‘Survival mode’: Florida’s migrant workers consider future after new law

In Florida, there are more than 1.8 million immigrants, including those without permanent status. Immigrants represent 11% of the total labor force but account for the largest share in certain industries. They make up 37% of the workforce in agriculture; 23% in construction; and 14% in service jobs, according to a recent KFF Health News analysis of a 2021 U.S. Census report. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

Citizens’ rate hikes among lowest of Florida’s top 10 insurers

Yes, there are some trade-offs to being insured by state-owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp. But despite them, there’s little an argument that folks who rely on “the insurer of last resort” have been facing insurance rate hikes that rank among the lowest over the past two years. It’s one reason, along with a growing reluctance by private-market insurers to continue insuring Florida homes, why the number of accounts covered by Citizens’ has grown from 420,000 to 1.3 million since 2019. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

Florida made it easier to keep your therapist from another state. Here’s how.

Floridians who leave the state will now be able to keep their mental health therapists under a new law. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill May 25 that authorizes Florida to join an interstate compact allowing psychologists to keep treating patients when they leave the state. And it allows people who come to Florida for college or other reasons to stay with psychologists they’re comfortable with from home. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

Want a job near the beach that pays $50,000 or more? These South Florida cities are hiring

Wouldn’t it be nice to work near the beach? The following jobs aren’t exactly on the sand under a palm tree or big umbrella. But most are based a couple of blocks away in seaside cities that run through or straddle A1A. What follows are some of the job openings in Miami Beach, Surfside, Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands and Sunny Isles Beach that pay at least $50,000 a year. [Source: Miami Herald]

Florida universities study pros, cons of artificial intelligence

As artificial intelligence becomes an increasingly high-profile topic in higher education, Florida universities are holding discussions about how to harness the technology’s power and to stave off student cheating using it. The University of Florida Board of Trustees, for example, received an update Thursday from the school’s Provost Joe Glover on artificial intelligence, or AI, initiatives at UF. The state’s flagship university is home to a supercomputer known as HiPerGator, which was a $50 million gift to the school from NVIDIA, a Silicon Valley-based tech firm, and company co-founder Chris Malachowsky, a University of Florida graduate. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› USF lab will be the first in Florida to create human trafficking database [Tampa Bay Times]
Human trafficking in the Tampa Bay area is a problem — but, because Florida has no centralized data collection, no one knows just how much. A bill recently signed into law aims to correct that, making a lab in downtown St. Petersburg the home of a new data bank working to shed light on a shadowy crime in our area. Housed at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, the lab — called the USF Trafficking in Persons (TiP) Risk to Resilience Lab — will collect and analyze anonymized data from across the state.

› Miami braces for Trump’s historic criminal court hearing [Miami Herald]
Miami has hosted its share of marquee criminal defendants over the years — Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, al-Qaeda jihadist Jose Padilla, and Cocaine Cowboys Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta — but no one nearly as prominent as Donald J. Trump. This is an unprecedented federal indictment of a former president of the United States, a man who — love him or hate him — once occupied the most powerful office in the world and remains a leading candidate to regain the Republican presidential nomination.  

› Orlando Tech Community to leave Orlando Economic Partnership for new nonprofit spinoff Innovate Orlando [Orlando Inno]
Orlando Tech Community, which until now has operated under Orlando Economic Partnership, will leave the area’s public/private economic development organization for a new nonprofit spinoff dubbed Innovate Orlando. Innovate Orlando filed its articles of incorporation on Feb. 24 and officially starts work this week.

› Clearwater’s The Sound will bring much-needed midsize music venue to Tampa Bay [Tampa Bay Times]
Sporting a white Adidas wide-brimmed golf hat over his long blond hair, Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander looks every part the 30-year resident of the Tampa Bay area that he is. And this month, the rocker is looking forward to breaking in a new music venue close to home. On June 28, his legendary band will put on the first concert in the new music venue called The Sound at Clearwater’s Coachman Park.

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› Escapology: CEO unlocks answers as 72nd location opens [Orlando Sentinel]
Orlando-based Escapology has opened its second Central Florida location – its 72nd overall – with the grand opening of escape rooms at the Promenade at Sunset Walk in Kissimmee. The company’s first location stands on Orlando’s International Drive, and in the coming months, company-owned Escapology locations will open in Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

› What are Jaguars, city leaders saying about stadium, and how can you voice your opinion? [Florida Times-Union]
Jacksonville residents will have the chance to weigh in on the Jaguars proposed “Stadium of the Future” in the coming weeks ahead of negotiations that will determine the final taxpayer cost. The team released the first proposed changes to the city-owned stadium Wednesday morning, a day after documents first reported by Florida Politics showed potential cost to the city ranging from $800 million to $934 million in public funds for the stadium.

› Brightline service from South Florida to Orlando could be cut in half under Coast Guard plan for St. Lucie River drawbridge [Orlando Sentinel]
A proposed U.S. Coast Guard test program to require a railroad drawbridge over the St. Lucie River to stay open for longer periods of time may force Brightline, the higher speed train service, to cut its planned service to Orlando by half, railroad officials say. The span is a critical segment that Brightline must use as part of its highly anticipated expansion to Orlando from West Palm Beach. The new passenger service is expected to start late this summer with 16 trains a day in each direction.

› FDOT teams up with Bradenton Motorsports Park to promote safe driving habits in Manatee [Sarasota Herald Tribune]
Janice Martinez had just enough time to brace herself when a speeding drunk driver plunged his vehicle straight into her patrol car nearly a decade ago. Now the former Florida Highway Patrol trooper is using her story to encourage young drivers to embrace safe driving habits. Crash test dummies flung into the air at a demonstration booth showcasing the impacts of a rollover put together by the Florida Department of Transportation and Florida Highway Patrol at the Bradenton Motorsports Park on Thursday evening.