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Friday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Florida's side hustle entrepreneurs chase dreams — with little downtime
From a bow tie maker and a wedding officiant to a mobile cookie seller and a voiceover professional, Florida is dotted with side hustlers. Some run small businesses for their day jobs, while others head up offices and divisions of successful companies. Some take on the extra work merely for extra money, while others do it with the hope of building their own sustainable business someday. More from the Business Observer.
Bill targeting Florida’s algae problems heads to Senate floor
Water quality legislation pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to pass the Florida Senate, but many environmental advocates worry that the bill is not aggressive enough to have much of an impact. Senate Bill 712 — dubbed the Clean Waterways Act — cleared its final committee Thursday and now heads to the Senate floor. The bill is a response to environmental problems that have plagued the state in recent years, from toxic blue-green algae in estuaries connected to Lake Okeechobee to red tide and algae-choked springs. More from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Column: How to divorce your business partner
We all know that you can divorce your husband or your wife when the relationship turns bad, but can you divorce your business partner? You sure can. It is amazing how many business people have never signed an operating agreement or a written agreement of any kind. Business owners in Florida seem to love the good old-fashioned handshake. For some businesses, this works just fine. For others, it creates a huge mess in the event of a dispute. More from the Miami Herald.
UCF seeks to cut ties with struggling manufacturing facility BRIDG
UCF leaders will move to cut off funding to a struggling manufacturing facility that once promised to bring thousands of high-paying jobs to Osceola County. After months of urging BRIDG leaders to cut costs, the University of Central Florida will terminate its agreement with BRIDG, which is trying to find another investor to take its place. More from the Orlando Sentinel.
Three JEA bidders sue to keep secret the dollar amounts of their offers
NextEra Energy and two other firms that bid for JEA are taking legal action to block the utility from releasing information about how many billions of dollars each company offered for JEA. The lawsuit, which the companies filed Thursday, will shift the decision to the courtroom on whether the public can learn the full range of offers that were on the table when the JEA board voted in December to kill the sales negotiations. More from the Florida Times-Union.
Florida History
The rise and fall of three of Florida’s wealthiest men
You might wonder if John Ringling, James Deering and Henry Flagler were in some sort of competition to build the most garish and over-the-top mansions. When you stand in each of the man’s homes, you try to imagine anyone actually living there; to imagine kids racing down its marbled halls.
» More from the Florida Times-Union.
Out of the Box
Remember that yacht that got ‘arrested’? It’s been freed from custody.
A brand new 74-foot yacht placed under arrest at last fall’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show has been sprung from custody and returned to its manufacturer. The decision by a federal judge last week to free the Sunseeker Sport Yacht leaves Wellington-based contractor Kevin Turner in the same, uh, boat as he was in before the arrest: He’s still out $4 million that he paid a local yacht broker to have the boat built. He still has no boat. And his lawsuit against the manufacturer is still pending in state court.
» Read more from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
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