Florida sets another record in attracting visitors

An estimated 65.5 million tourists visited Florida during the first six months of 2018 — the most ever for the first half of any year in the state’s history, Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday. So far, 2018 was outpacing 2017, which topped a record, by about 6 percent. See the news release here. Also read more at the Orlando Sentinel, the AP, and Space Coast Daily.

Florida Trend Community Portrait
Sarasota County

From Sarasota County’s northern border with Manatee to Charlotte County on its southern edge, signs of growth are everywhere. This community portrait looks at up-and-coming businesses, the workforce, must-know contacts, business assets, and much more. Full report here.

Want to be a Florida Supreme Court justice?

With three Florida Supreme Court justices retiring in January, an invitation to apply to the job was issued Wednesday by the Florida Bar Association. The Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission set an Oct. 8 deadline for applications to fill three positions that will open in January because of mandatory retirements. [Source: WJXT]

When life gives you greening, grow lemons?

An oil boom is flying under the radar in Florida. That’s lemon oil, not the kind arising from the liquid remains of dead dinosaurs. Lemons have been grown in Florida since the 1920s, but always on a much smaller scale compared with oranges and the other standards. [Source: Lakeland Ledger]

JEA sues, and gets sued, over the fate of expensive nuclear project

Jacksonville’s electric utility and City Hall filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to void a controversial decade-old agreement obligating local ratepayers to help build and eventually buy power from two planned nuclear reactors in Georgia, a significant escalation in a fight over the future of the only active nuclear power project in the United States. See a news release from JEA and the City of Jacksonville about the complaint they filed, here. Also read more at the Florida Times-Union.

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Plans for Sarasota County’s famed Celery Fields still up in the air [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
The Sarasota County Commission on Wednesday heard a pitch from Fresh Start — a citizens group tasked with identifying appropriate uses for land around the environmentally sensitive watershed — to pass a resolution designating several nearby parcels for public use, not the industrial use the group claims would ruin the serene area.

› Macy's to hire 80,000 seasonal workers, including at stores in South Florida [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Macy’s said it is increasing hires in support of online sales, including its buy-online pick-up-in-store strategy. Some of those positions will be in South Florida, at Macy’s stores including Boca Raton, Wellington, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Lakes, Miami and Miami Beach. More info in Macy's press release.

› Does the University of Florida still make money off Gatorade? [Mental Floss]
With the sports drink having been born on the Gators's playing field and invented by a University of Florida employee, it's not hard to see why both Cade's estate (he died in 2007) and the school get a percentage of royalties from sales, an agreement that's still in place today. But if they had their way, the university would be getting all of it.

› Tampa Bay leads Orlando and Jacksonville in apartment construction [Tampa Bay Times]
Look around downtown Tampa and St. Petersburg and it’s easy to believe this — Tampa Bay remains among Florida’s most active markets for apartment construction.

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› State wildlife agency hands out $500K in Central Florida to deter nuisance bears [News Release]
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission cash will be used by counties and cities with high numbers of human-bear encounters to purchase lock-top trash containers for residents and bear-resistant dumpsters for public parks and businesses.

› What travels faster than a hurricane? A convoy of FPL trucks heading to the Carolinas [Miami Herald]
As Floridians greeted hundreds of utility crews and corps of police and fire rescuers from other states last year at this time, preceding and following Hurricane Irma, this is the scenario the Carolinas were seeing Wednesday.

› Busch Gardens reveals plans for Tigris, Florida's tallest launch roller coaster [Tampa Bay Times]
Busch Gardens will open Florida’s tallest launch coaster in spring 2019, company officials announced Wednesday. The triple-launch, tiger-themed roller coaster called Tigris will hurl riders 150 feet into the sky, turn them upside down and swirl through curves at 60 miles per hour. It will also move backward. Read more in this news release.

› Former Orlando Health plastic surgeon files $100 million lawsuit against the health system [Orlando Sentinel]
A former plastic surgeon at Orlando Health has filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against the health system, alleging that the hospital fired him without cause and made false statements about him, portraying him as “mentally and emotionally unstable.”