Florida Gov. Rick Scott told lawmakers in his first State of the State speech Tuesday that his plans to reshape government, cut corporate taxes and other moves to make the state more business-friendly can make it a national model for job creation. Scott acknowledged critics who say his proposals to reduce the size of government, get rid of regulations and streamline government functions go too far. Scott is also being criticized by state workers who protested outside the Capitol because he wants them to begin paying into their pension plans while cutting other benefits. "Government grew way beyond its ability to pay for its promises, and the jobs disappeared," Scott said. "The first step to better times is acknowledging that government cannot afford what some have come to expect. Doing what must be done will not make me most popular, but I'm determined to make Florida most likely to succeed." The emphasis on Scott's speech was jobs — a word he used more than 20 times. [Source: AP]
Related:
» Prepared text of Scott's speech
» Word Cloud of Scott's speech
State Parks Could Host Golf Courses
Florida officials have proudly touted the state's award-winning park system for years. The parks, hailed as the best in the nation, offer everything from rivers for kayaking to beaches for soaking in the sun to forest trails for extended hiking. But two state legislators think Florida's parks are missing something crucial: golf courses. And not just any golf courses —— courses designed and built by the Golden Bear himself, Jack Nicklaus. Bills filed last week by Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, and Rep. Patrick Rooney, R-West Palm Beach, would require the state Division of Recreation and Parks to hire Nicklaus Design to build courses in state parks in every region of the state, creating a Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail around Florida. The goal of SB 1846 and HB 1239: "to stimulate the growth of tourism and the state economy by enhancing the state's reputation as a premier golfing destination and encouraging the location of public golf facilities within Florida's existing state parks." The bills both call for at least one Nicklaus-designed course to be built in state parks in all five regions of Florida. [Source: St. Petersburg Times]
» Golf Getaways in Florida
» Florida Icon: Arnold Palmer
» Florida Icon:
Juan 'Chi Chi' Rodriguez
COLUMN: Recovery Still Slow for the Arts
There's been a lot of talk lately about whether Orlando and Orange County can afford to build a new downtown performing arts center. Not talked about as much, but just as important, is whether local arts groups can afford to stay afloat long enough to someday perform there.
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Scott's Take on Education Reform is Textbook Jeb
Gov. Rick Scott sees the school calendar as arbitrary, Florida's classrooms as a throwback to five decades ago and choices such as home schooling quashed by bureaucratic barriers.
 "Our digital learning bill will really change the way our school districts think about and hire teachers." — Patricia Levesque, chairwoman, |
Ruling Could Clear Way for Prescription Drug Monitoring in Florida
Just as Gov. Rick Scott and his allies prepare to dismantle the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, a judge in Tallahassee on Tuesday cleared the way for the system to start operating.
In a 72-page decision, Administrative Law Judge Robert E. Meale dismissed the bid protest of Optimum Technology, Inc., which claimed Department of Health improperly denied it the job of running a program aimed at stemming improper sales of prescription narcotics in Florida.
The PDMP became law in 2009, but it was never actually started, in part because of two bid protests by Ohio-based Optimum. Scott and House leaders want to kill the monitoring system, while Senate leaders support it. Florida is the largest state without a monitoring system similar to those already operating in 34 states.
If Florida's program goes into effect, it will track prescriptions for controlled substances filled by pharmacists and medical practitioners. It aims to thwart "doctor-shopping" by people who go from doctor to doctor, and pharmacy to pharmacy, filling duplicative prescriptions for powerful medications.
[Source: St. Petersburg Times]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Small Farms on the Rise in Tampa Bay Area
On his day off, Tampa chef Ferrell Alvarez treks from his house in Seminole Heights to an industrial stretch of Linebaugh Avenue to pick lettuce and collard greens.
Alvarez, executive chef at Harbour Island's trendy Café DuFrain, makes his weekly journey to Dave and Cathy Hume's tiny Urban Oasis hydroponic farm, looking for the freshest food to serve his customers.
"People really dig that," said Alvarez. "I like to think I'm the only guy working this hard to do this."
Like a growing number of people across the country, Alvarez, 32, wants to get as close to the source of his food as possible. And he can't get much closer than picking it himself from the rows of stacked foam planters filling the Humes' acre of land off Linebaugh.
The narrow, fenced-in site sits between industrial lots. A few years ago, the property was littered with cast-off hot tubs. Now, it grows everything from leaf lettuce to broccoli and tomatoes.
The farm reflects a movement that has swept the country in recent years: eating from local sources.
› Boynton Town Center Sells for $59 Million
The four-year-old Boynton Town Center has been sold for $59 million, in what industry experts say is Palm Beach County's most expensive retail real estate sale since 2008.
Canadian real estate firm Morguard Corp. bought the high-traffic shopping center on North Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach from an affiliate of St. Petersburg-based Sembler Co., which developed the center in 2007.
The Boynton Town Center includes such tenants as Best Buy, Total Wine and Michael's. The center is also anchored by a SuperTarget building, but that building is owned by Target Corp. and was not included in the sale to Morguard.
The center was at 92 percent occupancy when it was sold, according to CB Richard Ellis, which represented Sembler in the deal.
› Identity Theft Complaints Ebb in U.S., Florida
Has identity theft hits its peak? Federal officials hope so, based on the latest data, but the jury is still out.
Complaints about identity theft in Florida dropped slightly last year, but the state still had the highest ID theft complaint rate in the country, the government said Tuesday.
ID theft complaints ebbed nearly 5 percent in the Sunshine State in 2010, the second straight year fewer people have reported being targeted by identity thieves, according to the Federal Trade Commission's annual report on consumer fraud. Florida's ID theft complaints dipped 7.3 percent in 2009.
Still, Florida's slight dropoff in ID theft complaints fell short of the national trend: Overall complaints in the U.S. fell 10 percent last year, after a 11.5 percent decrease in 2009, according to FTC data.
For the second year in a row, Florida had the nation's highest number of ID theft complaints per 100,000 residents (114.8), though that was down from 122.3 per capita in 2009.
› Amway Center Construction Ends Up Over Budget
Orlando's new Amway Center arena could cost as much as $10 million more than its original $480 million price tag.
The final tally on the city's most expensive public building still isn't finished, but officials acknowledge the Orlando Magic's new home court is over budget.
The city owns the arena, but construction was controlled by the Magic. The team is still negotiating the final tab with its builders, but president Alex Martins said it's expected to cost $2 million to $10 million more than planned.
Orlando officials aren't worried, though. When Magic executives were trying to convince elected officials to approve the new arena, they agreed to cover any unexpected construction costs. So taxpayers aren't on the hook for the extra expenses.
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› UF Researcher Creates Plan to Protect U.S. Banana Supply
he banana consumers know today could disappear from U.S. store shelves because of a tropical disease, just as its predecessor did more than 50 years ago, and a University of Florida researcher warns that awareness is needed to stop history from repeating itself.
Tropical race four of Panama disease, or TR4, wreaks havoc on banana plants by traveling up their trunk and killing their canopy. It appeared in the 1990s and destroyed banana plantations in Southeast Asia and Australia but has yet to arrive in the Western Hemisphere. There is no treatment for the disease.
In response to the TR4 threat, UF researcher Randy Ploetz has developed a six-part action plan that he is sharing at international banana conferences. Ploetz, a plant pathologist with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, was the first to identify TR4 in 1990. He is based at UF's Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead.
› Florida Bank Agrees to Regulatory Oversight
Federal regulators are reining in operations at financially troubled Florida Bank Group.
Florida Bank has $840 million in assets and operates eight branches in the bay area. It has 60 days to develop plans to strengthen board oversight, tighten and improve its lending requirements and strengthen credit-risk management practices.
The bank has agreed not to take on any additional debt, pay dividends, or take out other capital for payments without approval of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. It has 10 days from the date of the agreement to either charge off or collect any assets that regulators have classified as a loss.
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› In Business Since 1953, Tackle Box Is Closing
The Tackle Box Pro Shop is closing after nearly 58 years.
Owner Judy Daemer said it is with a "certain amount of sadness" that she closes the business she grew up in.
She cited the poor economy and her desire to retire and do something else after more than 35 years in the business.
The shop is closed until Thursday morning to prepare for a closeout sale. Everything from the tackle and bait to the store fixtures and even the building and land between Hawthorne Road and Newnan's Lake are up for sale.
Her father, Charles Clark, and uncle, Doug Cutts, opened the business on Sept. 25, 1953. Cutts left the business many years ago while Clark stayed until his death in 1997.
The Tackle Box served as a neighborhood general store in the days before convenience stores and chain drug stores -- offering food, over-the-counter drugs, hardware and gas along with fishing tackle.
› Coral Springs Sports Agent Accused of Siphoning $300,000 from Player
A Coral Springs sports agent pilfered more than $300,000 from a bank account belonging to his client, Angels first baseman Kendry Morales, over a two-year period, local authorities announced Tuesday.
Rodney Fernandez, 31, was jailed on grand theft charges after surrendering to the Broward Sheriff's Office on Monday. He was released Tuesday evening on $10,000 bond.
He has also been fired by Hendricks Sports Management, the Texas-based agency that hired him in November 2008 "to help recruit and serve pro baseball players," according to the Fernandez's arrest report.
› Court Approves Liquidator's Bid for Robb & Stucky
The sale of financially beleaguered retailer Robb & Stucky to liquidation firm Hudson Capital Partners of Massachusetts was approved Tuesday at a bankruptcy hearing in Tampa, an attorney representing the retailer said.
Hudson Capital, in a joint venture with Hyperams LLC, offered the highest bid for the Fort Myers-based retailer at an auction late Monday in Fort Lauderdale at the law office of Berger Singerman.
Last month, Robb & Stucky filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and agreed to allow Hudson Capital to liquidate its assets, unless better bids came at auction. Hudson Capital had agreed to pay about $35.4 million for Robb & Stucky's merchandise, according to court documents. The merchandise was valued at more than $40 million.
› Non-Lawyers Criticize Restrictions on Electronic Access to Case Files
While it is anyone's right to walk into the courthouse and view just about any case file, except those restricted by statute, the privilege to electronically access such records from a remote location is reserved for only a select group: Bar-licensed attorneys and state officials.
This restricted service, in place in Marion County since 2009, has rankled self-represented litigants like John G. Ghannam, who is serving as his own attorney in a two-year-old divorce proceeding.
"The courts are designed to be open to all litigants. If you grant access to one person, you should grant access to another party if they're representing themselves. You're prejudicing one party over the other," Ghannam said, citing the time and expense to trek to court to view his case file.
› Miami Beach: Billionaire Wife's Star Island Birthday Bash Illegal
The guests had arrived from Europe. The limos were on standby. And the beauty queen wife of one of the world's wealthiest men — No. 64, according to Forbes magazine — was getting ready to celebrate her 40th birthday with a multimillion dollar bash at a private Star Island mansion.
But a buzz kill of bureaucratic proportions loomed: The city of Miami Beach declared the party illegal and threatened to bust it up with code enforcement and police officers
Enter a Miami-Dade circuit court judge, who intervened following a hastily called emergency meeting at the county courthouse on Saturday.
Kirsty's Fabulous 40th birthday bash was back on.
› Canker Jury Awards $210 for Each Palm Beach County Tree Taken
Palm Beach County homeowners whose healthy citrus trees were destroyed during the state's citrus canker eradication program should be paid $210 per tree, a jury concluded today.
A 12-member Palm Beach County Circuit Court jury said the state owes $12,211,704, or $210 on average per tree for the 66,493 trees cut down on residential properties.
The jury gave the state no credit for $100 Walmart vouchers it offered homeowners, but said that $55 payments some tree owners received should be deducted from what is due them.
The state had contended homeowners, who were offered the $100 Walmart cards for the first tree taken plus $55 for each subsequent tree, should receive no additional money. Attorneys for the homeowners had asked the jury to award more than $29 million, or an average of $438 per tree.