March 28, 2024

Tuesday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 1/31/2023

South Florida’s allure in 2022 made Miami-Dade’s business openings among best in U.S.

South Florida added thousands of new businesses in 2022, putting the region in the top three metropolitan areas nationwide for openings of everything from retailers to law offices. Riding a population boom, the Miami metro area recorded 20,572 new openings — third most in the country — 14% more than 17,971 openings in 2021, according to a survey by Yelp, the online review platform. South Florida ranked just behind Los Angeles and New York City for the most business growth last year. More from the Miami Herald.

Money matters: Analysis reveals what it takes to be a top 1% earner in Florida

What does it take to be a member of the top 1% earner (taxpayer) club in Florida? Well, certainly a lot of money, but maybe not as much as you might think. SmartAsset analyzed income data to determine the minimum income required to be among the top 1% of earners in each state. To do so, it used data from the IRS and Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report was released last week (Jan. 24). More from the Fort Myers News Press.

Judge dismisses migrant records case

A Leon County circuit judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that the Florida Department of Transportation and a contractor did not fully comply with public-records requests about controversial state-funded flights of migrants to Massachusetts. Judge Angela Dempsey last week issued two similar decisions rejecting the lawsuit that the non-profit Florida Center for Government Accountability filed in October against the Department of Transportation and Vertol Systems Company, Inc. More from the News Service of Florida.

Space Coast bustling with 4 crew launches on tap from SpaceX, Boeing

Before summer, 14 more humans could launch from U.S. soil as SpaceX has three missions set to lift off from Kennedy Space Center on Crew Dragons while Boeing looks to send its CST-100 Starliner up to the International Space Station for the first time with people on board. “We’re heading into, I would say one of the busiest increments in the history of station,” said Kathryn Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate at press conference last week. “We have a string of critical missions coming up.” More from the Orlando Sentinel.

DeSantis seeks to put road work in overdrive

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday pitched a $7 billion proposal to speed completion of 20 highway projects as a deadline nears for him to roll out a budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year. DeSantis described his four-year “Moving Florida Forward” proposal, which would use borrowed money and draw funding from reserves, as “things we're going to have to do anyways.” More from the News Service of Florida.

Out of the Box
Florida Owl finalist in ‘Superb Owl’ contest, Hoo could win $5K with your vote

Super Bowl is right around the corner and one contest is playing off the game, but with winged-players. It’s called ‘Superb Owl’ and a Central Florida owl made it to the finals, vying for the title ‘Superb Owl 2023′ and a $5,000 donation to a charity that saved his life. “He may be small, but his personality is Eagle size. He has a lot of attitude and he thinks he is a much bigger raptor than he is,” said education manager Daisy Fiore.

» More from Click Orlando.

 

Sports Business
MLB looking forward to working with St. Petersburg on Rays stadium

Major League Baseball appears on board with the Rays’ plans to build a new stadium adjacent to their current Tropicana Field location. The team is set to begin negotiations soon, after St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch on Monday chose a group led by the team and the global Hines company to lead the redevelopment of the 86-acre Historic Gas Plant District, including a new stadium.

» Read more from the Tampa Bay Times.

Tags: Daily Pulse, Afternoon Pulse

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Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices
Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices

Central Floirda chocolate shops are left with a bitter taste as cocoa prices hit an all-time high earlier this week.

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