Thursday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 4/14/2016

Near-average 2016 Atlantic hurricane season is predicted

The Colorado State University's annual preseason hurricane forecast predicts average activity including 12 named storms and five hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, university researcher Philip J. Klotzbach announced Thursday. Of those, researchers expect five to become hurricanes and two to reach major hurricane strength. Statistically, Florida has a 51 percent probability of being hit by a hurricane and a 21 percent chance of a major hurricane hit, said Klotzbach. That is the highest likelihood of any coastal state in the nation. » See the full report from CSU; download the PDF.
Also read more at TCPalm, USA Today, the Palm Beach Post, and the Washington Post.

Which party wins White House could impact stock market returns

Which party wins the United States presidential election in November could have a major impact on how investors play the stock market for years to come, says a Florida Atlantic University College of Business professor who has studied financial implications of political power struggles. "The conventional wisdom is gridlock is good for the market, but actually the data show the opposite," said Luis Garcia-Feijoo, Ph.D., a professor of finance at FAU and the study's co-author. "In fact, market returns are higher when there's harmony, not gridlock." See the story from FAU, here.

Orlando judge named to secretive U.S. surveillance court

An Orlando federal judge, Anne C. Conway, has been named to the secretive U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court – known for issuing classified demands to companies like Twitter, to turn over records on users. More from the Orlando Sentinel.

Sen. Marco Rubio seeks end to special refugee status for Cuban immigrants

Sen. Marco Rubio, who based his presidential bid this year in part on his personal story as the son of poor Cuban immigrants, on Wednesday urged Congress to end a decades-old program that’s enabled immigrants from the island to get welfare benefits from the moment they set foot on American soil. More from the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times.

CSX plans more cuts in response to slower freight volume

CSX railroad plans to continue cutting costs this year to deal with slowing freight volume and declining profits. Executives at the Jacksonville, Florida, based railroad discussed their outlook Wednesday - one day after reporting a 19 percent drop in first quarter profit. More from the AP.

Medicine
Miami Transplant Institute

Four lives were saved by the generosity of four separate strangers — only meeting for the first time after the good deed was done. Last April, for the first time in Florida, physicians at the Miami Transplant Institute (MTI), an affiliation between Jackson Health System and UHealth–University of Miami Health System, performed a four-way paired kidney exchange. Full story here. [Sponsored Report]

Florida Icon
George Billiris

Sponge industrialist George Billiris looks back on his life of sponging: “In today’s world, you have about 1,400 commercial uses for natural sponge. Anything that has to do with the cleansing or the smoothing of an object in the commercial world, they use a natural sponge."