March 28, 2024

Thursday's Daily Pulse

What you need to know about Florida today

| 12/19/2013

Venture capital investing up in Florida

In the past year, venture capital investments in Florida businesses increased by 45 percent, but the state still lags on a per capita basis. Seventy-eight percent of the $318 million invested in Florida in the year ending in September went to businesses in the biotechnology, information technology services, media and entertainment and software industry sectors. [Source: Miami Herald]

» Related: Growing Florida's startup companies


Record numbers expected for holiday travel

The weather all over the country has been frightful — and as Christmas ushers in the the busy winter season, South Florida hoteliers and tourism boosters couldn’t be happier. Across the country, travel is expected to reach record highs, according to a forecast from AAA. [Source: Miami Herald]


Florida is the most dangerous place for homeless

Florida ranks first in the nation, again, as the most dangerous place for the homeless to live, according to the 2012 Homeless Hate Crimes report. The National Coalition for the Homeless has tracked violence against homeless people across the country since 1999. Homeless-on-homeless attacks are not included in the findings. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]


State lawmakers destroyed redistricting records

In new court filings, House and Senate Republican leaders are conceding they deleted records related to the 2012 re-drawing of congressional and legislative maps. But their lawyers argue they don't know what they were -- and were under no legal obligation to retain the records because no lawsuits had been filed when the records were destroyed. More from the Orlando Sentinel and the Times/Herald.


Rising sea levels torment coastal U.S. cities

The seas have risen and fallen before. What's new is the enormity of coastal development that will need to be protected, moved or abandoned. In this 21st century tale, an old fisherman isn't battling a large marlin (as in Ernest Hemingway's classic The Old Man and the Sea), but the cities are battling the seas. [Source: USA Today]


ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Food freebies a winning recipe for businesses
Free samples or free food are one tactic retailers and restaurants use to bring customers in, generate more sales or offer added-value customer service.

› Florida among 13 states with minimum wage increases come Jan. 1
While politicians in Washington wrangle over the latest attempt to hike the federal minimum wage, Florida's lowest-paid workers are already slated to get a raise in a couple weeks.

› Publix ups its game with prototype store
Look out, Whole Foods. You too, Starbucks. Publix on Thursday will open a prototype store in the Dr. Phillips neighborhood that aims to be much more than a typical supermarket. It offers a cooking school, shopping and delivery services, and a café.

› Amid controversy, SeaWorld starts using discounter Groupon
SeaWorld Entertainment Inc., which has generated record earnings growth this year by raising prices and reducing promotions, has begun using online discounter Groupon to sell tickets to SeaWorld Orlando.


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