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Thursday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Highest-paying jobs in Florida average 6-figures, medicine tops list
Cardiologists, emergency medicine physicians, and orthopedic surgeons have the highest average annual wages among jobs in Florida. The average for orthopedic surgeons was $320,430, for instance. While the average annual wage for Florida was $55,980 in May 2022, the 30 jobs with the highest averages in the state were over double that. More from the Business Insider.
Miami-based Ryder establishes technology lab in Silicon Valley
Miami-based Ryder System is branching out to Silicon Valley. The logistics and transportation company established Baton, a Ryder technology lab in San Francisco to pioneer new customer-facing tech that digitizes and optimizes supply chain networks. One of the goals is to prepare Ryder for changes in the industry sparked by the rise of artificial intelligence. More from the South Florida Business Journal.
SpaceX boosts Intelsat satellite from Florida, kicking off busy month of launches
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket vaulted away from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Thursday to carry a commercial communications satellite to orbit. Of the 39 launches from the Space Coast this year, SpaceX has carried out all but two of them. With August just getting started, more launch action is on the way. More from Florida Today.
FPL spends $70 million on land in Myakka City and Immokalee
Florida Power & Light has bought about 7,000 acres of land along the Gulf Coast — deals that closed just weeks before its parent company’s CFO told investors the energy giant expects to spend billions on its solar infrastructure in the coming years. The purchases were made in Manatee and Collier counties, and total 16 full parcels and portions of three others. County court and property records show the company spent $30 million for 3,400 acres in Myakka City, Manatee County, on June 15 and $40.5 million for about 3,177 acres in Immokalee, Collier County, on June 30. More from the Business Observer.
Landstar System sees its earnings, revenue drop
Landstar System Inc. reported lower second-quarter earnings and revenue, as expected, and the Jacksonville-based trucking company sees that trend continuing. “We don’t expect much change to the overall freight economy in the 2023 third quarter compared to what we experienced in the 2023 first half,” CEO Jim Gattoni said in Landstar’s quarterly conference call with analysts July 27. More from the Jacksonville Daily Record.
Out of the Box
What's that strange circle in Banana River? World War II bombing target
It started with a post on the private Facebook page, "Wake up Cocoa Beach." Samantha Barrick asked, “Hey, does anybody know what this used to be? It’s near (SR) 528 in the river!” Attached was a photo of a rusted, barnacled circle of metal protruding from the Banana River. "A fish trap," someone wrote. "Florida’s Stonehenge" was another reply. And yet another: "It was built to retrieve a rocket that landed in the river." Three strikes.
» More from Florida Today.
Tech Trends
Only 900,000 landlines left in Florida, down from peak of 12 million
Florida’s business and residential telecommunication wireline markets continued to follow the national trend with significant decreases, according to the Florida Public Service Commission’s annual “Report on the Status of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry.” For the twelfth year, the number of business landlines exceeded residential landlines, although both experienced significant drops in 2022. Residential landlines declined by 16.5 percent, and business landlines declined by 21.3 percent.
» Read more from Flagler Live.
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