March 28, 2024

Tuesday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 5/19/2020

This pot of money is there to help the jobless. Florida can’t figure out how to tap it

Fifty-three days after Congress passed the CARES Act, Floridian Tim Young still waits on jobless benefits. He fits in a particularly uncomfortable niche: people who had exhausted their annual state benefits before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the nation. Federal emergency funds were aside to fill this gap, but Florida has yet to put in place a mechanism for Young and others to receive it. More from McClatchy.

Tropical Storm Arthur still churning, projected to turn south, send big waves to Florida

Tropical Storm Arthur gained strength since Monday, but is projected to become a post-tropical storm as it turns and heads south toward Bermuda, although it could grow even stronger today, The effects of the storm that formed over the weekend will still be felt in Florida as the week progresses. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

SpaceX Crew Dragon arrives at Kennedy Space Center launch complex

The plan to fly astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time since the space shuttle era is one step closer as the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule arrived to Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center over the weekend. NASA tweeted out images of the spacecraft’s arrival as it will be mated with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ahead of the planned launch on May 27. More from the Orlando Sentinel.

Sarasota approves $10 million contract for last leg of beleaguered city sewer project

Sarasota city commissioners on Monday approved a $10.1 million construction contract for the last leg of Lift Station 87, a long-delayed, over budget city sewer project. Commissioners awarded the contract to Winter Garden-based Garney Companies Inc. to build new gravity sewer mains. But that decision did not come without some strong reservations. “This has just been a nightmare of a project,” said Commissioner Liz Alpert. More from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried: DeSantis froze me out of coronavirus plans

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried is the only statewide elected Democrat in Florida, and one of just four members of the state Cabinet. But for the past two months amid the coronavirus pandemic, she can’t get the governor’s office to talk to her about the coronavirus crisis gripping the state. More from the Orlando Sentinel.

Transportation
For years, Miami-Dade promised to modernize traffic lights. Why the wait continues

 Easing congestion in Miami-Dade by letting computers decide when lights turn green may get delayed again over the tricky question of when it’s okay for the county not to accept the lowest bid. Siemens, a global manufacturer out of Germany, won a bidding contest last fall to install computerized traffic-management systems at 2,900 intersections, a project that would complete one of the original goals outlined in the 2002 referendum that passed a half-percent sales tax for transportation projects.

» More from the Miami Herald.

 

Entertainment
Derby Lane to welcome back fans, poker players Wednesday

floridaDogs resumed racing on May 8, and now historic Derby Lane is set to welcome back the fans who bet on them, as well as poker players, on Wednesday. With other businesses, including casinos, opening around the state, Derby Lane CEO Richard Winning said they felt they had the proper protocols in place to get back to their usual business for the first time since the mid-March shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

» Read more from the Tampa Bay Times.

Tags: Daily Pulse, Afternoon Pulse

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Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices
Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices

Central Floirda chocolate shops are left with a bitter taste as cocoa prices hit an all-time high earlier this week.

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