Florida online sports betting may return after court ruling

An appellate court ruling Friday could clear the way for online sports betting to return in Florida. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., threw out a lower court ruling that had halted the $2.5 billion pact between the state and the Seminole Tribe of Florida that briefly allowed gambling on phones and computers within the state’s borders in 2021. Bob Jarvis, a law professor and gambling expert at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, said he expected the Tribe to kick off sports betting again within the next month. More from the News Service of Florida and the Orlando Sentinel.

Appliance, stove tax ‘holidays’ begin in Florida

Year-long tax “holidays” started Saturday that allow shoppers to avoid paying sales taxes when they buy certain appliances and gas stoves. Lawmakers approved the tax exemptions during this year’s legislative session. The exemptions apply to Energy Star appliances such as washing machines that cost $1,500 or less, clothes dryers that cost $1,500 or less, water heaters that cost $1,500 or less and refrigerators that cost $4,500 or less. [Source: WUSF]

General revenue tops projection in May

General-revenue tax collections topped expectations by about $100 million in May, while state economists pointed to “subpar” savings by Floridians. The Legislature’s Office of Economic & Demographic Research released a report Friday that said the state collected $4.251 billion in general revenue in May, $99.9 million more than had been forecast. By comparison, general revenue topped expectations by $384.8 million in April and $167.7 million in March. [Source: News Service of Florida]

More groups cancel Central Florida events over political concerns

Black engineers and “Game of Thrones” fans are the latest groups canceling Orlando events and attributing their decisions to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s political climate. The National Society of Black Engineers’ 50th conference would have brought up to 15,000 visitors to the Orange County Convention Center in 2024 and generated millions of dollars in economic impact, the group’s CEO Janeen Uzzell said Friday. Instead, it’ll be held in a different city that will be announced next week, she said. The Con of Thrones, which typically draws 3,000 to 4,000 fans of the “Game of Thrones” books and television shows, also announced this week it was pulling the plug on a gathering. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

Holiday week will be clear of tropical cyclones, NHC says

All's quiet in the Atlantic ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, according to the latest tropical weather outlook from the National Hurricane Center. As of Saturday morning, forecasters at the NHC say they are not expecting any tropical cyclone formation over the next seven days. No disturbances are currently marked on their map of the Atlantic as systems to watch out for. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Miami takes off with Delta, LATAM. Airline partners widen U.S., South American gateway [Miami Herald]
Nearly three years after Delta Air Lines struck a partnership with LATAM Airlines Group, Latin America’s largest airline, their joint plans to connect North America and South America are taking off. Miami has a front-row seat. LATAM, formed in 2012 by the merger of Chile’s LAN airline and Brazil’s TAM carrier, is adding a new daily flight in October from Miami International Airport to Medellin, Colombia, and then expects to add more flights from the Magic City to South America in subsequent years.

› Southwest Florida wildlands will become a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System [WUSF]
Southwest Florida is so rich in wildlife habitat and has so many threatened and endangered species that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to add the region to the world’s largest network of protected lands. That would mean a fuzzy patchwork of farms and ranches in counties from Glades and Charlotte on the north to Collier on the south would be added to the National Wildlife Refuge System, which is 568 national wildlife refuges and 38 protected wetlands covering about 850 million acres.

› Donna Deegan inaugurated as Jacksonville's first female mayor [Florida Times-Union]
Donna Deegan was sworn in Saturday as the first woman to serve as mayor in city history, capping a two-year journey that overcame the political odds of running as a Democrat in Jacksonville in the same way she survived three fights against cancer while building a namesake nonprofit that made her name immediately recognizable on the campaign trail.

› In pop-up attraction Verse Orlando, enter the world of augmented reality [Orlando Sentinel]
Central Florida is getting a look at the future of immersive entertainment this summer as Verse Orlando, a pop-up attraction featuring holograms and other aspects of augmented reality, lets patrons explore the universe, meet talking animals and make magic. “It’s interactive and social and informed by the latest in augmented technology,” said executive producer Ray Kallmeyer at a grand-opening event Thursday night in Lake Nona’s Boxi Park. “I have to pinch myself. This is the dream.”

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› Francis Suarez’s wealth boomed while he promoted Miami as tech capital [Miami Herald]
In his first term as mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez increased his personal net worth five-fold as he used his public office to court technology and real estate companies eyeing business opportunities in the Magic City. Financial disclosures filed annually with the city and state show Suarez’s net worth increased from $245,015 to $1,338,551 between mid-2017 and the end of 2021. But the records do not provide an income breakdown, obscuring important details that could provide insight into the mayor’s expanding wealth.

› Tampa has never hit 100 degrees. The heat index has. Here’s why that matters. [Tampa Bay Times]
Despite its hot and steamy reputation, the city of Tampa has never cracked 100 degrees. The reason Tampa has never hit 100 is its close proximity to water. Cooler breezes from the Gulf of Mexico tend to roll in during the afternoons, regulating temperatures. The process works the same in most coastal areas, said Austen Flannery, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office.

› JEA board agrees to $400.8 million, 20-year solar power deal with FMPA [Jacksonville Daily Record]
JEA will enter into a $400.8 million, 20-year agreement to buy solar power from the Florida Municipal Power Agency and receive it via Florida Power & Light Co. transmission lines. The JEA board voted 6-0 on June 27 to approve the two-part deal. The first part is a $306.4 million power purchase agreement with the nonprofit electric agency that will provide JEA with 340,000 megawatts hours per year of solar power, which the board expects will be integrated into its power portfolio by December 2026.

› Annual Florida scrub-jay watch rallies volunteers in Central Florida [Orlando Sentinel]
Wandering the sandy scrub habitat of Deltona’s Lyonia Preserve, traversing rolling dunes filled with short oaks and prickly pear cactus, Stephen Kintner greets resident Florida scrub-jays as if old friends. While not a single jay showed its face one recent morning (attributed perhaps to the hot Florida summer sun or nearby predators), the longtime volunteer and former Volusia County environmental management director knows the preserve’s population well.