MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2010
STATEWIDE:
Leading Candidates for Florida Governor Cautious on Issues
As state lawmakers grapple with how to close a $3.2 billion budget gap and shrink unemployment ranks, Florida's leading candidates for governor are playing it safe.
Neither Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum nor Democrat Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink has advanced a bold agenda to influence any of the major policies that either could inherit on inauguration day in January.
McCollum says he won't be "getting into the weeds on the budget. Sink says she'll be keeping ``a very watchful eye'' on lawmakers.
[Source: Miami Herald]
Related story, from Politifact Florida:
Claim unfairly tars McCollum’s Record
INDIANTOWN:
Power Plants Go Hybrid
When FP&L's power plant in Martin County is completed by the end of the year, this vast project will be the world’s second-largest solar plant.
But that is not its real novelty. The solar array is being grafted onto the back of the nation’s largest fossil-fuel power plant, fired by natural gas. It's an experiment in whether conventional power generation can be married with renewable power in a way that lowers costs and spares the environment.
[Source: NY Times]
Related:
- Florida Power & Light is a Florida Trend Newsmaker of 2009
for their work on the environment -
UF students' solar-powered home will compete in European contest - Gainesville Sun
- Energizing Prosperity - Business Florida
A round up of solar power, and green power projects around the state.
Miami:
Desperate Condo, Homeowner Associations Thrown a Lifeline
Revenue-starved condominium and homeowners associations struggling to keep the taps running and the lawns mowed have found a novel way to squeeze money from units that don't pay what they owe.
It's called a reverse foreclosure, a tool that can force banks to pay association maintenance fees when unit owners don't.
It's a way for associations to halt the decline that begins when one owner quits paying maintenance fees, followed by another, then another, forcing a reduction in general maintenance, driving down property values even more, and leaving a community riddled with vacancies and vandalism.
[Source: Miami Herald]
Related:
- Florida slow to spend federal grant money to refurbish housing- St. Petersburg Times
- Foreclosures - A New Home for Auctions - Florida Trend
STATEWIDE:
Sen. George LeMieux Works to Build His Own Political Brand
Though only a temporary lawmaker filling the final 16 months of retired Sen. Mel Martinez's term, LeMieux has been relentless in trying to generate notice, whether through news releases or Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or extensive travel.
The 40-year-old Republican says he is working hard to represent Florida and communicating in ways that reflect a changing society. But there is a clear endgame to his ubiquitous message. The part-time public official wants a full-time gig.
[Source: St. Petersburg Times]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Python hunting season begins today
Time to put those snake-stalking skills to work. State wildlife officials have created a special python hunting season to try to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout the Everglades and the hunting begins today.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says anyone with a hunting license who pays a $26 permit fee can kill the reptiles from today to April 17 on state-managed lands around the Everglades in South Florida.
› Obama sets conference on future of space program
President Barack Obama plans to host a conference in Florida next month on his administration's approach to the next step in space exploration.
The White House says Obama and top officials as well as leaders in space will discuss the future of U.S. efforts in human space flight. Details of the conference, scheduled for April 15, are to be announced later.
› Crist's plan to buy sugar land is under siege
Twenty months after Gov. Charlie Crist unveiled his $1.75 billion bid to buy out the U.S. Sugar Corp., the proposal is at serious risk of slipping away -- rather, what's left of it.
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Boca Raton bank closed
Sun American Bank of Boca Raton was the fourth bank in Florida to fail so far this year.
› Restaurants: Darden tells state it needs more time for job goals
Darden Restaurants gave official notice to the state last week that it needs more time to meet job-growth goals originally outlined for the south Orlando headquarters that opened in September.
Darden is eligible for $2.5 million in state and county tax incentives tied to that job growth - part of a larger economic-development package approved when the company decided to build its new headquarters in Orange County instead of moving out of the area. The company was supposed to add 191 new corporate jobs from 2006 to the end of 2009, and 500 by 2013.
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Column: In Florida, Web operations sprout to report on the Capitol
These days anybody with a little Internet savvy and a laptop can start up a blog or news Web site, but it costs a bit more to provide daily coverage of the governor and Legislature. In Florida there are no rules governing who can get press credentials and start writing about state government and its major players in the Capitol.
› Orlando International Airport ranks No. 1 for low airfares
Orlando International Airport has the lowest average airfares of any major airport in the country, according to the airport's latest research.
The average price for a one-way, nonstop domestic flight to or from Orlando fell to $107.45 in recent months, the research shows.
› Crackdown urged on undocumented aliens' mental healthcare
Mentally ill patients are being placed on waiting lists for treatment because Florida's mental health institutions are crowded with illegal immigrants.
The crisis puts Florida at the forefront of a national debate over whether illegal immigrants should enjoy the same public healthcare rights as legal residents.
commentary
› Cleaning up the water in Looking-Glass Land
The St. Johns, Florida's greatest river, is sick. Large sections of it are smothered in slime the radioactive green of a B-movie space alien, slime packing more than 100 times the World Health Organization's recommended limits for toxins. The Caloosahatchee River, the St. Lucie Estuary, Tampa Bay, Ichetucknee Springs, Wakulla Springs — all poisoned with runoff from sewage, fertilizer and manure, all stricken with toxic algae that can promote tumors, and cause liver damage, rashes and respiratory distress.
› UM medical school feels the squeeze
The University of Miami medical school is facing a $600,000 cut under Jackson's restructuring plan announced Friday, but school leaders view larger concerns ahead.
Among other things, Jackson Health System is behind $52 million in its payments to UM under its operating agreement, according to a recent audit by Ernst & Young.
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› Charlie Crist rips Marco Rubio's "hair cut"
"My opponent for about a year has been running around Florida, buzzing all over the place, telling everybody what a fiscal conservative he is. But what you need to know is the truth. It's just not the truth. The guy got a credit card from the Republican party of Florida, and he charged a hair cut for $135. Unbelievable. I get my hair cut from this guy for eleven bucks," said Crist.
Related - commentary:
Charlie and Marco, let the bout begin
› 7 Florida companies make Fortune's global list of "most admired"
Apple may once again win Fortune magazine's crown as the "world's most admired company" but Florida at least had a few companies register -- sometimes not for the better -- on the annual list of corporate admiration.
They are: Tech Data, Landstar System, FPL Group, Publix Supermarkets, Ryder System, Darden Restaurants and Tupperware Brands.
› New American Home emerges from troubled past
Work has started in downtown Orlando on the next New American Home — a high-profile but, in recent years, troubled attraction each year when the nation's home builders gather for their annual convention and trade show.
The product-show-and-tell home debuts every year as part of the National Association of Home Builders' giant International Builder Show, which is expected to draw more than 50,000 industry professionals to Orlando next January.
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Florida taxpayers' tab in bingo-hall battle tops $6 million
A legal battle that began 15 years ago over bingo halls in the Orlando area now has a major bill waiting for Florida taxpayers: more than $6 million.
And the company that is owed the millions — Bradenton Group Inc. of Ontario — wants the state to pay up.
The Attorney General's Office went after Bradenton, a former bingo-hall operator, in 1995 using Florida's racketeering law. Bradenton no longer owns bingo halls in Florida.