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Thursday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
In buying spree, credit unions snap up Florida banks
Credit unions long have taken pains to position themselves as the consumer-friendly alternative to money-grubbing banks, while banks for decades have chafed at credit unions’ tax exemption and incursions onto bankers’ turf. Now, with credit unions in full acquisition mode, tensions are rising. More from the Palm Beach Post.
Why is Brightline facing so many deaths? We need to ‘do more’ to stop them, CEO says.
The high-speed railroad is new. Its trains are fast. Many miles of its tracks are readily accessible. And over its first two years of operation, Brightline has outdistanced Tri-Rail and other lines across the nation in the rate of people killed along its tracks. Brightline acknowledged Wednesday that more needs to be done to prevent deaths, even though it says it front-loaded its early growth and development with a broad array of safety measures. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
At $60 million a mile, the Keys may abandon some roads to sea rise rather than raise them
Last month, the Keys asked the state for $150 million to address sea level rise. Newly released cost estimates show the county could blow that entire amount on a few miles of road elevation. Elevating less than three miles of Old State Road 4A on Sugarloaf Key to withstand sea rise and king tide by 2025 could cost $75 million dollars, Monroe’s head of resilience revealed. More from the Miami Herald.
Florida nursing homes grapple with generator requirement
Time is ticking for the state’s long-term care providers to comply with a requirement to have backup generators and fuel or face fines or even the possible revocation of their licenses. The backup emergency-power mandate was approved in state rules more than two years ago, after residents died at a Broward County nursing home following Hurricane Irma in September 2017. More from WPTV.
Concentrix to lay off up to 245 in Tampa
Concentrix, a company that provides call center and other support services to clients on six continents, is laying off as many as 245 of its employees in Tampa, though the company says it is not leaving the city. Rather, the company it will close one of its client programs doing business out of the Interstate Corporate Center. More from the Tampa Bay Times.
End of an Era
Pasadena Jewelers will close after three generations
Philip D’Elia is ending a three-generation family tradition. His store, Pasadena Jewelers, will close on Dec. 24, after 50 years in South Pasadena. But its history goes back further, to Ybor City, where D’Elia’s immigrant grandfather — after whom he’s named — opened a watchmaker and jewelry shop in the 1930s.
» More from the Tampa Bay Times.
Out of the Box
The future is now: Flying car comes to Miami
If you grew up watching “The Jetsons,” you may have thought that by the 21st century, we’d all have flying cars. It hasn’t quite worked out that way, but that could be changing — if you have $599,000 and a pilot’s license. As part of Art Week Miami, the 700-foot, 60-story Paramount World Center luxury condo tower under construction in downtown Miami will open its doors, and as part of that celebration, attendees will see the American debut of the world’s first commercially produced flying car.
» Read more from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
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