Fewer Florida Nurses Have Bachelor's Degrees
Nurses in Florida are falling behind the rest of the country in terms of education, and that could be bad news for patients, a new University of Florida study suggests. A survey of 49,385 registered nurses revealed that the state has a significantly lower percentage of nurses with baccalaureate and graduate degrees than the nation as a whole -- 41 percent versus 50 percent nationally. Previous research has found that the odds of patient mortality are significantly lower in hospitals where a high proportion of nurses have a baccalaureate or higher degree. "The lower educational levels are not only worrisome because of possible effects on the quality and safety of patient care, but the pipeline for nursing faculty is greatly hampered when there are fewer nurses with graduate degrees," said lead researcher Donna Neff, an assistant professor in the UF College of Nursing. Neff said she sees the development of new RN-to-BSN programs in many of the state's colleges as a positive first step toward reducing the disparity. The bachelor's degree is the foundation for graduate-level education required for advance practice and faculty positions. [Source: Gainesville Sun]
'Vote of Confidence' for Hospitality Jobs
Students at the University of Central Florida got an encouraging sign Thursday: A job fair that actually featured jobs.
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Florida Threatens to Start a 2012 Primary Stampede
Influential Florida Republicans are once again squaring off with the Republican National Committee over the timing of the state's 2012 primary election in a battle that could jumpstart the presidential campaign season.
| Florida Guide to Meetings and Conferences |
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Lawsuits Challenge Florida Redistricting Changes
After a hard-fought political campaign, voters approved two measures last fall that would change how Florida's congressional and legislative districts are drawn every decade. Now, the real brawling is starting in the courts.
The Pen is Mightier... |
High-Speed Rail: Scott's Final Answer Is No; Court Challenge Possible
Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday rejected a plan for a coalition of local governments to take over a controversial high-speed rail project but advocates were exploring ways to challenge him in court. "I remain convinced that the construction cost overruns, the operating cost risk, the risk that we would give the money back if it's ever shut down, is too much for the taxpayers of the state," Scott told the Times/Herald. As the newly elected Republican governor held firm, there was talk in Tallahassee and Washington of a last-ditch effort to block him. Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, said he hopes U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood gives Florida more time before reallocating the $2.4 billion to other states so lawmakers can explore challenging the governor on constitutional grounds. "I believe that he exceeded his executive authority and in a very strong sense we have a Constitutional crisis on our hands," Altman said. He noted that the Legislature, in a highly unusual move, held a special session and voted to accept the federal money and build high speed rail. "We have a law on the books," he said, and quoted the portion of the Florida Constitution that reads: "The Governor shall take care that the laws of Florida are faithfully executed." "The governor has completely ignored that," Altman said. [Source: St. Petersburg Times]
Related:
» The Rejected Proposal
» Response from Senator Nelson
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Bankruptcy Filings, Foreclosures Expected to Pick Up Again
The drawn-out financial squeeze afflicting many in Tampa Bay appears to be easing.
Not only have we seen a reprieve in foreclosure filings, but bankruptcy filings have also fallen significantly the past two months.
The number of Tampa cases filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court's Middle District of Florida fell 10 percent in December and was down 21 percent in January compared to year-ago numbers. For the entire district — which also includes Jacksonville, Orlando and Fort Myers — filings fell 13 percent in December and 6.3 percent last month compared to 2010 levels.
Paul M. "Bill" Glenn, the district's chief bankruptcy judge, said Thursday that February's numbers are on track to be slightly lower than a year ago as well.
That echoes a national trend. In January, there were slightly more than 90,000 bankruptcy filings, the first time in a year that monthly filings fell below 100,000.
If only the reprieve would last.
› Summit Touts Innovation Gainesville's Impact on Community
A lineup of true believers testified that Innovation Gainesville is already benefiting the community as architects of the jobs plan held a pep rally to motivate volunteers and recruit new ones to work on the goals for year two during the first iG Summit Thursday at the Best Western Gateway Grand.
Innovation Gainesville is the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce's plan to position the community as a hub for green and health technologies announced a year ago. The announcement came after a year of planning that involved input from hundreds of people in business, government, education and nonprofit agencies. About 100 community leaders gathered for Thursday's summit.
Jane Muir of the University of Florida Office of Technology Licensing said a large venture capital firm they are trying to recruit was most impressed by how the community has embraced bringing innovations such as those that spin out of UF research to market.
"iG has enabled us to get the attention of some very large players, and I envision working collaboratively with iG as we go out and market Innovation Square," she said.
UF and private owners are developing Innovation Square and the Innovation Hub on and around the former Shands AGH site for UF spinoffs and related businesses, making it a focal point for high-tech economic development efforts.
› Sanborn Studios Won't Seek $500,000 from Sarasota County
Sanborn Studios withdrew its request for a $500,000 economic development grant from Sarasota County on Thursday, county officials said. Sanborn Studios had been seeking the grant for additional post-production equipment for its $30 million film production studio in Lakewood Ranch. The company had already received a $650,000 grant from the county's Economic Development Incentive Grant program.
Ken Sanborn, the company's founder, was supposed to come to a county commission meeting on Tuesday to ask for the additional grant. He never showed up, citing a scheduling conflict. A commissioner said Sanborn likely did not come because he sensed the commission would be reluctant to give the company more money.
› Car Dealers Sue Palm Beach County Tax Collector
The idea was to shorten lines at driver's license offices for county residents, by having car dealers go elsewhere, but the solution isn't going over well with dealers.
A Tallahassee-based auto dealership association has sued Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon, alleging she does not have the authority to ban local dealers from processing multiple title and registrations at her offices.
Gannon this year contracted with a private tag agency to handle the dealer workload. The tag agency is set to begin processing the work on Tuesday.
But The Florida Independent Automobile Dealers Association and two of its members, Prime Autos, of West Palm Beach, and Off Lease Only, of Lake Worth, say the shift will add about $20 to the cost of a new car. And they fear there is nothing to prevent the private tag agency from increasing its fees.
› Scientists Investigating Unusual Dolphin Deaths in Gulf
Usually, a few dead dolphins wash ashore along gulf beaches in the first few months of the year. Some are killed by Red Tide or other toxic algae blooms, some by diseases, some by cold.
But this year something different is happening. Since Jan. 1, a total of 48 dead bottlenose dolphins have washed up on the beaches of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida's Panhandle.
Most of them — 29, which includes two of the three found in Florida — were either newborn, miscarried or stillborn calves. There were reports of five more washing ashore Thursday, but scientists had not yet verified them or added them to the official count.
The suspicion is that somehow the oil or chemical dispersants from last summer's Deepwater Horizon disaster killed them. Activists from the National Wildlife Federation and other groups blogging about the deaths and posting items on Twitter have linked the spike in deaths to the oil spill. ABC and CNN have jumped on the story.
However, the culprit could turn out to be something else, scientists say.
» Related video from the Associated Press:
› House May Regulate 'Dispensing' Docs Instead of Using Drug Database
Florida House leaders are mulling a new way to curb the state's prescription drug abuse epidemic: They want to go after the doctors dispensing the pain medications that ultimately wind up on the street.
House Speaker Dean Cannon said he wants to take an "upstream approach" to the prescription drug crisis by changing the way certain physicians are allowed to essentially run their own drug stores without oversight by the state pharmacy board.
The new approach makes the reality of the state's yet-to-be-implemented drug database even more precarious after Gov. Rick Scott said he wants to scrap the system.
"We know Florida is a place where a disproportionate amount of inappropriate prescriptions of these drugs is going on," Cannon, R-Winter Park, said Thursday. "Let's figure out how much and then let's look to see if there's an upstream solution."
Cannon has ordered Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Robert Schenck, who held a nearly two-hour long meeting on the drug database Thursday afternoon, to come up with a plan to reduce the supply of the pain medications on the front end.
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› Ex-Treasurer of Taylor, Bean Admits to $1.9 Billion Mortgage Fraud
The former treasurer of Ocala's Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., once the nation's 12th largest mortgage lender, admitted to helping run a $1.9 billion fraud scheme that targeted the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program and contributed to the failure of Colonial Bank.
Desiree Brown, 45, and a resident of Citrus County, pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Va., to wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiring to commit bank fraud. She also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors bringing Lee Farkas, 58, Taylor Bean's former chairman and CEO, to trial on April 4. Farkas was charged in a 16-count indictment in June and faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.
» Related: Dubious Achievers -- Lee Farkas
› More Doctors Moving to Underserved North Port
When Dr. Elizabeth Cefalu left behind a booming practice in Pennsylvania coal country for the Southwest Florida sun, she did not realize she was trading one under-serviced area for another -- albeit warmer -- one. Since moving to offices above North Port's emergency care facility this month, she has seen a steady stream of patients, five to six a day.
"Most of the people I've seen haven't had any care in a while, because they just chose not to," said Cefalu, saying that many cite the inconvenience of driving to Venice or Port Charlotte where physicians are more plentiful.
North Port has long struggled with a lack of doctors. The federal government has designated the city as having a doctor shortage, and the fact that nearby cities, even smaller ones, have their own hospitals while North Port does not has slowed the arrival of doctors to this suburban city.
But the arrival of more private medical practices and expansion of the county health department and Sarasota Memorial Hospital are slowly changing that.
› Orange, Orlando Mayors Unite Behind Arts Center Revival Plan
Two weeks ago, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs blasted the finances of a plan to build a new downtown performing arts center, but Thursday she joined the center's board and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer in a pledge to get the project on track again.
Earlier in the day, Dyer and Jacobs officially unveiled a plan to move ahead on a $283 million first phase of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The centerpiece of it is creation of a new nonprofit company to oversee a construction process that Jacobs said was riddled with contract and management concerns.
The arts center board voted unanimously to create the new oversight company.
"Most of the questions we raised are being addressed through this process," Jacobs said. "I think we're in very good shape to move forward, to answer the unanswered questions."
› Boeing Wins $35 Billion Contract to Replace MacDill's Refueling Planes
Boeing won a $35 billion contract Thursday to build the next generation of air refueling planes, a long-awaited deal that will include the replacement of a fleet of Eisenhower-era tanker aircraft stationed at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base.
"What we can tell you was that Boeing was a clear winner," Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said in announcing the decision at the Pentagon.
The decision was a surprise, as defense analysts and even some lawmakers had expected the Air Force to award the contract to Netherlands-based European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. It was a blow to Alabama, which had been counting on that company to assemble the aircraft at a long-shuttered military base in Mobile.
Production will occur in Everett, Wash., Wichita, Kan., and dozens of other states. Boeing has said the contract will mean 50,000 jobs.
› SinoFresh Hires Firm to Explore Funding Sources
SinoFresh HealthCare Inc., the marker of the nasal spray of the same name, said it has hired a South Florida capital advisory firm to explore funding sources for the local company's expansion.
Hollywood-based Tudog Capital, a division of Tudog Consulting, says it has worked with more than 100 companies.
Tudog Capital is led by Neil Swartz and describes itself as "a consulting firm dedicated to structuring and procuring capital for emerging growth companies."
The company already has "begun providing near-term financing at market price for restricted stock to SinoFresh HealthCare Inc. and has negotiated the purchase of existing debt from several parties."
Tudog Capital also is "in the process of completing and implementing plans for long term financing to support the company's strategic growth plan," SinoFresh said.
SinoFresh has announced several recent moves and deals aimed at reviving its sales, including the recent hiring of a national wholesale director.
› Bill Would Make Boselli-Like Workers' Comp Filings Illegal
After an eight-year career in the trenches of the National Football League, Tony Boselli's body was beaten up.
Like many who get hurt on the job, the first ever draft pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars filed a workers' compensation claim to try to transform his work-related pain into financial gain. He filed in California, thousands of miles from Jacksonville or Houston, the two cities where he professionally donned pads.
"Based on the advice I was given at the time, it was the surest way to make sure medical bills I had would be taken care of," he said.
It was a sound strategy.
Because they have more relaxed workers' compensation laws, employees from across the country who worked temporarily in California but live in other states routinely file compensation claims there.
"No company wants to be in California, they are the real problem. They really have some of the most liberal policies on the issue," said Rep. Mike Weinstein, R-Jacksonville.
He has filed a bill that would make what Boselli did — and more than 100 other former Florida professional athletes — illegal in the future. The legislation would no longer allow a Florida employee, regardless of profession, who gets hurt while temporarily working in another state from winning a workers' compensation claim in that state and sticking their Florida-based employer with the bill.
› Proscenium Developer Accuses Partners of Stealing
The developer behind the never-built 18-story Proscenium has accused former partners of stealing $531,000 from the failed downtown real estate project. Zebco Development LLC, a company created by Zeb Portanova, claims that former partners Gary Moyer, Karen Cook and their Lion's Gate Development Co. embezzled the money from accounts that were funding the proposed $1 billion project.
In a counterclaim filed in Sarasota County Circuit Court, Zebco also alleges that Moyer and Cook "misled and defrauded" their former partner and "stole the funds knowing that the Proscenium Entities owed Portanova and other third parties hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars."
Moyer and his attorney said the lawsuit was "purely retaliatory" and have filed a motion with the court to dismiss Zebco's claim.