Prescription-drug database launches today
Florida's prescription-drug-monitoring database, which advocates say will help discourage doctor shopping and deter physicians from over-prescribing, is slated to launch today — after an effort by Gov. Rick Scott earlier this year to kill the program. Supporters of the database have touted it as a key tool in combating Florida's prescription-drug epidemic. Law enforcers say one of the reasons so many drug abusers and dealers travel to Florida for their prescriptions is because their home state already has a similar monitoring program. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Related:
» What the new drug database means for your privacy
» Official prescription drug monitoring site [E-FORCSE]
Fishy is good at Florida's Fish Camps
Fish camps are in high fashion again with smart chefs and restaurateurs. They are mining the Deep South for old comforts and guilty pleasures that can be served casually with a side of funky irony. And the veteran practitioners of their fine art of frying show new pride as modern foodies discover their charms. Fish camp cooking is so chic that conventioneers will find Sunset Sam's Fish Camp in the middle of the massive lobby of the Gaylord Palms resort in Orlando. Artsy Sarasota has Owen's. New or old, the key to a fish camp or a dockside market is that the fish and the crowd are local — including the alligators. Read about Florida's Fish Camps and see Chris Sherman's monthly drink picks.
 Clams, local crab and rock shrimp, Florida oysters, chowder and gumbo |
Massive machine comes together to dig port tunnel
It looks like something being readied for a moonshot, but it's going in the other direction. Safe to say, Miami has never seen anything like the incredible boring machine that is being assembled in a giant concrete pit in the middle of Watson Island, to dig the controversial $1 billion truck tunnel under Government Cut to the Port of Miami. The device has been nicknamed Harriet, and it's engineered and built on a scale of massive that makes ordinary massive seem puny. Alas, the taxpayers helping to foot the bill won't get to enjoy much of the show, since it all happens under ground. [Source: Miami Herald]
Lost perks: 'It's a hard time to be an employee'
Once a week for three months, Eric Ferrer shut his office door, made a phone call to his life coach, and spent the next hour shaping his personal and career goals. The sessions were paid for by his employer — a company benefit that 28-year-old Ferrer ranks as valuable as health insurance. "It helped me figure out my vision and stay on track," says Ferrer, a senior recruiter at Signature Consultants, an IT staffing firm in Fort Lauderdale. While surveys show coaching is one of the job perks young workers covet, it's one of the rare benefits companies offer. Most employers have cut back on benefits, particularly in the past year, keeping only the basics such as healthcare and retirement plans. [Source: Miami Herald]
Florida's recession-resistant cities for real estate
To some, it might seem surprising that a business magazine catering to wealthy readers would name Sarasota-Bradenton and Punta Gorda on its list of "America's Recession-Resistant Cities For Real Estate." But Forbes' recognition this month for a region that has suffered mightily in the Great Recession is more a study of the present than the past.
To real estate professionals and other observers in Southwest Florida, there has been a clear stabilization in pricing for 2011.
[Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› As you think big about Miami's economic future, think small
As Miami's economy struggles to regain vitality it's clear that small business, not corporate giants or government, will carve the path to better days. We'll need to think small to grow big-time.
Entrepreneurs and risk-takers have always been Miami's backbone. They start as mostly unknowns, but a good share work their way up to become area powerhouses.
Now, more than ever, small but nimble enterprises are gaining fastest and seem likely to add the largest percentage of new jobs.
› Florida public school educators get discounts on football tickets
Florida public school educators are eligible for discounted single-game tickets to see the Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The discounts are for public school employees working in pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade, according to the Florida Department of Education.
The discounts vary depending on the games, but can be up to 50 percent in savings off regular-priced tickets.
› 'Nation's largest' consignment store headed for Jacksonville
Montgomery Ward has been gone from Regency Square mall for 10 years and Ivey's has been gone for 20, but the former home of those stores will become the nation's largest consignment store as of Saturday, according to Vincent Balanky, managing partner of Amazing Consignments.
The store will take the entire first floor of the empty anchor tenant position, and already is stocked with consignment items owned by about 40 people. The casual visitor is in for as much of a history lesson as they are for a look at one-of-a-kind products and fine furniture. Balanky says he hopes to someday take over the store's second floor as well.
› Hospital re-writes plan on miscarriages
Sarasota Memorial Hospital, in trouble with the government for neglecting a diabetic woman who miscarried twins in its emergency room this summer, is writing a new plan for handling early term miscarriages and will submit it to the state this Friday.
State inspectors cited the emergency department last week for failing to monitor that patient's blood sugar levels, respond to her bleeding and pain, or intervene to stop her labor. That July 1 incident prompted a federal review of the hospital for the first time since 2006. At stake is its eligibility to receive Medicare payments, which made up 54 percent of hospital revenues in 2010.
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› Activists push Publix to pay penny more for tomatoes
A group of activists seeking better pay for tomato pickers is bicycling to Publix Super Markets headquarters in Lakeland and will ask company leaders to see firsthand laborers' living conditions.
The 200-mile trek, organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and its supporters, started Saturday in Immokalee and ended Tuesday with a small rally. For two years the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a Florida farmworker-rights group, has urged Publix to pay an extra penny per pound that would be passed directly to tomato pickers.
› Low mortgage rates driving a boom in Florida home loans
Record low interest rates and bargain home prices are creating a mini-boom in Florida mortgages, a new national survey shows.
Florida accounted for more than one out of every five home loans added in the nation from April to June, according to the most recent survey of U.S. lenders from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
› Sen. Lynn looks to tax water bottlers
True to her word, state Sen. Evelyn Lynn has not given up trying to tax water bottlers.
Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, earlier this week proposed a 6 percent "environmental surcharge" on bottled water sold at retail in quantities of less than one gallon.
As with the versions Lynn has introduced over the past three sessions, the revenue from the tax would be piped into the state Department of Environmental Protection's Ecosystem Management and Restoration Trust Fund.
› Lee Roy Selmon 'appalled' his name attached to NFL lawsuit
Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Lee Roy Selmon said he was "appalled" to learn his name was mistakenly included in a lawsuit filed by several former Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates against the National Football League and helmet manufacturers.
Selmon told The Tampa Tribune on Wednesday morning he has not spoken to attorneys in Los Angeles who are preparing the case and learned about the lawsuit only after news reports linked him and his brother, former Bucs' linebacker Dewey Selmon, with other plaintiffs.
› OUC's old headquarters goes for $2.8 million
After three years on the market and a handful of buyers who backed out, OUC's mothballed downtown headquarters has a buyer who wants to transform it into a boutique hotel.
The selling price of $2.8 million doesn't seem like much for an eight-story, 84,000-square-foot office building near City Hall and the site of the new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. By comparison, the Orlando Utilities Commission's new headquarters right next door opened in 2008 at a cost of $35.4 million. But the 44-year-old building isn't exactly in pristine shape.
› With national convention nearing, Florida GOP chair resigns
Florida Republican Party Chairman Dave Bitner told GOP leaders Wednesday that he was resigning because of health problems and urged them to elect Vice Chairman Lenny Curry of Jacksonville as his successor.