March 29, 2024

Tuesday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 7/5/2022

As residents struggle to pay for food, rent, Florida pawn shops are busy

Thanks to the price of gas, food, and rent, business at pawn shops is booming. People are selling what they have to pay their bills. "Sadly, with the economy and everything in the uptake, fuel prices, inflation, and everything. Yeah, we've seen a lot of new faces, we've seen a transition," said Jose Leyva with Larry's Estate Jewelry & Pawn. He's been in the business for more than 20 years and said the last six to eight months have been tough on his customers. He said it used to be that people would come in looking to find that rare treasure. Now, people arrive hoping to sell, and too often take what they can get, to make ends meet any way they can. More from CBS News and WINK.

Homebuying program for frontline workers provides over $5 million to Floridians in its first month

A new statewide housing program dispersed about $1.2 million in down-payment assistance for frontline workers in the greater Tampa Bay region during June. It was the first month the Florida Hometown Heroes Housing Program began providing eligible homebuyers loans of up to $25,000 to use for down-payment and closing-cost assistance. Thousands of loan officers at 226 participating lender institutions across the state are working with clients to reserve Hometown Heroes loans, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. More from WUSF.

Florida’s 15-week abortion ban temporarily blocked, then reinstated

Florida’s 15-week abortion ban was temporarily halted Tuesday morning when a Leon County circuit judge issued the injunction he promised last week. In a 68-page order, Circuit Judge John C. Cooper said he was bound by Florida Supreme Court precedent, which ruled in 1989 that Florida’s right to privacy, enshrined in the state constitution, protected the right to abortion. More from the Tampa Bay Times.

State of the unions: Labor movement efforts grow in Northeast Florida

The number of workers who belong to unions had been dropping for decades, but recent studies show the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the labor force changed that, too. Across the country, workers everywhere from tech companies to warehouses have started forming unions in their workplaces. From Oct. 1, 2021, to March 31 of this year, union representation petitions filed at the NLRB have increased 57% — up to 1,174 from 748 during the same time period from late 2020 to early 2021, according to an April news release from the National Labor Relations Board. More from the Florida Times-Union.

Parkland takes first steps to spend millions to control future of golf course

Encouraged by Heron Bay residents to “step up” to control a development project, Parkland city leaders have unanimously agreed to begin the process to buy a defunct golf course. It’ll help give the city a final say on what development would rise in the spot. They stopped short of actually committing to buy the course yet — but instructed their staff on Thursday to embark on a lengthy to-do list to lead up to it, including appraisals and a market analysis. “There’s a long road to go,” warned Mayor Richard Walker. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Out of the Box
Tampa’s Outback made Bloomin’ Onion NFTs. They were gone in 20 minutes.

The baby onions are adorable, tiny little buds with big, shiny eyes. The teenage onions have props and a bit more personality, with their stalks tousled in different hairstyles. The adult onions are fully bloomed, with deep-fried petals fanned wide. That’s the life cycle of a Bloomin’ Bud, the name given to Outback Steakhouse’s first series of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Outback, the flagship brand of Tampa’s Bloomin’ Brands restaurant group, gave out more than 8,000 free digital images June 23 in one of the company’s first big swings in metaverse marketing.

» More from the Tampa Bay Times.

 

End of an Era
Dog Days for the Canine Commandos: Acclaimed schools pet program ending after 20 years

For the Canine Commandos, the dog days have finally arrived. After nearly 20 years — and more close calls than founder and former Brevard Public Schools teacher Virginia Hamilton would care to think about — the popular school pet-training program is closing its doors for good, another victim of the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges. Hamilton's program has bused in grade-school students from around the county to work with dogs and cats in local shelters since 2003, helping to socialize the animals and make them more adoptable.

» Read more from Florida Today.

Tags: Daily Pulse, Afternoon Pulse

In case you missed it:

Florida Trend Video Pick

Facial recognition cameras in Florida city spark privacy concerns
Facial recognition cameras in Florida city spark privacy concerns

New security cameras in downtown Lakeland are raising concerns about privacy. The Lakeland Downtown Development Authority has begun installing 13 new security cameras on streets, sidewalks, and alleyways, and there are mixed feelings about them.

Video Picks | Viewpoints@FloridaTrend

Ballot Box

Should Congress ban the popular social media app TikTok in the U.S.?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Need more details
  • What is TikTok?
  • Other (Comment below)

See Results

Florida Trend Media Company
490 1st Ave S
St Petersburg, FL 33701
727.821.5800

© Copyright 2024 Trend Magazines Inc. All rights reserved.