Thursday's Afternoon Update

Florida Counties, Cities Can't Afford Worker Pensions

Cities and counties throughout Florida have promised more than they can afford in retirement benefits to their employees -- a "ticking time bomb" for local governments, a new study concludes. Pension obligations made up about 8 percent of total spending by counties and cities in 2009, according to the report by the nonprofit, nonpartisan LeRoy Collins Institute at Florida State University. "This is money that is being obligated, promises that are being made to local employees,'' Carol Weissert, director of the institute, said in an interview. "Many of the cities and some of the counties just aren't paying for them, so they are obligations that are just getting bigger and bigger.'' [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Related:
» Full report from LeRoy Collins Institute

Darden Restaurants Enforces Tip-Sharing Policy

Orlando-based Darden Restaurants is standardizing how waiters and waitresses at Olive Garden and Red Lobster share tips with bartenders and busboys under a new policy that's part of a larger plan to trim labor costs. In Central Florida, where the new formal tip-share policy has already started, some employees say that hourly wages for bartenders and busboys have been reduced as a result, in some cases by several dollars an hour. While many servers already share tips, Darden is now requiring it and setting percentages, saying its new policy will set standards and even the playing field. It plans to take the policy nationwide at the two chains. It's part of a plan to eventually save $30 million to $40 million each year in labor costs. Darden — with about 175,000 employees and restaurant labor costs of $2.4 billion — might also hire a smaller percentage of full-time workers, is trying to make merit-pay increases more consistent and is trying to schedule more efficiently. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

Delano to Expand Outside U.S.

The Delano is going abroad. Morgans Hotel Group, owner of the famous South Beach boutique lodging pioneer, announced Thursday that it had signed hotel management agreements that will expand the Delano brand to Mexico and Turkey. The 114-room Delano in Cabo San Lucas, on Mexico's Baja Peninsula, is under construction and expected to open in early 2013. In Turkey, the 200-room hotel will be on the Aegean Sea. Also pegged to a 2013 opening, the resort will have several restaurants and bars, a Turkish spa and a focus on water sports. This isn't the first Delano expansion Morgans has planned over the years. Plans announced in 2006 to build a resort in Las Vegas fell through due to a shaky credit market. A little over two years ago, Morgans said it would open a Delano in Dubai in 2012. An update on that project was not immediately available, though the company did not mention it in Thursday's announcement. [Source: Miami Herald]

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» Favorite Luxury Resorts
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» Delano Hotel

COLUMN: Don't Bank on Fair, Modified Mortgages

We expect big banks to be greedy and heartless and willing to smack us with petty fees, of course. But shafting homeowners with bad faith come-ons? I once thought banks would have too much to lose to risk acting like such flim-flammers. But now? Heck, we know lots of the biggest banks made billions selling packages of shaky home mortgage debt as prime investments. And we know lawyers handling mortgage foreclosures for banks have repeatedly filed bogus documents as fake proof of legal standing to foreclose. So, maybe it's no real surprise that some of the meanest bank dishonesty happens now in one-to-one conversations with people struggling to make mortgage payments and trying to get help. Susan Frasca-Foley is one such person, and she says the stress of becoming a victim of a bank shell game that promised her a loan modification and then took it away almost killed her. But she's fighting back, and I hope she wins. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]

Kissimmee Nudist Group Offers Naked Truth on iPhone App

Looking for information about the nudist lifestyle? Now there's even an app for that. Just don't expect to see any photos — at least not nude ones. The largest and oldest nudist organization in the country, based in Kissimmee, debuted the free "Nakation" app on iPhone a month ago as part of a social-media push to keep nearly 50,000 members connected and to share news from the clothing-optional world. It's the first nudist app, which the American Association of Nude Recreation says has been downloaded nearly 800 times so far. "I'm not a computer person," said Susan Weaver, the group's president. "But it's obvious to everyone, including me, that social media is going to be dominating the future. It's the new way people interact socially, legislatively and in marketing." [Source: Orlando Sentinel]