Friday's Daily Pulse
Emerging Designers
Five Florida students and recent grads are already making their mark in the world of fashion and design:
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| A room by Sonika Fourie |
•Sonika Fourie - Senior, Ringling College of Art & Design, Sarasota
• Juliana Costa - 2006 graduate, Miami International
•Trang Dang - Senior, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota
•Sandra Dressler - Senior, Institute of Interior Design at Southwest Florida College, Bonita Springs
•Adriana Castro - 2007 graduate, Miami International University of Art & Design, Miami
A New Kind of Ivory Tower
 Mark Howard, Executive Editor |
At the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida, they don't give tours of the working labs on the upper floors of the institute's new, $60-million building. Access, even for researchers, comes only after an FBI background check. Even with that authorization, entry means passing a security officer, a handprint reader and a coded keypad. Then they must take off their street clothes and put on a surgical scrub-like outfit and a gas mask-type respirator to avoid inhaling any of the organisms they may be studying — nasty bugs like the West Nile Virus or MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in locker rooms and hospitals that can produce fatal septic shock. When the researchers leave the labs, their scrubs are destroyed, and they have to shower before dressing again. The work in the labs is high-tech stuff. Most broadly, the institute, which UF created in 2006, is interested in any new organism that causes disease in humans, animals and plants, including the citrus greening disease that plagues Florida's agricultural industry.
» Read November's Editor's Page
Second Wrongful Foreclosure Case in South Florida This Week
In the second South Florida foreclosure reversal this week, a Broward County court "vacated" the sale of a Fort Lauderdale man's home that had been sold out from under him, even though he bought the house with cash and never had a mortgage. The court order, made at the request of Bank of America, reversed the foreclosure sale of Jason Grodensky's house. Grodensky was the subject of a Sun Sentinel article about wrongful foreclosures last month. He and his father bought the house for cash and didn't owe money to Bank of America, but the lender had continued to pursue a foreclosure case that began with the previous owner. In July, Grodensky learned that his house had been sold in a foreclosure auction. The news comes one day after Bank of America disclosed that the court had also vacated the foreclosure sale of a Miramar homeowner's property — even though the homeowner had secured a mortgage modification. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Many Quirks in Florida's Sales Tax Laws
Christine Klein was happy to score a half-price deal on Arm & Hammer Scoopable cat litter at Petco. Her mood soured after discovering she was billed sales tax based on the full price of $38 for two bags. "Sure the difference was only $1.33," said the St. Petersburg retiree. "But that really adds up over millions of transactions." No question. But unfair or not, it's one of the a lesser known quirks in Florida sales tax law. Since 1965, Florida has required retailers to slap the state tax on the full price of taxable items bought with coupons or manufacturers' rebates. Few shoppers notice — the calculation is buried in the register tape and most coupon deals apply to foods which are tax-free. [Source: St. Petersburg Times]
Bill Clinton Pushed Kendrick Meek to Quit Florida Race
Bill Clinton sought to persuade Rep. Kendrick Meek to drop out of the race for Senate during a trip to Florida last week — and nearly succeeded. Meek agreed — twice — to drop out and endorse Gov. Charlie Crist’s independent bid in a last-ditch effort to stop Marco Rubio, the Republican nominee who stands on the cusp of national stardom. Meek, a staunch Clinton ally from Miami, has failed to broaden his appeal around the state and is mired in third place in most public polls, with a survey today showing him with just 15 percent of the vote. His withdrawal, polls suggest, would throw core Democratic voters to the moderate governor, rocking a complicated three-way contest and likely throwing the election to Crist. [Source: Politico]
RELATED:
» Florida Senate Candidate Denies He Was Asked to Quit [Reuters]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Feisty CFO Race Features Senate President and Ex-lawmaker [St. Petersburg Times]
In a statewide race that's received little public notice, chief financial officer candidate Loranne Ausley has resorted to a 400-mile bike ride to get her message out.
A lawyer and former Democratic state lawmaker from Tallahassee, Ausley is down in the polls and outgunned on TV nearly 3-to-1. She hopes when she finishes the ride Friday afternoon in West Palm Beach that voters will see she's a fighter. Her opponent, Jeff Atwater, doesn't need to bike. The Senate president from North Palm Beach has led most polls, including a survey for the Times/Herald that shows him up by 13 points. He's run a safe campaign, touting his fiscal conservative views early in the race before trying to tag Ausley as a tax-and-spend liberal in the closing weeks.
› Local History Inspires Young Playwright to Raise "Cane" at Florida Stage [South Florida Theater Review]
The sparks fly when a Virginia playwright and a New York director discuss the unlikely topic of 1920s U.S. water policies, which created today’s threat of a water shortage, and served as inspiration for their new drama set in Florida.
“A couple of Aprils ago, there was only twenty-one days of water left here,” playwright Andrew Rosendorf said of the impetus for Florida Stage commissioning him to write Cane, which has its world premiere Friday night.
Director Louis Tyrrell told the same story, ending with “We were that close to turning on the tap and there being....” His fingers opened wide, indicating nothingness.
But audiences should not fear a preachy environmental diatribe or historical tract, Tyrrell said. “Andrew has written a page turner. It’s a feast both of epic and very personal proportions.”
With raging human emotions, a scene requiring a fight choreographer and a recreation of the 1928 hurricane blowing through the theater, “people are going to want to strap themselves in. This is going to be a ride,” he said.
› Supreme Court Upholds Sarasota Orioles Deal [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]]
Sarasota County did not violate public meetings laws when it struck a $31 million spring training deal with the Baltimore Orioles, the Florida Supreme Court ruled today. The timely decision means the county can issue $19 million in bonds and the city of Sarasota can issue $9 million in bonds to partially pay for the agreed-upon renovations to Ed Smith Stadium and Twin Lakes Park.
The county was concerned that it might miss an end-of-year deadline to qualify for federal stimulus to pay $4 million in interest on the county's bonds and another $2 million on the city's bonds.
Sarasota Citizens for Responsible Government filed a lawsuit challenging the Orioles deal and whether the county negotiated it in violation of Florida's Sunshine Law.
› Heat Home Opener Will Have Finals Feel [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
After nearly four months of hype that boosted sales of tickets and team gear, the most anticipated season in Miami Heat history brings the national sports spotlight home to the AmericanAirlines Arena on Friday night.
Friday night's game against the Orlando Magic opens 41 regular season home games for a Heat team infused with star power this summer when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade. And while the NBA Finals are more than seven months away — with the Heat favored to win — all games this season are expected to have a Finals feel.
Although a couple hundred tickets remained for sale Thursday afternoon, a full house is expected. Fans are being urged to arrive early for the game being nationally televised on ESPN to avoid traffic and a protest rally planned nearby on Biscayne Boulevard by police and firefighters upset over pay cuts.
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› Melbourne Company Builds Powerful Homes [Florida Today]
How would you like free electricity for the rest of your life? A burgeoning trend in homebuilding could make that a reality.
Melbourne builder LifeStyle Homes is reserving the final 14 lots in its Whispering Winds community for houses that could produce as much electricity as a typical family would use. The first of these homes is under construction.
Jake Luhn, LifeStyle's director of marketing, said such homes are the wave of the future.
"It is going to come in a hurry," he said.
These "Net Zero Energy" homes combine high levels of energy efficiency with roof-mounted photovoltaic cells to produce enough electricity that, over the course of a year, make them essentially self-sufficient.
› Zolfo Springs Ranch Site Yields a Rare Fossil Find [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Sarasota attorney Bill Harrison was walking his 700-acre ranch after a summer rain when something peculiar caught his eye. Erosion had sheared the face from a 6-foot sandy clay embankment overlooking a exposed a true mystery. "When I saw that thing sticking out, I thought, 'What in the world would Indians have been doing so deep down in those layers?' It made me think maybe it was a piece of a big bull that had washed down the creek and bleached out."
Harrison began digging around, and soon found another bone.
After he e-mailed photos to family members, friends and the University of Florida, his discovery in August was confirmed as the massive molar and scapula -- part of the bony shoulder girdle -- of a mammoth species believed to have died off 11,000 years ago.
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› Nude Reality Show Auditions to Air Live Online from Land O'Lakes [St. Petersburg Times]
Producers of a proposed all-nude reality television show plan to stream auditions live over the Internet.
Atlantic Overseas Pictures Inc. said it made the decision due to the overwhelming response from the media, networks and aspiring cast to the new nude reality TV show Nak'd Truth, the show that will feature the adventures of seven young adults who agree to spend a month in the buff at Caliente Resort & Spa in Pasco County.
The audience also will get to vote on who they'd like to see on the show when the auditions take place Nov. 13 and 14 at the resort.
All interviews for cast roles will be broadcast live from the pool deck.
Advertisers interested in branding their products and services alongside the online casting and eventually the show may e-mail inquiries to corporate@versatilegroup.ws, said Marisela D'Baldriche, CEO of the Versatile Group, a firm in charge of advertising. The company says it is already negotiating with companies interested in providing health and beauty products as well as food and beverages for the cast.
» RELATED: Development
Buck Naked
› Lowe’s Amends Settlement to Get Drywall Victims More Money [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Lowe’s Companies Inc. amended a controversial Chinese drywall settlement so that customers who bought tainted drywall from its stores are now eligible for up to $100,000 in cash, according to legal documents filed Thursday in Georgia state court.
Previously, it was a maximum of $4,500 in cash and gift cards in the settlement, for which plaintiffs’ attorneys who negotiated the deal were paid $2.1 million in legal fees.
The amendment comes two months after the Herald-Tribune and ProPublica reported that the former version of the settlement offered relatively small amounts to drywall victims, but big payouts to plaintiff’s attorneys.
“This proposed amendment strongly enhances the potential benefits to Lowe’s customers,” said Gregg Weiss, an attorney who helped negotiate the deal on behalf of his client, Chris Brucker, a corrections officer who bought drywall from Lowe’s to build his three-bedroom home in Arcadia.
› Artist 'Can't Wait' to Paint Police Station Walls [Tampa Tribune]
Six concrete panels, plain and bare, line the sidewalk outside District III police headquarters on 22nd Street. But in coming weeks the first of the panels will become, in effect, a canvas for neo-cubist artist James Vann.
He will paint a tribute to the first black police officers hired to patrol black neighborhoods in the 1940s, '50s and '60s. They were pioneers before and during the civil rights movement, pushing to overcome job discrimination in hiring, pay and promotion.
Five more panels will follow with reflections on more of East Tampa's history. One might have a music theme; another a sports theme, perhaps recognizing the Belmont Heights Little League's legacy.
Vann has been meeting with members of the East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership's aesthetics and beautification committee to gather ideas for the panels.
› Fort Myers-based NeoGenomics Inc. Reports $1.2 Million Loss [Fort Myers News-Press]
Fort Myers-based NeoGenomics Inc., a cancer genetics testing laboratory, reported today that increased administrative and restructuring costs outweighed a 19 percent gain in revenue to result a loss of $1.2 million, or 3 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30.
That loss compares to a loss of $755,000, or 2 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.
"Although our financial results don't fully reflect the improvements in our business yet, we believe the company is in a stronger position today than ever before," chief executive officer Doug VanOort said in a company release. "During the last quarter, we made significant changes in our management team, successfully converted our entire laboratory information system, and implemented changes to reduce our cost structure."
› Retailers Hope for Holiday Cheer [Orlando Sentinel]
After this weekend, when the jack-o-lanterns and costumes are cleared from store shelves, the annual wallet-draining known as the holiday shopping season will be upon us.
Are we in a spending mood? Some industry prognosticators say yes.
They think we are tired of letting the recession hold us back. We are starting to focus again on the quality of the flat-screen television, not simply which one is cheapest. And we want to indulge in gifts that are fun rather than just the essentials.
If all this is to be believed, then we are on our way to putting the recession behind us.
› Little Pink Ducks Raising Bucks [Gainesville Sun]
Hundreds of little pink rubber ducks have taken a turn over the past week floating around the three-tiered fountain in front of Gainesville Country Day School to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The ducks — some light pink and others a deeper hue — were a part of the weeklong "Kindergarten Lucky Ducks" fundraising effort by the school's kindergarten class. The project, which concludes today, has raised $1,400 in donations. The goal is to reach $1,500 with proceeds being donated to the local chapter of the American Cancer Society.
Mel Toran, area executive director for the North Central Florida American Cancer Society, said a number of fundraising events were hosted around the county during the month including a luncheon at the Shands Cancer Hospital featuring the American Cancer Society's national chief medical officer Otis Brawley.
› Radio Host Asks Listeners to Knit Clothes for Afghan Babies [Palm Beach Post]
After visiting a hospital in Afghanistan last year, Brant Hansen got an idea.
"I thought it would be cool if folks would knit baby blankets and baby booties and hats and attach a note that they're praying for them, and to pray for them while knitting," said Hansen, host of Mornings With Brant on WAY-FM radio (88.1 FM).With Monday's mailing deadline approaching fast, people have dropped off only a few items at the station, which he will take to Afghanistan on Nov. 12.
WAY-FM has about 120,000 listeners in South Florida, and the show is syndicated to about 100 other stations throughout the country.
The campaign, called "Knit Pray Love," is also publicized on the website of Cure International, which runs 11 hospitals in 10 countries, focusing on training local doctors and nurses.