Visit Florida to tourists: Hurricane Michael, red tide didn't shut down whole state

The state’s tourism-marketing arm wants to send a message to tourists: Hurricane damage and red tide don’t cover all of the Sunshine State. The crisis-response campaign, which is something Visit Florida officials admit they have had to become experts at during the past few years, will expand as counties still digging out from Michael are able to start welcoming visitors. More from the Orlando Sentinel and the Panama City News-Herald.

After a wave of enthusiasm, American companies’ interest in Cuba as a business partner cools

There was a buzz in the air during the 33rd edition of the Havana International Fair, Cuba’s week-long commercial extravaganza. It was 2015, the year the United States and Cuba renewed diplomatic relations and U.S. companies were betting on new business opportunities on the island. But three years later much of that enthusiasm has faded away. [Source: Miami Herald]

Florida TV political ad spending tops $229 million

If it seems like the tsunami of political ads leading up to the midterm elections in Florida is worse than ever, you’re right. Ad spending in the Senate race totals $96 million in Florida. Second highest Senate race spending is Missouri, with $59.4 million. Florida’s total TV ad spending is $229 million, which doesn’t include advertising in U.S. House races. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

What’s next for HSN? YouTube shows, podcasts and chats with Alexa to connect to younger shoppers

Nearly two weeks after HSN and QVC merged operations and cut 350 jobs, their parent company introduced new social media and digital strategies that veer from traditional at-home TV shopping with hopes to reach younger shoppers. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

Florida heat is already hard on outdoor workers. Expect it to get worse.

Harvesting crops or building a house in the Florida sun is grueling work, and a new report shows that it’ll only get more miserable and unsafe for workers as climate change sends temperatures soaring. By at least one safety standard, it was too hot for Floridians to do very heavy labor (like digging with a shovel) for at least an hour a day almost every single day this summer. Read the full report here and read more from the Miami Herald and WLRN.

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Want to win over millennials? USF St. Petersburg opens focus group business within marketing school [Tampa Bay Times]
Elliot Wiser sits at the head of a long table with a half dozen sets of eyes peering his way. Everyone surrounding him is at least half his age — if not younger. But that’s the point. Wiser is heading a focus group made up of millennials and Generation Z participants inside a new lab at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

› Weston-based Ultimate Software tops Fortune's list of 'Best Workplaces for Women' [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Weston-based Ultimate Software ranked No. 1 on Fortune’s 2018 “Best Workplaces for Women” list. The list is compiled annually by Fortune and research partner Great Place to Work, a San Francisco-based organization that identifies and certifies top workplace based on employee feedback. Read the full announcement from Ultimate Software here.

› $4 million state grant for Orlando Melbourne International Airport for jet facility [Florida Today]
On Wednesday Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced a number of grants from the state's Job Growth Fund that are aimed at improving public infrastructure and boosting workforce training. Of the $28.6 million in awards, the Melbourne airport is getting $4 million for what's called a "ground run-up enclosure."

› More cruisers, cargo push Port Canaveral to record revenue year [Orlando Sentinel]
More cruises and cargo were the drivers for a banner financial year at Port Canaveral. The biggest driver in the increased revenue was cargo, which broke $10 million in revenue for the first time in the port’s 65-year history.

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› Central Florida looks to score big with esports video gaming [Orlando Sentinel]
The enthusiasm that surrounds a virtual world that includes monthly Fortnite tournaments — some with as many as hundreds of thousands of online viewers — has created a buzz that some in Central Florida say could soon create an economic windfall for the region.

› Court rejects attempt to backdate workers’ compensation policy [Florida Politics]
You can’t buy workers’ compensation insurance to cover an injury that has already happened, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday. “Uninsured persons cannot experience a loss, then scramble to get insurance and fail to disclose their loss, and then have the cost of their loss borne by the new insurer,” Judge Timothy Osterhaus wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel.

› Pembroke Park firm admits wrongdoing: It ignored duty to protect endangered coral [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
A Pembroke Park-based marine engineering firm ignored a requirement to survey and remove endangered coral while replacing channel marker range lights in the Port of Miami in 2014 and 2015, the company has admitted in federal court.

› Sarasota installs stormwater filter to reduce red tide [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Local stormwater utilities have set a trap for trash and nutrients that foster red tide to keep them from reaching Sarasota Bay. The design of the baffle box, which is 24 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 17 feet deep, is one of a kind, according to Sarasota senior utilities engineer William Nichols.