Florida Trend Extra
Forecasts predict another busy storm season

With the official start of hurricane season just days away, the latest round of seasonal outlooks is in and the signs point to a seventh-consecutive above-average season. Forecasts of another busy season put Floridians on alert but, as WeatherTiger chief meteorologist Ryan Truchelut, notes, no hurricanes have made landfall in Florida since 2018 and no hurricane has moved directly across the South Florida metro area since Wilma in 2005. [Source: Florida Trend]

Business Beat - Week of May 27

Get the top news-to-know with Florida Trend's headline-focused video newsbrief, hosted by digital content specialist Aimée Alexander.

Central Florida farmers’ fertilizer, fuel and feed costs soar, just like grocery prices

The price of corn to feed the thousands of chickens at Dale Volkert’s Lake Meadow Naturals in Ocoee has doubled from $4 or $4.50 a bushel a year ago to $8 or $9 in May. That’s just one of the expenses, along with higher fuel prices and other production needs, that are squeezing Central Florida farmers at the same time customers suffer sticker shock at the grocery store. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

South Florida lawmakers want universal background checks, expanded mental health services after Uvalde shooting

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick along with Rep. Lois Frankel agree that universal background checks for gun purchases and expanded mental health services are part of the solution. “If we don’t do anything, if we don’t have the bravery, especially lawmakers to stand up to lobbyists, we are actually hurting the American people and everyone who takes part in this is actually at fault,” Cherfilus-McCormick said. [Source: WPBF]

Booming real estate market could make Jacksonville flush with cash from property taxes

Jacksonvielle City Council member Danny Becton, who is vice chairman of the council's Finance Committee, disclosed the scale of the expected jump in taxes when he argued unsuccessfully for a resolution urging Mayor Lenny Curry to use a lower property tax rate in crafting the 2022-23 budget. The city has used the same property tax rate since 2013. Even if the tax rate doesn't change for next year's budget, many property-owners will see bigger jumps in what they owe compared to prior years because the taxable value of their homes and businesses is going up at a faster pace. [Source: Florida Times-Union]

How this 34-year-old CEO beat self-doubt to build a $1 billion start-up: 'I was the last person to bet on me'

Stax, the Orlando-based payments start-up sits nearly 2,500 miles away from the tech incubators of Silicon Valley. And it's a billion-dollar start-up run by a minority woman – 34-year-old co-founder and CEO Suneera Madhani, the daughter of two Pakistani immigrants – at a time when just a tiny fraction of venture capital funds go to women founders and people of color. [Source: CNBC]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Florida lawmakers sign off on condo safety requirements [Tampa Bay Business Journal]
Legislators gave final approval Wednesday to a plan to bolster the safety of condominium buildings, after the devastating collapse last year of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside.

› Study finds Florida has high home vacancy rates. Here’s why [WKMG]
Even with home prices skyrocketing and low inventory, a recent Lending Tree study found Florida is one of the top states with the highest vacancy rates.

› Florida among four states to bolster postpartum care amid mortality crisis [Politico]
California, Florida, Kentucky and Oregon are extending state health coverage for postpartum care from 60 days to 12 months, joining a handful of states as the nation struggles to tamp down on the worst maternal and infant mortality rates in the industrialized world.

› FGCU researchers studying how much medical marijuana helps reduce anxiety [News-Press]
Patients will report daily for 45 days their anxiety level before using cannabis products and how it changes after use.

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› Construction begins on 31-story Tampa apartment tower [Tampa Bay Times]
The project has been more than a decade in the making and is finally breaking ground.

› St. Petersburg brewery to open new location at airport [Business Observer]
Travelers departing from St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport will be able to enjoy a selection of 3 Daughters Brewing food and beverages.

› Archaeologists dig into Miami history at Baccarat tower site [Miami Today]
The very first beneficiary of the new Baccarat building at 444 Brickell Ave. is likely to be not tenants of a 75-story luxury residential tower but a museum, as archaeological work at the site uncovers shards of pottery and bones of millennia-old early residents of Miami.