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Monday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Some Florida small business owners concerned as Gas Tax Holiday comes to an end
On Tuesday, gas prices will begin to go back up as the state's gas tax holiday comes to an end. About 25 cents were knocked off prices for the past month after Gov. Ron DeSantis approved the holiday during a legislative session this year. Soaring prices are once again at the top of everyone’s minds. For small-business owners, the rise in gasoline has made things difficult. More from WPBF and WUSF.
After voter fraud arrests, Florida issues new forms that could bolster future cases
A week after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the arrests of 20 people for alleged voter fraud, his administration quietly made a change that some say could help the state go after more people. Starting in August, Floridians on probation have been required to sign an updated form placing the burden on them to determine if they’re eligible to vote. More from the Tampa Bay Times.
Businesses reap economic gains from Georgia-Florida festivities, game
Tens of thousands of Florida Gator and Georgia Bulldog fans from near and far filled the stands of the TIAA Bank Field Saturday afternoon to watch this year’s much anticipated Georgia-Florida matchup, resulting in a major boost for the Jacksonville economy. Football fans started making their way to Florida as early as last Sunday to get in line for RV City’s opening and prepare for the “World’s Largest Cocktail Party,” which meant fans also spent their money patronizing local businesses including restaurants, hotels and bars. More from News4Jax.
Commercial lunar lander’s delay to 2023 latest speedbump in NASA program
Astrobotic Technology announced this month its lunar lander Peregrine would not be ready for launch until next year, yet another example of the numerous delays that have played out in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which ambitiously shot for the stars and has yet to land a project on the moon. At some point next year, the in-development United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket, which is facing its own delays, has plans to carry on its debut launch the Peregrine lander, which in turn is carrying 14 different NASA experimental technologies that aim to enhance NASA’s lunar knowledge prior to putting humans back on the moon. More from the Orlando Sentinel.
State looks to remove derelict boats after Ian
Of 7,000 boats believed displaced by Hurricane Ian, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported Friday that owners of about 50 have given derelict vessels to the state. With about 2,100 displaced boats in state waters, the agency has given owners until Nov. 15 to remove those vessels or get them into non-derelict condition. More from the News Service of Florida.
Sylvester breaks ground on Transformational Cancer Research Building to accelerate new cures
Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth-University of Miami Health System and the only cancer center in South Florida to be ranked by U.S. News & World Report 2022-2023 Best Hospitals for Cancer, continues to be at the forefront of cancer care and research. In June, they celebrated the groundbreaking of the 244,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center-Transformational Cancer Research Building (TCRB). [Sponsored report]
In Memoriam
Tom Austin’s ‘strange wanderings’ chronicled South Beach. He has died — his work lives on
Tom Austin, the Miami Beach writer whose “lifetime of quixotic crusades and strange wanderings” chronicled South Beach and South Florida like few before, or since, has died. “If a historian in the future wants to understand the rise of Miami as an arts and culture city, you got to read Tom Austin,” said William Booth, the London bureau chief for the Washington Post who met Austin when Booth was Miami’s bureau chief.
» More from the Miami Herald.
Profile
Constance Collins
Constance Collins is $6.1 million into a $20-million campaign to build a “children’s village” across from the Lotus House women’s shelter she founded in Overtown in Miami. The challenge of raising another $14 million doesn’t seem to weigh on her. There were sleepless nights when she first founded her shelter — she chucked a seven-figure income and used a third of her net worth to open it — but not now, Collins says. She says, wryly, she’s generally too exhausted at day’s end to be kept awake.
» Read more from Florida Trend.
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