Poll finds Florida voters care much more about economy and immigration than guns

The economy, immigration and health care are the top issues on the minds of Florida voters as they think about the 2020 election. They’re not nearly as concerned, a Florida poll shows, by two issues that get lots of attention online or time on cable TV: gun control and impeachment. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Visit Florida’s fate could be settled once and for all at next session

Heading toward the 2020 legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week he wants lawmakers to settle the fate of Visit Florida, rather than string along the tourism-marketing agency through further one-year extensions. “At some point, like we just need to make a decision on it rather than continuing to have it be hanging on a thread every year,” DeSantis said Tuesday while acknowledging the aversion of House Speaker Jose Oliva to state spending on tourism marketing. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

Task force tackling toxic algae unveils draft fixes

Scientists on Florida’s blue green algae task force began the daunting task this week of trying to craft recommendations for how to fix the state’s complex water problems. During back-to-back meetings in Naples, the six-member panel whittled the problems down to broad topics: pollution from the agricultural industry, septic tanks, aging sewer systems and stormwater, water quality and health threats. [Source: WLRN]

Florida appeals court upholds constitutionality of 'red flag’ law

An appeals court rejected a constitutional challenge to Florida’s “red flag” law, which passed after the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and allows guns to be removed from people found to pose a threat to themselves or others. [Source: Daily Business Review]

Florida looks to regulate elephant rides before issue turns into a three-ring circus with animal rights groups

Proposed new rules for elephant rides could force Florida operators to pack their trunks, said the owner of Elephant Walk, who has saddled pachyderms for 50 years. “It will impose needless, heavy restrictions that will severely impact the very few of us left,” Franklin Murray said. Animal-welfare advocates are pushing for a ban on elephant rides in Florida, according to a memo authored by Col. Curtis Brown, FWC’s director of law enforcement. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center is recognized with NCI designation

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, has received the prestigious NCI designation from the National Cancer Institute. The NCI designation recognizes Sylvester as among the top cancer centers in the United States. Sylvester joins a highly select group as one of only two NCI-designated cancer centers in the state of Florida, and one of just 71 across the nation. [Sponsored report]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Skilled labor shortage impacting Central Florida affordable housing [Spectrum News 13]
A Central Florida housing expert said the lack of skilled laborers in the area is one of the many reasons why there’s an affordable housing problem. A survey by the Association of General Contractors of America (AGC) shows 80 percent of construction firms are struggling to find skilled laborers — 2,000 construction firms were surveyed.

› Artillery, 2,500 tanks, fighting vehicles, leave Jacksonville for European maneuvers [Florida Times-Union]
Blount Island stevedores Thursday loaded roughly 2,500 M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, M109 Paladin Howitzer Artillery pieces, as well as an assortment of other tracked and wheeled support vehicles onto three ships bound for Europe. The equipment for the Heavy Armored Brigade Combat Team is being shipped to Europe for annual military exercises.

› Jacksonville-based Crowley expands reach to Europe [Florida Times-Union]
Jacksonville-based Crowley Solutions, part of Crowley Maritime Corp., is expanding its footprint to Europe. Crowley has opened an office in Frankfurt, Germany, the company announced. Transportation, supply chain and logistics operations are being provided at the new Crowley location.

› Millions at stake in tax fight involving Tampa port and airport tenants [Tampa Bay Times]
Tenants at Tampa International Airport and Port Tampa Bay are at odds with the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser’s Office over property tax exemptions for their maritime and aviation-related businesses.

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› Clearwater gives another grant for future restaurant downtown [Tampa Bay Times]
Another Cleveland Street building owner has received a city grant to renovate space for a future downtown restaurant. According to the grant application Jafif signed with the Clearwater Redevelopment Agency, the money will pay for the costs “to improve the building’s appearance and value, and to attract food and drink establishment tenants that will be open nights and weekends.”

› North Port may ban tobacco sales to youths under 21 [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
A planned ordinance, modeled after those in Fort Lauderdale and Alachua County, is primarily meant to target vaping and e-cigarettes and would exempt active military personnel.

› There’s a new hidden cocktail lounge in Miami Beach. And you can get even get a shave [Miami Herald]
The Nautilus by Arlo Hotel in Miami Beach has got a whole new jam — and look. The iconic Art Deco property recently underwent a face lift, and we are loving the results. A highlight of the makeover is a cool, little cocktail lounge in the lobby: The Blind Barber, which first opened in New York’s East Village in 2010. There are spots in Los Angeles and Chicago.

› Owners of Orlando gold coin business face federal charges in $7 million Ponzi scheme [Orlando Sentinel]
Lori Ann Lewis was doing charity work in downtown Orlando when, by chance, she ran into someone who worked in the gold business. It was in the lobby of the Seacoast Bank skyscraper in 2016, just before the presidential election, when she met Susan Kitzmiller, an employee at U.S. Coin Bullion, a precious metals investment firm. In a lawsuit that would later be filed in Orange Circuit Court, Lewis recounted her new friendship with Kitzmiller and how she was allegedly led to invest all the money she’d saved for retirement in silver and gold.