletic event, a jail, a police station or a local government meeting. Not so with hospitals, where it remains perfectly legal to pack heat. For years, Linda Quick of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association has wanted to change that. Just before each session of the Legislature, when her group publishes its agenda, it includes a talking point: "Add 'licensed hospitals and nursing homes' to the Safety Zone provisions of the Concealed Weapons Law." The agenda item is once again on the association's list as the 2012 legislative session gets under way. [Source: Miami Herald]
Thieves casing abandoned buildings for scrap metals
Palm Beach County sheriff's Detective Alfredo Forgione says that unlike most law enforcement work, his job requires him to work backward. And as the only detective assigned full time to Palm Beach County's confounding issue of metal thefts, Forgione says it can make his job even more challenging. "It's getting to the point that the thefts are so overwhelming," he said. "(Thieves) are starting to target closed-down buildings now." [Source: Palm Beach Post]
Related:
» Two accused of dismantling dozens of Hernando AC units for parts
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› What's missing from new Jacksonville ethics office? Money
[Florida Times-Union]
Seven months after it was signed into law, Jacksonville's Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight still has no budget.
Its one employee, a director appointed last month, works part-time but hasn't drawn a city paycheck since leaving an earlier job in October.
She's hoping volunteers will help get the new office in gear — and that the city releases enough money for her to get paid again.
› UF students continue King legacy by helping community [Gainesville Sun]
It's an unusual way, to put it mildly, for University of Florida students to spend a day off -- pulling prickly pear cacti from the grounds of a cemetery. The volunteers at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery outside Gainesville were among more than 175 UF students marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day by doing community service. Students volunteered Monday morning at a dozen different area nonprofits, doing work such as sorting donations at a thrift shop and painting a home for single mothers.
› Miami Hurricanes alert boosters about stern new policy
[Miami Herald]
The University of Miami, in the midst of the NCAA investigation into the Nevin Shapiro booster scandal, has taken extra measures to distance Hurricane boosters from student-athletes.
» Florida Sports Newsmakers in 2011
› Palm Beach County tourism office woos Brazilians who like to shop [Palm Beach Post]
Palm Beach County tourism leaders are looking forward this year to capturing more business from visitors who love to shop, and Brazilian tourists figure heavily into that strategy.
» Floridian of the Year
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› Florida Legislature could give Rick Scott more power [Florida Times-Union]
Gov. Rick Scott, the outsider who at one point railed against the political establishment, may soon start getting the kind of control that was never bestowed on Florida's previous chief executives.
It's still early in the 2012 session but the Republican-controlled Legislature is starting to move ahead with proposals that would give Scott more hands-on power to shape the judicial branch and control regional job development agencies.
› Miami Beach gauges developers' interest in convention center
[Miami Herald]
Miami Beach will learn soon just how much interest there is in redeveloping the city's aging convention center.
After courting private investors for more than a month, Miami Beach Commissioners voted last week to request that interested developers submit their qualifications for the project.
› Bartow Now Must Decide What to Do With Cigar Factory [Lakeland Ledger]
Now that the county has signed the historic cigar factory over to the Bartow City Commission, what's next?
That's the question facing city commissioners, and City Manager George Long said there are several issues the commissioners need to address.
"The first step has to involve sealing the building to keep out the elements and the critters," Long said, "and to clean up the exterior so it's not the eyesore it is today. We have the $75,000 for that, but we need to plan now for what's going to happen after that."
› Florida Workers' Compensation Rate Hike Irks Businesses [Insurance Journal]
Florida small businesses seeing their second workers' compensation rate increase in as many years are calling on the state to reduce the increase because they fear it will harm the economy.
A small business group is asking that the increase be reduced by $62 million — an amount equal to the extra costs to the system of physician-dispensed drugs.
› Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam treads carefully with new energy policy [Tampa Bay Times]
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam wants lawmakers to develop a comprehensive energy policy for Florida — a topic they've shelved for several years.
Putnam is pushing 11 proposals that he says will start the state on a path to energy diversity by reducing its dependency on natural gas.
But he's moving with caution.
› Classical musicians test ways to appeal to younger audiences
[Miami Herald]
The acoustically pristine concert hall of the New World Symphony's New World Center will resound with the vibrant playing of its young classical musicians Friday night — and will also throb with the kind of electronic dance music that fills South Beach nightclubs. Instead of sitting silently, listeners will be able to wander about, chatting and sipping cocktails, getting up close to peer at the DJ or the sawing arms of cellists and violinists.
» Arts/Entertainment - Florida Newsmakers of the Year 2011
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