Corporate millions pay off in 'pro-business' legislative agenda
With a former corporate executive in Gov. Rick Scott and growing Republican supermajorities controlling the Legislature, Florida is poised to enact sweeping "pro-business" and deregulatory changes in the next three weeks. And Florida's major corporations, regulated industries and business-backed interest groups have played an outsized role in making that happen. Of the 30 largest political contributors in Florida this year, all but two are corporations or business-backed interest groups such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce, governed and funded by corporate executives with financial stakes in the outcome of the legislative session. An Orlando Sentinel analysis of campaign-finance data released last week shows the top two dozen companies and interest groups gave a combined $4.2 million during the first three months of 2011 — a bit more than $500,000 to Democrats and the rest to the Republican Party of Florida, individual GOP lawmakers or the political funds they control. Those same 30 largest Florida contributors combined to pour more than $45 million into the 2010 elections, the vast majority of the money put to use for Republicans. It has paid off.
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Does pay inequality lead to infidelity?
By nearly any economic calculation, women earn less money than men. In Florida, it's about 20 percent less. But what would happen if we were to earn more than our masculine cohorts? As a workforce, we can only guess. But as wives, we may be more likely to find out our husbands have been unfaithful. That's if you believe study results from a Cornell University researcher saying that men who are economically dependant on their wives are five times more likely to cheat on them. But before anyone starts snooping through email accounts or combing over credit card statements, know that psychologists promptly poke holes in the findings while financial advisors easily offer up the infidelity anecdote. They all happen to agree, however, on the study's underlying premise, which is that married people earning unequal paychecks may wake up to one day find that the higher income earner has amassed a greater share of control. "If there's a severe or distinct power imbalance it can create a tremendous strain on couples," says Netta Shaked, a licensed psychologist and marriage and family therapist in Miami Beach. "And that can lead to all kinds of symptoms." One of them, says Cornell sociologist Christin Munsch, is to have sex with someone outside the marriage. She looked closely at responses from the National Longitudinal Study — which surveys the exact same Americans over a seven-year time period — and determined that young married men who earned less than 40 percent of their household's income most often reported having an additional sex partner or having sex with a stranger. She blames the phenomenon on our society targeting men as the breadwinners. [Source: Miami Herald]
Internet cafes create controversy statewide
Internet cafes that offer cash-prize sweepstakes have proliferated across Florida in recent years, raising the ire of critics who say the establishments amount to gambling parlors that cause trouble for communities. Owners and patrons, however, say they operate within the law as a wholesome pastime that generates millions of dollars for charity. Estimates on the number of locations offering electronic game promotions or drawings vary from 350 to 1,000 across the state, according to a Florida House of Representatives staff analysis. Gainesville has 11 such locations, with seven on the east side of town, according to city records. Various Florida municipalities have restricted Internet cafes with zoning regulations, while law enforcement agencies — including in Marion County — have conducted raids to shut them down, seizing equipment and arresting employees. But court cases against the owners have resulted in one not guilty verdict or have been dismissed by prosecutors and a judge because of uncertainties in state laws regulating gambling and game promotions. [Source: Gainesville Sun]
Related:
» Popular 'sweepstakes rooms' flourish in legal gray zone
Miami made a historic UK connection six months ago when it became the first U.S. outpost for a British-based university. That was when the University of Manchester's business school relocated its global master of business administration program from Jamaica to downtown Miami. "Miami is an international hub and a great business community," said Patrick Foran, Manchester's regional director for the United States. "From this location, we can attract [MBA students] from Latin America, Canada and the United States." In its new 3,000 square-foot-home within the 15-story Southeast Financial Center at 200 S. Biscayne Blvd., the Manchester Business School hopes to increase enrollment from 60 to 600 students in three years. By coming into Miami-Dade County, Manchester has entered an increasingly competitive market where foreign and at least one acclaimed out-of-state school have been setting up international MBA programs geared toward business managers all over the world who hope to learn from their professors as well as their classmates. At the same time, Florida International University and the University of Miami are expanding their executive and international MBA programs while Barry University is contemplating offering its own global MBA program. It's easy to understand the area's appeal, particularly for international business degrees. Jammed with 47 foreign banks and 1,000 multinational companies, Miami-Dade County is the epicenter of $79.2 billion worth of global trade annually, according to the Beacon Council, a nonprofit organization that seeks to attract more businesses to the county. [Source: Miami Herald]
» MBA Programs in Florida
A year after the BP spill, drilling discussion on the rise
One year later, the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history looks more and more like just a big bump in the road in the drive to drill deeper in the Gulf of Mexico and potentially closer to Florida's coastline. The Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 rig workers, spewed 60,000 barrels of oil a day for four months, cost five states billions of dollars in lost jobs and business, slimed marshes, beaches and wildlife from the Louisiana bayou to the Florida Panhandle, and left lingering toxic stains across complex food webs that scientists say will take years to fathom. A presidential commission report, issued in January, blamed just about every aspect of the offshore drilling industry — lapdog federal regulators, safety shortcuts by the British oil giant BP and its contractors and a high-risk "wildcat culture'' that pushed companies into more dangerous depths without capable backup containment options. Yet in the months since the anxious, ugly summer of the monster slick, political tide and public opinion seem to have shifted. One recent poll suggests growing support in Florida for drilling. A slew of proposals to tighten regulations or hike fees and fines on the industry have stalled in Congress.
Florida's Finances
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 Florida's Budget: An Interactive Flash presentation Find out where Florida's money comes from, where it goes and learn about the state's cash cows. » The State's Budget |
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Tampa's Encore project survived the recession, could help wider economy
From the air, a square, 40-acre splotch of dirt sits on a neglected edge of this city's downtown. At first glance, there's not much to look at, until you get closer and walk the dirt with a few passionate people, learn a bit of its history and a lot of its future. The dirt patch is the start of Encore, a mixed-use redevelopment project of apartments and commercial properties that holds promise for a major renewal to a blighted outskirt north and east of Tampa's downtown. The project is a venture between Bank of America and the Tampa Housing Authority. It's a project of good size and better imagination, cobbled together by a long list of financing sources. "We call it a city within a city," says an upbeat Roxanne Amoroso, who's leading this real estate project for Bank of America. "Do this well," she says, sweeping her arm across the project's still vacant acres, "and its success will spread."
› Diverse economy still elusive in Central Florida
The report last week measuring Walt Disney World's impact on the region dropped a lot of numbers, but not a lot of bombshells.
Disney says, for instance, that 6 percent of all jobs in Central Florida can be attributed to its resort, and its $18.2 billion in economic activity each year translates into 2.5 percent of the gross domestic product for the entire state. That certainly reinforces what we already knew: it's huge.
The more significant takeaway is just how far the region has to go to achieve economic diversity, often held up as the holy grail of financial stability because no one industry could sink an entire community.
Despite years of political and business leaders trying to diversify, and even with the hope that Lake Nona's "medical city" will bring more varied jobs, we still rise and fall with Disney.
› Faculty helped save UF agriculture research center
Unceasing state budget cuts have brought the tight-knit workers who toil in the soil at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center even closer together.
"The threat to close us down was a real wakeup call," said Jack Rechcigl, director of the center that dodged that bullet only to face more. "We're clearly headed toward more privatization. But morale is up after we proved we have team players willing to solve whatever comes at us."
Said Joyce Jones, an agriculture assistant for 20 years: "It's been scary, but what the faculty did to save our jobs was unbelievable. It made us all feel valued."
The 2005 closure threat touched off a lobbying effort by Tampa Bay strawberry, tomato, nursery and vegetable growers to save the teams of University of Florida entomologists, plant pathologists, soil scientists and cross breeding experts who help keep their industries alive.
› Heat's playoff run could provide stimulus
The parking lots on Biscayne, the ticket brokers online, the waitresses at Hooters, the concessionaires at the arena, the valets on the Beach and the bartenders at Bongos — everyone is beseeching the basketball gods for a deep playoff run by the Heat, which begins Round 1 Saturday by hosting the Philadelphia 76ers.
The NBA playoffs are a two-month-long bonanza for successful franchises, but also for the league, the networks and the businesses on basketball's periphery. Five years removed from its last playoff series win, the Heat, stacked with talent and owner of the second-best record in the Eastern Conference, is finally poised to be more than a first-round patsy. A ride all the way to the NBA Finals would mean as many as 16 home games in an arena that would otherwise be dark.
The NBA has plenty at stake, as well. Since LeBron James signed with Miami, infuriating fans across America, pro basketball ratings have soared, and the Heat has filled arenas all over the league. Fans want to see the three-star circus, if only to hurl insults.
"It's in the NBA's interest for the Heat to make a deep run," said Michael Lipman, president of White Glove International, a ticket brokerage located across the street from the AmericanAirlines Arena.
And that's just for starters. The Heat presents a case study in sports trickle-down economics, where countless ships in Miami's still sputtering financial climate stand to rise — or sink — with the fortunes of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
› Ocala water bottlers back for another round
An Ocala family's plan to bottle and sell the unique water flowing beneath eastern Marion County is back — with a twist.
The Moody family still plans to capture water from the 12-acre site it owns along the shore of Lake George in the Ocala National Forest.
But the proposed bottling part of the operation, once planned for an on-site, 29,000-square-foot plant, has shifted. The Moodys, according to their application with the county, instead intend to haul the water to a bottling facility elsewhere within the confines of the 18-county region covered by the St. Johns River Water Management District.
The application will assuredly rekindle the heated public debate that accompanied their first request to siphon up to 90,000 gallons a day for the project.
The County Commission rejected the proposal by a 3-2 vote after residents in a nearby Salt Springs community expressed concerns about depleted wells, their ruined quality of life by introducing a factory into a rural community, and setting a precedent for inviting more water bottlers.
That latter issue might get closer examination this time around.
› USF residencies at All Children's Hospital face an uncertain future
For nearly 40 years, future pediatricians from the University of South Florida's College of Medicine have done their on-the-job training — or residencies — at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
But that relationship faces an uncertain future with the arrival of Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine, which earlier this month formally joined forces with the 84-year-old pediatric hospital.
Hopkins officials want to turn All Children's into an academic and research powerhouse, and they're envisioning a new type of residency program as one way to help them get there.
USF's residency program at All Children's, meanwhile, is scheduled to end in 2014, which hospital officials say will allow the group of residents arriving this July to finish their three years of training without interruption.
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› Signs of growth and jobs seen in north Palm Beach County
An aerospace firm is coming to town, luxury homes are going up and new businesses are opening - all signals that there's a spark in the north Palm Beach County economy.
Palm Beach Gardens Councilman Joe Russo said dropping home prices might attract companies, and Friday's announcement that Palm Beach County's unemployment rate dropped to 10.6 percent in March from 11.1 percent in February is more good news.
"Home prices are back to earth. People can afford to live here again," Russo said.
About 60 businesses have opened in North Palm Beach since October, according to village records.
› Glass-printing startup is growing business one image at a time
By producing a tangible product, the founders of Fracture have had a lot more logistical challenges than most of their peers in the growing phenomenon of student startups in Gainesville.
While their friends create online services, downloads and smartphone applications for the digital world, Alex Theodore, 26, and Abhi Lokesh, 22, have had to tackle the challenges of manufacturing, industrial equipment, bulk materials, freight and shipping.
Their product is a piece of smooth glass printed with a digital photo. Customers log on to www.fractureme.com, select a size and shape of glass ranging from $8 to $35, upload personal digital photos and receive glossy "Fractures" of their photos in vivid colors, ready to hang.
Like their digital friends, Fracture has relied on social media to spread the word. After they had their friends call the TechCrunch tip line, sales spiked after a mention in the online technology blog on Oct. 14, 2010.
Lokesh said they had about 950 sales in the previous 10 months and 1,000 in the last two weeks of that month.
› For Hillsborough taxi drivers, long hours — and a dream of independence
For hours under the sun in a lot near Tampa International Airport, a harsh course in economics plays out.
Dozens of taxicabs snake into a queue. Men shout and engines start. The line barely budges.
Rene Jeune is up front now, having waited two hours for one customer. Farther back, Jean Bourdeau watches birds fight. He has just $25 in his pocket for five hours of work.
A few men play cards. Others read. Some doze off.
All tell a similar tale: They work 80-hour weeks, yet take home what a waiter earns in tips — about $200 to $300. Some are said to be homeless, sleeping in their cabs and living for their next fare.
This is the taxi business in Hills?orough County.
In most Florida counties, including Pinellas and Pasco, supply and demand work themselves out. Here, the rules are different.
» Related: How taxi companies Yellow Cab, United rose to dominance
› As gas costs climb, ridership on Metrorail is rising
M. Evelina Galang lives only four miles away from her job at the University of Miami campus, yet sometimes traffic is so bad during rush hour on U.S. 1 and its intersecting avenues that it takes the creative writing program director an hour to get home.
As she sits in traffic, she can see the Metrorail trains whizzing by, but although she has taken public transportation in every major city where she has lived — Manila, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. — Galang had never considered it an option in South Florida until now.
"There's a lack of trust," she says. "I've been living here for 11/2 years and I drive everywhere. In these other cities, you know it's [the train] coming, but here the perception is that you may be left stranded if a meeting or an event goes on too long."
But with gas prices on the rise and predicted to reach $5 a gallon this summer more people like Galang, who is spending about $45 every time she fills up her Honda, are reconsidering their transportation options. Metro-Dade Transit officials say the number of people boarding Metrorail trains increased by 7 percent from January 2010 to January 2011.
› Union leaders' complaint: Florida workers 'under assault'
When union leaders in Florida talk about the current political season, you might think they were reporting on the fighting in Libya.
"We represent the front-line workers in this state and they are under assault," said Jeanette Wynn, president of the Florida chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 110,000 workers statewide. "We're up against it."
"We're under attack," said Robert Dow, president of the 8,000-member Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association. "They are trying to pick off unions one at a time."
Pat Emmert, head of both the Central Labor Council and the AFL-CIO for Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, agreed.
"This legislature is assaulting the working class, middle class and the unions," she said. "I've never seen anything like it. We are the only thing between them and total control."
By "them," she and the others are referring to Republican Gov. Rick Scott and the GOP-controlled legislature.
› Jacksonville-based Body Central aims for the cutting edge of young women's fashion
For young women, the offices of Body Central Corp. might be fashion heaven.
There are clothes everywhere: hanging on racks, lying on tables and even stacked up on the floor. And all of it is targeted toward young women who want to wear the latest fashions at reasonable prices.
"Body Central is the place you want to come if you want to look good," said CEO Allen Weinstein.
"[Customers] see and they read about fashion," he said. "You have to keep bringing in fresh fashion."
In order to stock the company's 209 retail stores and catalog business with the freshest fashion, Jacksonville-based Body Central's employees are constantly evaluating new tops and dresses and accessories to stay at the cutting edge. Analysts call it "fast fashion," a trend in which retailers aim to bring in the latest styles quickly and offer them to customers at affordable prices.
"Luckily, we have very seasoned people who can make good judgements," said Chief Merchandising Officer Beth Angelo.
› Monin Gourmet Flavorings provides a family atmosphere
Lisa Ash lost count at 10,000 how many tea, coffee and cocktail concoctions she created for retail clients at Monin Gourmet Flavorings.
And that was in 2006.
"We're always developing a new signature drink that their customers can't get anywhere else," said the 47-year-old mixologist. "My favorite flavor? I love our Desert Peach, but right now I've moved on to chocolate and blackberry mocha."
Her workplace: the elegant lounge-like Monin Flavor Cafe hidden in a nondescript plant that's the unlikely birthplace of flavored drinks found at McDonald's McCafe, Seattle's Best Coffee, Capital Grille, Red Lobster, Carrabba's and 45,000 other restaurants in 22 countries across the Americas.
Indeed, few Americans ever heard of Monin until they discovered what's in its tall bottles that are a familiar sight in restaurant and coffeehouse bars.
Owned by the third generation of its French founder, Monin cranks 120 syrups from cucumber to candied orange with a team-oriented staff that's enjoying the good times of mercurial growth. Sales rose 12 percent to $45 million in 2010, up dramatically from $5 million a decade ago.