Monday's Daily Pulse

What you need to know about Florida today

| 9/28/2020

› DeSantis Order Would Allow Florida Theme Parks to Operate at Normal Capacity [Bay News 9]
On Friday Gov. Ron DeSantis said as part of Phase 3, theme parks have the ability to increase capacity and return to normal operations with social distancing protocols. Universal Orlando, SeaWorld and Walt Disney World have been open for months, but are currently limiting the number of guests that come through their gates. Kevin Murphy, a professor at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, said the Friday announcement is big news for the economy.

› Hazouri extends JEA investigative committee deadline and Rory Diamond resigns from panel [Florida Times Union]
The Jacksonville City Council's expansive investigation of last year's attempted sale of JEA will get a new deadline of Dec. 31 after City Council President Tommy Hazouri gave it a three-month extension so "no stones will be left unturned."

› Longtime director of Miami Beach Convention Center Norman Litz dies at 89 [Miami Herald]
As a kid, Steve Litz could rattle off facts about the Miami Beach Convention Center as if he were the facility’s director. Of course he wasn’t, but his father, Norman Litz, was. Norman Litz, the longtime director of the convention center and a community leader, died at 89 of lung cancer on Tuesday, his son’s 54th birthday. “Miami Beach was really lucky to have a guy like Norm Litz,” Steve Litz said about his dad.

› After 40 years, Skipper’s Smokehouse owner looking to sell [Tampa Bay Times]
Skipper’s Smokehouse’s long, strange trip is coming to an end. Owner Tom White announced Friday that he’s looking to sell his beloved Tampa concert venue and mullet shack, effective at the end of this weekend’s 40th anniversary celebration.

"It was nerve wracking, to say the least."

-- Derek Jeter

Derek Jeter watched the Miami Marlins clinch their first playoff spot in 17 years from a distance.

The franchise’s CEO was back in Miami on Friday night as the Marlins defeated the New York Yankees, a team he played with for all 20 years of his Hall-of-Fame career, to secure a postseason berth.

The Marlins celebrated at Yankee Stadium, six years to the day after Jeter hit a walk-off single in his final home game as a player.

Jeter, three years into the Marlins’ rebuild that he has had a heavy hand in creating, could take some time to reflect even if it was from a distance.