Manatees survive Florida's first cold spell better than feared

Already famished manatees managed to avoid any mass die-offs or the need for any dramatic rescues during Florida's first significant cold snap of the season, which sent temperatures plummeting across the state around Christmas. But with more chilly days ahead this winter, Florida wildlife officials continue to keep a close, worried watch as they struggle to keep the species afloat by hand feeding them lettuce at the Florida Power & Light Co. plant in Port St. John, for a second year in a row. [Source: Florida Today]

Lawmakers look to stabilize agriculture industry

As Florida lawmakers look to reduce foreign ownership of farmland, Senate Agriculture Chairman Jay Collins said Wednesday he thinks growth is possible for the state’s agriculture industry. But first, the freshman Republican senator from Tampa said the goal is to bring stability to the industry, which was battered by Hurricane Ian and has struggled for decades with foreign competition, residential and commercial development and a disease deadly to citrus crops. [Source: News Service of Florida]

Florida's law allowing compensation for student athletes may be expanded

A measure filed Tuesday by a House Republican seeks to allow colleges, universities and their employees to steer endorsement opportunities toward student-athletes. The bill (HB 99) was filed for the 2023 legislative session, which will begin in March. The proposal would make a major change to Florida’s athlete-pay law, commonly known as a name, image and likeness law, which went into effect in July 2021. More from the News Service of Florida and WFLA.

Desperation is driving latest surge of Cuban rafters arriving in the Florida Keys

Cubans keep leaving the island for the United States, risking their lives and, at times, overwhelming local authorities who, like this weekend in South Florida, had to respond to more than 500 Cuban migrants reaching the Florida Keys. “I would prefer to die to reach my dream and help my family. The situation in Cuba is not very good,” said Jeiler del Toro Diaz, a 36-year-old fisherman who left Cuba on Dec. 30 from Cardenas, a city in the province of Matanzas, along with a dozen other Cubans. [Source: Miami Herald]

With private insurers retrenching, Citizens property policy count swells by 50%

With private insurers dropping customers and raising rates, the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. saw its number of policies increase about 50 percent in 2022. Citizens had 1,145,178 policies as of Dec. 30, up from 759,305 at the end of 2021, according to numbers posted Tuesday on the Citizens website. Citizens also added about 19,000 policies in December. [Source: News Service of Florida]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› US approves Little Manatee River study [Tampa Bay Times]
President Joe Biden’s signature on a $1.7 trillion spending bill last week guaranteed a victory for Hillsborough County environmental preservationists. Included in the omnibus bill was a measure from U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, which will begin the process of potentially designating the Little Manatee River as a scenic waterway to safeguard it from future development.

› Partnerships are game changers for Central Florida businesses and help boost growth [Orlando Business Journal]
Last year, more than 3,500 businesses in Central Florida have partnered with CareerSource Central Florida (CSCF), including Oceanland Equipment, a Central Florida business dedicated to exporting industrial equipment parts for air and sea trade through the Caribbean and Central America.

› 4 developers make their pitch to redevelop St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field [Tampa Bay Times]
A crowd of 400 took in big numbers, eye-popping renderings and passionate pledges to do right by the Black community displaced to build Tropicana Field. The four development teams hoping to win the bid to redevelop the Historic Gas Plant District made their pitches to the public for why they should lead the generational project on Wednesday night at a packed Coliseum. Another 350 people registered to watch the presentations online.

› California-based Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar chain to enter Orlando market, create hundreds of jobs [Orlando Business Journal]
California-based Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar is set to open its first Orlando location this summer at 8019 W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee. The 8,000-square-foot, 315-seat eatery will feature a 1,300-square-foot outdoor patio, spokeswoman Sara Swiger told OBJ. It also will create 200 jobs, including positions for bartenders, cooks, servers and more. The Rocky Mountain-themed restaurant is decked out in lodge-inspired décor such as a fireplace and a chandelier made out of Aspen logs.

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› Stanley Rosenthal, early Lauderhill developer, dies at 93 [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Stanley Rosenthal, one of Lauderhill’s earliest developers who helped turn “scrub pine and dirt” into one of Broward’s bustling cities, has died. He was 93. Mr. Rosenthal told the “Tamarac Forum” newspaper in 2004 that as he stood alongside U.S. 411 one day in 1963, he saw nothing on the west side of the highway except scrub pine and dirt. With oceanfront property becoming rapidly expensive, he wondered: Where would the middle class folks go who wanted to call South Florida home? The inspiration was born.

› Civil rights groups ask 11th Circuit to reject Jacksonville's second redistricting appeal [Florida Times-Union]
The city has not made a convincing case to suspend a federal court’s ruling and instead allow the use of its own map in the upcoming March election, plaintiffs in the redistricting case against the city wrote Tuesday. The civil rights groups argued in a filing Tuesday that the request to stay a lower court’s order would not actually do so – but would instead reverse the ruling and allow for another “unconstitutional” map.

› Cruise passenger poll names Port Canaveral as No. 1 port, Mardi Gras as best ship [Florida Today]
Port Canaveral was a big winner in a cruise industry online publication's latest annual reader poll. Brevard County's cruise port was voted the best U.S. cruise home port for the third year in a row by readers of Cruise Hive, a leading cruise industry website. In addition, a Port Canaveral-based Carnival Cruise Line ship, the Mardi Gras, was voted the best overall cruise ship for 2022.

› Home prices have jumped everywhere, but Miami’s rise ranks among the highest, study shows [Miami Herald]
Median home sale prices jumped higher in Miami year-over-year than in most places in the country, a new report found. It’s a consequence of the community’s wealth boom since the pandemic. The Miami metro area had a median home sale price of $605,303 in November 2022, up 23% from $490,633 in November 2021, according to the CoreLogic January 2023 U.S. Home Price Insights report published Tuesday.