Miami-Dade Business Briefs - Oct. 2008

MIAMI

The Miami Herald will cut 250 full-time jobs — about 17% of its workforce — through layoffs, early buyouts and retirement.

» Concert promoter Live Nation has signed a long-term contract with Miami to refurbish and operate the 6,000-seat Bayfront Park amphitheater downtown.

MIAMI-DADE

The Miami metropolitan area ranks last among the largest 50 U.S. cities for the percentage of adults who volunteer. The Corporation for National and Community Service cites Miami’s high poverty rate, long commute times and low education levels for the low ranking.

» A Miami-Dade jury has ruled in favor of a former Florida International University employee who says he lost his job because of a pattern of bias against African-American employees. The school was ordered to pay $2.5 million to a one-time administrator who claims he was fired despite strong performance reviews. FIU officials say they will appeal the ruling.

» The Florida Department of Community Affairs has rejected a hotly contested decision to allow a school and a Lowe’s home-improvement store on land outside the Urban Development Boundary on the county’s western fringe. County commissioners signed off on the plan earlier this year and later overrode a veto from Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez.

» Wisconsin-based department store chain Kohl’s will hire up to 900 employees for the six stores it plans to open this fall in south Florida.

» A Hialeah police officer, a Department of Children and Families worker and more than a dozen public school bus drivers are among 52 public employees named in a massive healthcare fraud investigation involving the painkiller OxyContin. Law enforcement officials say the subjects allegedly used their health benefits to buy the drug cheaply, then resold the pills at a hefty profit.

» A closely watched lawsuit challenging a plan to use almost $3 billion in public funding for a host of construction projects, including a downtown Miami baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins, is on hold pending a ruling later this year by the Florida Supreme Court. The county judge hearing the suit — filed by auto magnet Norman Braman — says her decision in the case may rest on the outcome of an Escambia County case that questions the requirements of a public vote for such expenditures.

Tags: Miami-Dade