Fearful Floridians pay down mortgages, credit-card debt
While Congress struggles to rein in the nation's deficit spending, many Florida consumers are successfully paying down their credit-card debt and their home mortgages. Credit counselors are seeing a steep decline in household debt over the past year, as anxious consumers try to reduce their vulnerability to the economic slowdown. After decades of borrowing and overspending, many Floridians now appear better prepared to withstand another recession if there is one. A nationwide survey released Thursday indicates that credit-card debt in Florida remains high but has dropped sharply. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Stacey Giulianti knows insurance law . . . from the inside out
After graduating from law school in 1993, Stacey A. Giulianti chose a conventional path to a career in business litigation. He went to work first for a statewide firm, then partnered at several smaller firms, all the while developing his specialty of representing policyholders against insurance companies. After handling thousands of cases and taking dozens to trial, Giulianti became well known within the industry — and got the attention of a group of insurance industry executives wanting to start their own insurance company. They asked him to be the fledgling firm's in-house counsel. "They basically wanted the proverbial wolf to guard the henhouse — I hate to cast myself in that light, but I'm just trying to be honest with you," he says. Read more Of Counsel.
Florida redistricting committee hears pleas from cities, minorities
State lawmakers made a stop in Miami on Wednesday to hear from passionate but polite residents on how the Legislature should redraw legislative and congressional seats in its once-a-decade redistricting.
 [Illustration: Christopher Sheek] |
» Redistricting: Free-for-All in Florida
» Tallahassee Trend:
The Amendments
» Party Lines in Redistricting Florida
What can you buy for $100,000 or less?
Distressed properties selling for less than $100,000 have been the cornerstone of the Southwest Florida real estate market since the onset of the Great Recession. But since the beginning of this year, the percentage of homes selling in that price range has been shrinking from Parrish to Punta Gorda. And with the absence of these low-end sales, average prices have been rising. For real estate agents and those trying to sell their homes, the trend is a welcome sign that the real estate market has at least temporarily found a bottom. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
State to fund training for port-related businesses
Thousands of Florida transportation industry workers could hone their skills using more than $2.2 million worth of state-funded training opportunities under a grant announced Wednesday.
Business leaders, elected officials and the board charged with keeping Florida residents in the workforce said the grants will help companies that use freight facilities, such as JaxPort. The infusion of cash is intended to create jobs, improve employee performance and start career-focused courses in high schools to make the state more competitive internationally.
The overall message of the stimulus: Florida has depended on agriculture, tourism and construction for too long.
[Source: Florida Times-Union]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Increased road building will spur job growth
Florida drivers will be dodging plenty of orange cones over the next few years. The state Department of Transportation has announced that it is accelerating its schedule, initiating some new projects and starting others early to give the road building industry a boost and create jobs. WMFE's Tom Parkinson spoke with economic analyst Hank Fishkind about the economics behind this proposed boom in road construction and asked him what kinds of jobs can Floridians can expect to see.
› Wayne Huizenga makes 'significant investment' in e-learning company
Wayne Huizenga, the ultra-successful entrepreneur behind South Florida sports teams like the Miami Dolphins, AutoNation, Blockbuster, and Waste Management, has taken an interest in virtual education. His Fort Lauderdale-based Huizenga Holdings has made a "significant investment" in Vschoolz, an e-learning company in Coral Springs.
Founded three years ago by educators and tech specialists, Vschoolz helps schools and school districts implement online learning programs that teachers can customize — everything from e-lessons to interactive activities.
› Tampa job fair draws hundreds before doors open
Hundreds of unemployed hopefuls were already waiting outside of Tampa's Higgins Hall Wednesday as a 10 a.m. job fair began.
The job fair, organized by State Rep. Janet Cruz and expected to draw over 1,500 participants by the time it ended, was set up for the Hispanic community and Cruz's constituents.
Cruz said she heard from many of her constituents, "We don't need no stinking town halls. We need jobs."
› Florida inmates learning to beehive
About 90 percent of the inmates in Florida's prisons are expected to be released back into the free world someday. On Tuesday morning, a prison warden asked a small group gathered at North Florida Reception and Medical Center to consider what kind of inmates they want to see released. "The question is: Who do you want in your community? One that will commit another crime or one of these?" Warden Mark Reidl asked while gesturing toward the 19 men standing behind him. The men made up Florida's -- and possibly the nation's -- first-ever prison beekeeping academy behind bars.
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› Florida hotel deals abound, even for luxury resorts
With the stock market swooning, hotels in Florida are making sure travelers know there's value at their inns.
Here are some recent offers in the Sunshine State.
› UM players could face bankruptcy clawback suits for Ponzi gifts
The University of Miami athletes who reportedly scored large sums of cash and big gifts from convicted Ponzi schemer and UM booster Nevin Shapiro may wind up facing bankruptcy clawback suits seeking repayment.
That is, if they don't voluntarily come forward to repay the bankruptcy trustee overseeing Shapiro's now-defunct investment company, Capitol Investments USA, which is facing more than $100 million in claims from bilked investors.
Under bankruptcy law, the trustee can seek to collect payments, cash and gifts such as jewelry and cars that Shapiro says he lavished on dozens of UM players in recent years. Yahoo! Sports published a detailed investigative expose Tuesday in which Shapiro, after 100 hours of jailhouse interviews over the course of months, alleged he spent tens of thousands of dollars on UM players, in violation of NCAA rules.
› Trend or blip? Earnings of Floridians slipping this year
Let's call this the Case of the Low Hanging Fruit.
Florida may have added tens of thousands of jobs since the start of 2011, but so far they tend to be lower-paying opportunities, many of them in the tourism industry.
Nothing wrong with that. We like tourism jobs. Visit Florida, the state tourism bureau, says 21.2 million people visited the state in the second quarter of this year. That's a 6.9 percent gain over the same period last year and a bright light in Florida's bruised business world. The tourism increase outpaced the rest of the United States by more than 1 percentage point.
But if motel-hotel help or servers are mostly what's in the state's employment pipeline, then we have a problem.
› Ten years after 9-11, economy needs help
The collapse of tourism in Florida following the 9-11 attacks almost 10 years ago made Florida's business and government leaders acknowledge — once again — the state's economic vulnerability. They'd acknowledged it during the recession of the early 1990s. And, they would acknowledge it yet again when the recession brought on by the housing crisis arrived in 2007. But 10 years after 9-11, they're still talking. Missing too many opportunities. Not sustaining a serious-enough effort.
› NAS Whiting Field to Hold Annual Job Fair
Despite a sagging job market and a struggling economy, Naval Air Station Whiting Field is poised to have its most successful annual job fair to date. The base's Fleet and Family Support Center will host their twenty-second annual Job Fair Thursday, August 18, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
More than 75 local, regional and national agencies will be present to conduct interviews, provide job search assistance, or to offer employment. This is the largest turn-out of prospective employers in the history of the event.
› Expansion plan puts Titusville's Liberty Lodge into unwanted spotlight
Liberty Lodge has been at several locations in Titusville since 1985, and church officials have tried to keep the program relatively low-key. But that changed recently, with Liberty Lodge's request for a special permit from the city to expand what it does there.
That brought neighborhood residents to lengthy hearings before the Titusville City Council and the Titusville Planning and Zoning Commission, complaining about the seeming concentration of social service organizations and programs like Liberty Lodge within Indian River City.