Friday's Top Stories

FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2008

Builder Bob Toll, chairman of the nation’s 12th-largest home builder, weighs in on Florida's housing market. But Toll doesn’t expect a dramatic upturn until at least after the presidential election. [Source: Florida Trend]

ORLANDO:
Developer Cameron Kuhn Says He Is All But Broke

Developer Cameron Kuhn said Thursday that he practically broke, in the process of swapping property and assets to clear his debt, and will soon be down to just one employee to keep his Orlando-based development business going. But he said he still holds a 50% stake in Church Street Station, and he vowed to continue redeveloping the downtown Orlando dining-and-entertainment complex despite the economic downturn and his financial problems. "There is a clarity in going broke. You find out who your friends are," Kuhn, 48, told about 70 business people attending an International Round Table meeting in Orlando. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

More on this topic from Florida Trend:

• Even Kuhn Isn't Immune to the Problems of Real Estate
• Back in the Saddle: Church Street Station

PALM BEACH COUNTY:
Landowners Push Lawmakers for New City

Callery-Judge Grove, for years thwarted in its efforts to plant a new city amid Palm Beach County's disappearing citrus fields, is once again turning to a trusted ally: the state Legislature. Owners of the 4,000-acre citrus farm, backed by a team of lobbyists, are pushing a bill through the House and Senate that would strengthen their hand in securing crucial development approvals just as the county is considering a new, scaled-down proposal for homes and shops on the land. The bill picked up a key approval Thursday from the Senate Agriculture Committee — the same panel that, a week ago, voted down the idea. The about-face came after intense behind-the-scenes politicking by a team of a half-dozen lobbyists working for Callery-Judge Grove. Supporters argued that private property rights are at issue. "It's fundamentally unfair to suppress the value of the property by not allowing it to have the densities that are generally around it," said Agriculture Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Winter Haven. [Source: Sun-Sentinel]

TAMPA:
Union to Verizon: Hear Us Now?

Verizon's largest labor union in Florida is asking employees and customers to picket the company's workplaces Monday. But the protest isn't about union jobs, they say. Rather it's about the level of customer service the company is giving customers. "Verizon is not letting us do our jobs, and not letting us take care of the customer," said Doug Sellers, president of the union that represents Verizon call center and repair workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 824. "Customers are waiting up to 10 days to get their phone lines fixed. ... If you have something as simple as static on your line, that could be out 10 to 15 days." Such pickets are a rare occurrence in Tampa, Sellers said, and it comes as "a last resort" after meetings with Verizon managers did not prove satisfactory to the union. [Source: Tampa Tribune]

More on this topic from Florida Trend:

• A Resurgence in Unions?

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

›Rulings Leave Insurers Reeling [St. Petersburg Times]
Two state administrative law judges have upheld Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty's refusal under a 2007 law to grant rate hikes to Florida Farm Bureau and Hartford Insurance. For years, insurers were able to set their own rates and later ask for regulators' permission. Not anymore.

›Census Looks to Scrap Harris' Devices; Will Go Back to Paper [AP]
Stumbling over its multibillion-dollar plans for a high-tech census, the government says it will go back to counting the nation's 300 million people the old-fashioned way -- with paper and pencil. The contractor, Florida-based Harris Corp., was forced to increase costs, which the Feds didn't like.

›2 Rock Mines in Palm Beach County Win Key Endorsements [Sun-Sentinel]
The Zoning Commission endorsed plans for the Lake Harbor Quarry, which would cover 7,000 acres of sugar cane land four miles south of Lake Okeechobee and three miles west of U.S. 27.

›Wrongly Jailed Man to Get $1.25M [Miami Herald]
Florida will give $1.25 million to Alan Crotzer who was incarcerated for a 1981 crime he was cleared of in 2006.

›Barge Holding 119,000 Barrels of Oil Stuck at Sand Bar [Tampa Tribune]
The U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies were waiting for high tide late Thursday night to try to free a barge that ran aground near the mouth of Tampa Bay.

›Battle to Control Universities Driving Pruitt's Overhaul Bid [Palm Beach Post]
Lawmakers want voters to overhaul the state's education system for the fourth time in less than a decade, promising that this go-around, they've got it right. But critics say the massive change, driven by Senate President Ken Pruitt, is political revenge against the Board of Governors - which has sued the legislature.

›Column: When Rainy Day Came, Lenders, Builders Got Soaked [SP Times]
James Thorner: We forget that just two years ago, these same companies were making record profits. Let's look at some corporate riches-to-rags tales.

›Busch Gardens' Jungala Puts Parkgoers, Animals Eye-to-Eye [SP Times]
"Everybody says they cannot believe how big these animals are because we can get people so close to them," Young, vice president of zoo operations, said as Busch Gardens Africa showed off the theme park's new $40-million Jungala area Thursday.

›AirTran Set Traffic Record in March [Orlando Sentinel]
If the economic slowdown is dragging down air travel, it doesn't appear to have hit yet at AirTran Airways. The Orlando-based airline reports that it set traffic records last month.

›Aerospace Academy Set at Polk School [Lakeland Ledger]
The program will offer two course tracks: one in avionics that will prepare students for careers as avionic technicians, and another in pre-engineering and aerospace technologies. Both tracks lead to a high school diploma and college credit.

›Luxury Living Auction, or High-End Fire Sale? [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Thus far, closings have totaled $42 million, less than half the $100 million that auction promoters originally thought they would complete. The centerpiece sale of the day -- a $14.1 million bid for the expansive Sugar Bay estate on Casey Key -- fell through after the bidder's checks bounced.

›Spring Training: Are the Reds Worth It? [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Sarasota Commissioner Ken Shelin hopes Monday's board meeting is over quickly, so he can run home and watch another city council meeting 2,200 miles away. Ed Smith stadium manager Pat Calhoon will also be watching the same meeting -- in which the Goodyear, Ariz., City Council votes on whether to spend $33 million to bring the Reds out West.

›This Man 'Invented' Florida With Photography [St. Petersburg Times]
Jack Swenningsen,91, who wants to return Florida to glory, wants to bring vanishing tourists back, wants to keep old Floridians from leaving — in fact, wants to make old Floridians fall in love with Florida again.

›Trees May Be Weapon to Help Citrus Growers Battle Diseases [TC Palm]
Treasure Coast lawmakers have introduced a bill to allow growers to plant a noninvasive relative of a South Florida scourge. Their goal: Give growers another weapon in the battle against citrus canker and other wind-borne diseases.

›Finally, a Place to Hang Tampa's Art [Tampa Tribune]
More than a decade after Tampa first started talking about a new art museum, the council on Thursday took the final vote required for the museum to move forward, voting unanimously to shift funding to the project.

›Double-Dippers Prevail [St. Petersburg Times]
Despite public outrage, the odds that the Legislature will crack down on "double-dipping" state employees looked highly unlikely Thursday after a lengthy, heated debate in the Florida Senate.

›Attempts to Muzzle Guns Bill Stopped [Palm Beach Post]
The so-called "guns at work" bill, expected to pass the Senate next week after doing so in the House last month, allows motorists to bear legal arms when lawfully on public or private property in their motor vehicles, even against the property owners' wishes.

›Port Canaveral Waives $400k Penalty Against Disney Cruise Line [Sentinel]
Disney was facing the six-figure penalty because its cruise ships were not going to make enough calls at the Brevard County port this year.

›McCain and ‘Flame of Florida’ [Wall Street Journal]
Accessorized with a new Corvette and “women, the flashier the better,” John McCain often returned to be “just in time to change clothes and drag himself out to the flight line” while enrolled in flight school in Florida.

›Martin Memorial Wants to Build Stand-Alone ER in St. Lucie West [Post]
Unlike traditional ERs, it would not be physically attached to a hospital. The $4.5 million center would not provide surgery or inpatient care.

›IAD Bank Seeks Rx for Poverty [Miami Herald]
The hemisphere's economic brain trust convenes in Miami Beach for the region's most important financial meeting of the year by the Inter-American Development Bank.

›Pelican Island Restoration Could Be 'Almost Worthless' Without More Money
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has run out of money after spending about $80,000 to restore habitat for the plethora of wading birds, fish, turtles and other wildlife on Preacher's Island at the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.