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Tuesday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
'The hurricane everyone forgot': Florida still waiting for federal aid
The bills and anxiety continue to pile up after Hurricane Michael. The Category 4 storm blazed a 90-mile path of destruction 60-miles wide when it blew across 10 Florida counties in October. It was the strongest storm to hit the U.S. since Hurricane Camille in 1969 and caused nearly $5 billion in damages to villages, cities and farms. Four months later, North Florida politicians in Tallahassee and Congress are not satisfied with the government’s response. More from the Tallahassee Democrat and NPR.
Florida Trend Exclusive
Inside one Florida company's damaging data-security lawsuit
Last June, an obscure Palm Coast firm briefly made national news for inadvertently exposing data on consumers and businesses to hackers. Exactis’ CEO, Steve Hardigree, 50, is a talkative man who wasn’t silenced by his lawyers — indeed, he couldn’t find a suitable lawyer for five months. Hardigree offers some insight in how a data-security case can look from the company’s side. [Source: Florida Trend]
BP oil spill money to help FSU revive Apalachicola oyster industry
Florida State University won permission Monday to use nearly $8 million from the state’s BP oil spill fund on a project aimed at reviving Apalachicola’s beleaguered wild oyster industry. Opposing FSU’s bid for the money: the oyster farming industry. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
Florida credit unions keep gobbling up banks
Florida remains a hot spot for credit unions eager to buy banks. Last week an Orlando credit union agreed to acquire a small bank in New Smyrna Beach, the third such deal involving Florida institutions so far this year. The spree of Florida banks selling to credit unions launched in 2015 in Southwest Florida, when Calusa Bank in Punta Gorda sold to Achieva Credit Union. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
SpaceX gets the OK from NASA to test its astronaut capsule in a March 2 launch
The next step in NASA’s plan to return astronauts to space from the U.S. has the green light to proceed. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon astronaut capsule has been given the OK to perform its test flight early Saturday morning, following an all-day readiness review at Kennedy Space Center this past Friday. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
See also:
» Florida Sets Its Sights On A New Era In Space
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Spirit Airlines plotted its comeback from a conference room in Miramar. It worked
In October 2015, people flying on Spirit had a 22 percent chance of arriving late to their destinations, making it the worst-performing airline for on-time arrivals in the U.S. Travelers complained to the U.S. Department of Transportation about Spirit more than three times as much as any other airline.
› New president brings energy, international perspective to Jacksonville’s duPont Fund
Two years ago Mari Kuraishi decided GlobalGiving, the Washington-based crowdfunding nonprofit she co-founded in 2002, was ready to tackle the world without her. So she took a sabbatical to test them both. In January she landed at Jacksonville-based Jessie Ball duPont Fund, as the philanthropy’s new president.
› Displaced by Hurricane Irma, chef seeks to revive business sales in North Port
Wesley Redhawk Wingate developed a love of cooking as a child, as he picked up tips from his uncle James Wesley “Bubba” Wingate in Jacksonville. He parlayed that love and a family recipe for smoked fish into Wesley’s Island Smokehouse in Islamorada and Uncle Wesley’s Florida Keys Style Smoked Fish Spread — until Sept. 10, 2017.
› Tampa Bay's office market faces a 'pivotal' year in 2019
Tampa’s central business district had the lowest office vacancy rate of any office market in the bay area as of the end of 2018. A new report by JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) showed the vacancy rate at 9 percent, compared to 11.6 percent in downtown St. Petersburg and a high of 24.6 percent in outlying areas of Pinellas County.
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