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Friday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Florida’s labor force nears pre-pandemic levels as COVID fears fade
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday that the state’s overall labor force climbed by 85,000 between March and April. It’s the fourth-straight month the figure has increased — and at 10,357,000 workers, Florida’s labor force has nearly returned to the level last seen in August 2019. The state’s workforce high-water mark came in October 2019 when it hit 10,463,000. More from the Miami Herald.
Florida lawmakers approved legalized sports betting. Now what?
State lawmakers spent just three days debating and voting on a number of bills to reshape Florida’s gambling landscape, and observers and advocates are still processing. By far the biggest change is the expansion of sports betting in Florida — now the largest state in the nation to offer sports betting. Here’s what we know — and some of what we don’t — about what sports betting will look like in the Sunshine State: More from the Tampa Bay Times.
Jacksonville Jaguars partnering with LIFT JAX to help revitalize the historic Eastside
He was a drug dealer who helped build the community's reputation for crime. Ultimately, Miller's bad deeds caught up with him. He was arrested in 1991, was found guilty and sentenced to serve a mandatory 10-year sentence in prison. But that wasn't the end of his story. After his release from prison in 2002, Miller turned his life around. He has been the owner of the Man Cave barbershop on A. Phillip Randolph Boulevard since 2013. More from the Florida Times-Union.
Imagine Clearwater groundbreaking delayed due to uncertainty over commodities prices
City officials have agreed to postpone Monday’s long-anticipated groundbreaking of the estimated $64 million transformation of the downtown waterfront in light of soaring costs of building materials and the uncertainty that brings to one of the city’s largest infrastructure projects. Mayor Frank Hibbard made the proposal at Thursday’s city council meeting after consulting with City Manager Bill Horne and Assistant City Manager Michael Delk earlier in the day. His colleagues on the council agreed unanimously. More from the Tampa Bay Times.
Keeping customers (and their pets) happy drives dogged entrepreneur
Despite being the daughter of business owners and entrepreneurs, Tricia Bolds wasn’t set on that path, at first, for a career. A Sarasota native, Bolds moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to chase modeling work. She had some success, too, yet the lure of running something on her own brought her back to Florida. A lifelong dog owner, Bolds got into pet food and products in the mid 2000s — back when it was big but nothing like the $90 billion behemoth industry it is today. Her company, Gulf Coast Pet Supplies, got its start in 2007 when she sold Litter Quitters and Cat Genies of out of her garage. More from the Business Observer.
Business Beat - Week of May 21
Get the top news-to-know with Florida Trend's headline-focused video newsbrief, hosted by digital content specialist Aimée Alexander.
Out of the Box
Is the old St. Pete Melting Pot haunted? Ghost hunters went inside.
The Melting Pot was hot, but not with the beefy, dinner steam of coq a vin. The air conditioning was off in the empty building, heavy with late spring humidity. And maybe something else? Brandy Stark held a digital thermometer above gutted tables.
“If anybody’s present, can you make the temperature drop for us? It’s 84.7. Can you drop the temperature to 84.5? 84.5. It’s dropping. Can you do it?”
The thermometer ticked down...
» Read more from the Tampa Bay Times.
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