Florida Trend Exclusive
Floridian of the Year: Brightline

Private passenger rail is back in Florida. Once upon a time, private passenger rail helped create modern Florida. This year, it began reshaping Florida again, with the state emerging as a national rail leader thanks to the Brightline passenger train. Brightline began service between Miami and West Palm Beach, started construction on the leg to Orlando and broached the idea of extending the line on to Tampa. Full story here.

Related, Newsmakers of the Year:
» In Memoriam: Victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
» Hurricane Michael: Michael came out of nowhere, late in the storm season as Florida seemed poised to have escaped a summer without incident.

Embattled Florida elections supervisor will fight governor

The fallout over Florida’s turbulent recount is escalating after the state’s outgoing Republican governor decided to oust a South Florida elections official. Gov. Rick Scott late Friday suspended embattled Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes even though Snipes had already agreed to step down from her post in early January. More from the AP and NBC News.

Action! Florida TaxWatch revives TV, film incentives debate

Florida will have to consider economic incentives if it wants television and film productions to shoot here, according to Florida TaxWatch‘s newest research report. That idea has found favor in the state Senate, but runs counter to new Republican House Speaker Jose Oliva‘s stance, who has called production incentives “tantamount to corporate welfare.” See the full report from Florida TaxWatch and read more from Florida Politics.

Related Florida Trend Archived Content
» The Film Industry in Florida: Lights, Camera, Inaction

How Art Basel and Uber-style apps are helping fuel Miami’s private jet industry

Art Basel’s Miami Beach fair brings booming business for many high-end service providers. Think $500-per-night hotels, celebrity-chef restaurants, caterers, chauffeurs. Add private jet travel to the list. Spurred by Art Basel and the dozens of other art fairs opening this week, this once-sleepy South Florida industry is taking off. [Source: Miami Herald]

PGA of America expected to move its headquarters from PB Gardens to Texas

The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) of America is expected to move its headquarters from Palm Beach Gardens to a Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The Frisco City Council will vote Tuesday on a proposed public/private partnership to make the town the new home of PGA of America, whose 28,000 members are golf course owners and managers. [Source: The Real Deal]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Family-owned paint store in Tampa celebrates 85 years in business [Bay News 9]
A small family-owned paint store is celebrating 85 years in business, making it one of the oldest family run businesses in Florida. Tanner Paint started in 1933 when H.D. Tanner started selling old paint stock as a temporary job to get his family through the great depression.

› CEOs: Amazon’s strong look at Miami for HQ2 made the region look hard at itself [Miami Herald]
CEOs were asked: Amazon chose to go elsewhere than South Florida/Miami for its HQ2, but the deals in N.Y. and Virginia are being heavily criticized. In hindsight, is this too bad or a relief/good riddance for us?

› Mega-permit for rural Collier development draws opposition, support [Naples Daily News]
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing a proposal — called a Habitat Conservation Plan, drafted by 11 private Collier landowners — that would cluster development on 45,000 acres around Immokalee and, in return, preserve 107,000 acres as habitat for the Florida panther and other endangered species.
» See also: 'Habitat Conservation Plan' would wipe out 20,000 acres of prime panther habitat

› Boca Raton company to serve up paper straws as alternative [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
From Starbucks to Seminole Gaming, businesses increasingly are dumping plastic straws as awareness spreads about the impact on sealife and the environment. One alternative is paper straws, and a Boca Raton company is jumping on that opportunity.

Go to page 2 for more stories ...

› Second half of Duke Energy's Citrus County natural gas plant comes online [Tampa Bay Times]
Duke Energy Florida brought the second half of its 1,640-megawatt natural gas facility online over the weekend. The Citrus County project, which cost $1.5 billion and began in March 2016, will increase customer bills by about $5 monthly over the next two months.

› In push to expand drilling, Trump administration clears way for seismic blasting off Florida coast [Miami Herald]
The Trump administration on Friday cleared the way for seismic blasting in search of oil off Florida and much of the Atlantic coast for the first time in more than three decades. The approval of wildlife permits by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will now allow five companies to proceed with requests to use air guns to search the sea floor between Florida’s Space Coast and New Jersey.

› Porch pirates strike during holidays in South Florida [AP]
It’s that time of year for Thanksgiving meals, Black Friday deals and porch pirate steals. A new study by Safewise found that Miami-Fort Lauderdale ranked third among U.S. metro areas where packages are swiped the most between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

› Vince McMahon’s XFL is coming to Tampa Bay in 2020 [Tampa Bay Times]
Tampa soon will have a second professional football team. The league, backed by World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon, isn't scheduled to make an official announcement about team locations until Wednesday.