Waiving bar exams a no go, says Florida Supreme Court

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday refused a request to waive a requirement that law school graduates pass the state bar exam to practice law, saying that such a move could result in harm to the public. Dozens of lawyers last month filed a petition with the court seeking to lift the exam requirement for law school graduates who had signed up for a test that was supposed to be conducted in person in July. A state board switched to an online test amid the coronavirus pandemic, but that test also had to be postponed because of technical problems. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

Travel experts: Expect at least one million more people in Florida for Labor Day Weekend

If you plan on traveling for Labor Day weekend you’re not alone. While travel experts at AAA aren’t making any predictions, data collected by the travel itinerary app TripIt show millions of people plan to travel to COVID-19 hot spots with Florida ranking number one. It reports while flight bookings are down 66 percent compared to last year, hot spots include Florida, Arizona, Nevada Mexico and the Caribbean. [Source: WTSP]

Edible medical pot candies hitting Florida shelves

Just one week after health officials signed off on guidelines for edible pot products, Florida’s largest medical marijuana operator on Wednesday began selling THC-infused candies in Tallahassee. The edible products are appearing on shelves nearly four years after Floridians approved a 2016 constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana for a broad swath of patients and nearly three years after state legislators passed a law carrying out the amendment. [Source: News Service of Florida]

Will the CDC’s national eviction moratorium apply to Floridians? Housing experts aren’t sure

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national eviction moratorium left Florida housing experts scratching their heads. Will it apply to Florida, where there’s already a moratorium in place? They weren’t sure. “The bottom line is really we don’t know what effect it’s going to have,” said Jamos “Jay” Mobley, senior housing attorney at Orange County’s Legal Aid Society, who’s been helping low-income residents fight eviction notices. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

Settlement reached on utility hurricane costs

Nearly two years after Hurricane Michael devastated parts of Northwest Florida, Gulf Power and consumer representatives have reached a proposed settlement on costs of restoring power and rebuilding damaged parts of the electric system following the storm. Gulf contended that it should be able to recoup $295 million from customers, but the state Office of Public Counsel, which represents consumers, disputed that amount. The two sides reached a settlement last week that would trim $5 million, along with requiring Gulf in the future to take steps to better track storm-related costs. [Source: News Service of Florida]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Rare 3.8 magnitude earthquake rattles Florida-Alabama border, USGS confirms [WFLA]
A rare minor earthquake was reported near the border of Florida and Alabama Thursday morning, the United States Geological Survey confirmed. The USGS initially said the earthquake was magnitude 4.0 and happened near Mount Carmel, Florida in Santa Rosa County. The agency later updated to say the quake was actually 3.8 magnitude and happened near Pollard, Alabama.

› SeaWorld offers free admission for Florida teachers for a year [WJXT]
SeaWorld is offering free admission to Florida certified teachers for the next year, the theme park announced Thursday. “The teaching community deserves our thanks now more than ever,” SeaWorld said in a press release. Teachers can pre-register online using the ID.me process to receive the SeaWorld Florida Teacher Card eVoucher.

› One Daytona still ‘work in progress’ 6 years after getting $40M in public tax money [Daytona Beach News Journal]
It’s been six years since the city of Daytona Beach and Volusia County approved $40 million in incentives to partially offset NASCAR’s costs in developing One Daytona across from Daytona International Speedway. They did so after a pair of economic studies predicted the entertainment/retail complex’s initial phase would create 4,300 direct and indirect jobs. One Daytona was also forecast to generate more than $250 million in local tax revenues over 30 years.

› Wild Florida buys more land, plans expansion of attraction [Orlando Sentinel]
Wild Florida is in expansion mode. The Osceola County airboat, gator park and drive-through safari attraction has purchased 185 acres adjacent to its current 85 acres. “Our vision has been to create an easier way to explore the beauty of natural Florida and learn about wildlife around the world from your air-conditioned car,” Ranier Munns, co-owner of Wild Florida, located on Lake Cypress in Kenansville.

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› After multiple delays, SpaceX launches next batch of Starlink satellites [Orlando Sentinel]
After multiple delays, SpaceX on Thursday morning launched its next batch of Starlink satellites, setting up a constellation of satellites to provide affordable internet to the entire planet. Riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center’s launch complex 39A, about 60 of the 570-pound satellites lifted off on time at 8:46 a.m. Then, about 8 minutes after takeoff, the rocket’s first-stage booster, which has flown once before, landed on SpaceX’s “Of Course I Still Love You” recovery drone ship to be used for future launches.

› Saks Fifth Avenue countersues Bal Harbour Shops after eviction proceedings [Miami Herald]
Saks Fifth Avenue has filed a lawsuit against Bal Harbour Shops and its CEO, Matthew Whitman Lazenby, claiming the mall broke confidentiality agreements and defamed the upscale chain after filing eviction proceedings in August for $1.9 million in unpaid rent.

› Expert: No extended downturn for downtown Tampa [Business Observer]
Will the COVID-19 crisis bring to a halt the transformation of Tampa’s downtown core into a highly desirable live-work-play neighborhood? Not necessarily, says David Dixon, vice president of Stantec, an urban planning and development group involved in Jeff Vinik’s ambitious, $3 billion Water Street Tampa project, which will result in an entirely new mixed-use neighborhood in the Channelside area just east of downtown Tampa.

› South Florida nursing home operators say new COVID testing rules are ‘impossible’ to meet [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
COVID testing requirements for nursing home staff put into effect this week are “impossible” to meet, operators of South Florida facilities say. The federal rules require routine staff testing twice a week in communities with high infection rates — such as Miami-Dade and Broward counties — and once a week in Palm Beach County.