May 18, 2024

Thursday's Daily Pulse

What you need to know about Florida today

| 12/16/2021

Florida ports helping to ensure ‘Grinch doesn’t steal Christmas’

With more cargo ships turning to Florida seaports to avoid logjams at West Coast and upper East Coast ports, Florida seaports are demonstrating they’re open for business, the Florida Ports Council says. “Florida is where your success comes in, and our seaports are helping to ensure the cargo shipping logjam doesn’t become the ‘Grinch that stole Christmas,’” the council’s president and CEO Michael Rubin said in a statement. The state has been working hard to expand its capacity, Rubin notes. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposed budget for next year allocates nearly $117.3 million to help Florida’s 15 seaports better compete. The goal is to double their capacity to 8 million containers a year. [Source: The CEnter Square]

Why are paleontologists getting into Florida’s oyster business?

For the past few years, Paleontologist Greg Dietl has collaborated with Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to collect tens of thousands of oyster fossils from reefs like this one. The work is about more than paleontology: These ancient shells are crucial to understanding the decline of modern oyster reefs throughout the Florida Panhandle, and to restoring this vital habitat. [Source: Atlas Obscura]

Florida Trend Exclusive

Navy veteran ShaKeia Kegler's GovLia makes selling to the government easier for small businesses

By 11th grade, ShaKeia Kegler had at least some of her life figured out — she planned to join the Navy after graduating from Gibbs High in St. Petersburg. That didn’t please her mom, but for Kegler, the oldest of five sisters, the Navy was an immediate ticket to a job and a college degree. She could help support her family, particularly because money was tight and her mother had health issues, while securing her own future. Today, 10 years later, the 28-year-old Kegler is a startup entrepreneur in Fort Lauderdale on a mission to make selling to the government easier for small businesses. [Source: Florida Trend]

Report: Florida only state with passing grade for anti-child trafficking

Florida ranked first in a nationwide analysis of states’ efforts to combat child sex trafficking. According to a new report by Shared Hope International and the Institute for Justice and Advocacy, the majority of states, 40 out of 50, and the District of Columbia received failing grades for their anti-child and youth sex trafficking efforts. Florida was the only state to receive a C grade. Ten states received D grades and 40 states received F grades. No states received A or B grades. [Source: The Center Square]

Royal Caribbean to shuffle world’s largest cruise ship up to Port Canaveral

Earlier this year Royal Caribbean decided to shift plans and send what will be the new world’s largest cruise ship, Wonder of the Seas, to Florida instead of China. While it will debut in March out of Port Everglades, the company decided to shuffle its Oasis-class arsenal in the fall and send the ship up to Port Canaveral starting in November. Port Canaveral has hosted three of its sister ships and currently hosts Harmony of the Seas. The line sails them out of PortMiami as well. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

Outside general counsel builds inside legal strengths

Earlier this year Royal Caribbean decided to shift plans and send what will be the new world’s largest cruise ship, Wonder of the Seas, to Florida instead of China. While it will debut in March out of Port Everglades, the company decided to shuffle its Oasis-class arsenal in the fall and send the ship up to Port Canaveral starting in November. Port Canaveral has hosted three of its sister ships and currently hosts Harmony of the Seas. The line sails them out of PortMiami as well. [Sponsored report]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› From fast food to affordable housing, Udonis Haslem is a presence off the court in Miami
It sometimes feels like Udonis Haslem might never retire from basketball or leave the Miami Heat. Whenever he does, he will still have his hands full. He owns Subway stores and Starbucks coffee shops. He brought a pizza joint from Los Angeles to South Florida with the help of Dwyane Wade and launched a fashion line last year.

› Tallest office building in Bradenton rebounds since pandemic, four new leases
Despite occupancy rates dipping to near 80% in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, downtown Bradenton's tallest office building has rebounded and is now looking for just one more tenant to achieve full occupancy, according to a news release. Savlan Capital purchased the Bradenton Financial Center for $14.95 million a little more than two years ago, but only a couple months before the virus that caused COVID was discovered.

› Holding back the storm: UNF scientists at work on project to toughen up coastal sand dunes
Picture this, in the future as a big hurricane threatens to rip apart the coast, big tanker trucks line up at the beaches with hoses spraying a liquid mix onto fragile dunes. It's a compound that would toughen up the dunes and give them a chance to hold back the raging seawater that's coming. It would be similar to how trucks up North go out to salt roads in advance of an ice storm, said Terri Ellis, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of North Florida.

› Osceola inks agreement for $1 billion NeoCity town center
Osceola County has sealed the deal with South Korean tech billionaire Young-hwa Song to sell up to 70 acres in NeoCity for a future mixed-use town center that will combine luxury living with shops and restaurants and a new performing arts center on the lakefront, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

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