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Monday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Tropical Storm Delta forms, expected to approach Gulf Coast as hurricane
Tropical Storm Delta formed in the Caribbean Sea Monday morning, the 25th named storm in a historic hurricane season. As of 8 a.m., the storm was located about 130 miles south of Negril, Jamaica. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 9 mph and was traveling west-northwest at 9 mph. The current forecast track has Delta getting into the Gulf of Mexico later this week, then hitting Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. More from the Tampa Bay Times and the Orlando Sentinel.
Ocala/Marion County CEP named chamber of the year
The Ocala/Marion County Chamber & Economic Partnership was named the chamber of the year by one of the most prestigious chamber organizations in North America. The announcement came last week during the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives annual convention, which was held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More from the Ocala Star-Banner.
‘Scrubtober’ strikes again as weather scraps another SpaceX launch set for today
The Space Coast’s bad luck with “Scrubtober" is continuing, as SpaceX once again had to delay the launching of another batch of Starlink satellites. But tomorrow is another day to try. "We are standing down from today’s Starlink mission due to weather violations on the Range,'' SpaceX tweeted “The team is setting up for a launch opportunity tomorrow [Tuesday] at 7:29 a.m. EDT; weather forecast is 70% favorable for liftoff.” More from the Orlando Sentinel.
Coronavirus pandemic clouds future for Tampa Bay’s downtowns
In both Tampa and St. Petersburg, business owners, patrons and analysts alike are wondering whether the face of the region’s downtown areas will be forever changed by the coronavirus pandemic and its forceful shift of many employees to remote work. While the answer to that question is still coming into focus, there are early warning signs that Tampa Bay’s downtown economies have taken a blow. More from the Tampa Bay Times.
Jacksonville Beach becomes a debt-free city after 8 years of paydown
When the calendar rolled over to Oct. 1, the city of Jacksonville Beach officially wrote "debt-free" on that date. That's a rarity in municipal finance. Over the past eight years, Jacksonville Beach zeroed out almost $42 million in debt. Whether the city maintains that status will depend largely on the next set of City Council members who will take office after the Nov. 3 election. More from the Florida Times-Union.
In Memoriam
Advice for living from the matriarch of Pass-a-Grille
For most of her life, Mary Falkenstein had three striped tan lines across her feet. At St. Pete’s Pass-a-Grille Beach, she wasn’t a sunbather or a poolside idler. Mrs. Falkenstein was working. Seven days a week, from sunrise to bedtime, she wore sturdy, strappy sandals and walked from The Keystone Motel on Gulf Way to The Hurricane Seafood Restaurant and back. She owned both and worked at both, up and down the motel’s steps with towels and soap and solutions, down the sidewalk to the restaurant to greet guests sampling her renowned crab cakes. Mrs. Falkenstein never retired.
» More from the Tampa Bay Times.
Florida Dining
Is this the most-Miami cookbook? These top chefs share their favorite secret recipes
Make those Coyo Taco carnitas tacos at home. Or that “sexy salad” from Nikki Beach. Just when Miami is looking for new things to cook during its extended break from restaurants, a local writer has put together a new cookbook with recipes from some of Miami’s best chefs and restaurants. Titled simply, “Miami Cooks,” the new book includes 35 recipes — beautifully photographed —ranging from the accessible to ambitious for those of us who have cooked our way through family recipes.
» Read more from the Miami Herald.
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