Tuesday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 6/25/2019

Florida Trend Exclusive

Florida Legal Elite 2019 - Florida’s top lawyers

For the 16th year, Florida Legal Elite presents a prestigious roster of attorneys chosen for recognition by their peers. The 1,126 lawyers listed here exemplify a standard of excellence in their profession and by so doing, have garnered the respect and esteem of their colleagues. See this year's honorees.

Seeing Green: Florida Readies Hemp Program

Florida is edging closer to a legal hemp industry. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) wrapped its final rulemaking workshop Monday. Farmers, lobbyists and officials packed the auditorium of the R.A. Gray Building in Tallahassee to ask questions and share thoughts, in the the culmination of three days of workshops across the state. Nikki Fried, state agriculture commissioner, told the crowd it’s about creating a partnership between her department and farmers. More from WFSU.

Governor DeSantis signs education bill expanding apprenticeship programs

More Florida students will soon get the opportunity for hands on learning through apprenticeships with high-tech manufacturing companies. Governor Ron DeSantis signed an education bill into law Monday which expands the apprenticeship program. DeSantis highlighted an apprenticeship program where Eastern Florida State College students learned how to manufacture aerospace parts at Lockheed Martin. More from WMFE.

Florida is full of cheating hearts, survey finds

Romantics looking for love and committed relationships in Florida may want to think again or look someplace else. The Sunshine State had the most cities with cheaters, according to Ashley Madison, the controversial Canada-based online dating and social networking service targeting people who are married or in relationships. More from the Orlando Sentinel.

How do you get rid of fruit flies? Flood the country with billions of them.

A small airplane soaring 2,000 feet above the ground on Monday released a steady stream of Mediterranean fruit flies, all of them male, into the air above Florida’s affluent Palm Beach County. The population would be considered invasive in the wild, but officials prefer to call them “sterile” because these particular flies can no longer do the damage an invasive species can. The mission of those flies? Mate with the local females. More from The New Food Economy.

Commentary
Virgin Trains beginning an important link between Miami and Orlando today

This is an exciting time for Orlando and Miami as Virgin Trains USA starts a project that has been decades in the making for Orange and Miami-Dade counties: an express train that will connect our two urban areas and usher in a new era that is sure to spark economic development along the route and the ease of travel between our two metropolitan areas.

» More from Orlando Sentinel.

Florida Small Business
Getting Started

Building a business from the ground up can be both an exhilarating and exhausting experience. Do you have what it takes to start a business and keep it going? There’s only one way to find out, and the journey starts here.