Florida Retail Federation urges shoppers to show Florida love for Valentine’s Day

There are many reasons to love Florida, and the Florida Retail Federation (FRF) has launched a campaign to remind Sunshine State residents that when it comes to buying Valentine’s Day gifts, they should stick to Florida businesses. The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates at least 53% of consumers across America plan to buy gifts for their loved ones for the unofficial holiday on Feb. 14. On average, those customers will likely spend $181.81 each on Valentine’s Day goodies. The organization projects this year’s Feb. 14 will see some $14.2 billion spent on those gifts across the country. [Source: Florida Politics]

It may surprise you where Florida ranks on a recent study of best states to retire

The Sunshine State has long had a reputation as being a Mecca for retirees. According to one recent study, that’s not the case anymore. States like Delaware, Mississippi and Iowa ranked higher than Florida on Retirement Living’s list of 2024 best states for retirement. In fact, Florida barely made the top 10 coming in at No. 8. [Source: Florida Today]

After two years of hefty increases, will auto insurance rates in Florida stabilize in 2024?

Florida motorists are hoping that auto insurance rates in 2024 follow the old adage that what goes up must surely come down. Of course, the term “down” is subjective when it comes to insurance costs, with the most optimistic definition meaning a lower rate of increase this year compared to the past two years. And has it ever increased. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Commentary: Here’s how Florida can help U.S. weather the ‘trilemma’

Part of the reconceptualization of U.S. policy is an overdue shift away from thinking along an east-west axis in favor of southern engagement, especially toward the Caribbean and Latin America. Florida, which serves as America’s business gateway to the rest of the hemisphere, is poised to play an important role. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

Will immigration crackdown in Texas cause Florida businesses to struggle?

El Mariachi restaurant is now back on its feet. "We have new people working here," El Mariachi co-owner Stefany Delgado said. "We have more new customers." The restaurant worried it would be losing customers last year. That’s when many kitchen workers fled Florida in the wake of a comprehensive immigration law calling on penalties for businesses who hired the undocumented. Months later, Stefany Delgado worries about how her new workers see Florida's role in the latest immigration crackdown at the Texas border. More from  WFLXand WPTV.

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Businesses see more customers as families visit Orlando for Olympic Marathon trials [WESH]
Central Floridians and people from across the country came to Orlando, also known as "The City Beautiful," to show their support for Team USA. People in the Milk District cheered from the sidelines as the nation's top runners competed for the Summer 2024 Olympics.

› Tampa International Airport CEO emphasizes regionalism as he prepares for retirement [Tampa Bay Business Journal]
When Joe Lopano was promoted from mail room clerk to a management position at the beginning of his aviation career, his colleagues threw a big party at an Irish pub. Decades later, another celebration is in order. The 69-year-old Lopano announced Thursday he would be retiring as the CEO of Tampa International Airport when his contract ends in April 2025. He was one of the highest-paid airport CEOs in the country.

› Hallowed ground: Lost Apollo 1 astronauts memorialized at long-abandoned Launch Complex 34 [Florida Today]
Officials mothballed LC-34 in November 1971. Today, the few surviving structures bear the strange geometric symmetry of a lost civilization, including the domed blockhouse measuring 120 feet in diameter. Astronauts Memorial Foundation officials hope to expand the annual Apollo 1 memorial service — traditionally limited to invitation-only small groups — to include more people at this site considered hallowed ground by many NASA supporters.

› An Orange County neighborhood ripped out its septic tanks to protect Wekiwa Springs. Now it’s sorry. [Orlando Sentinel]
Mike King helped persuade skeptical neighbors in Sweetwater West five years ago to sign onto a mammoth sewer project — at their personal expense — to protect the delicate Wekiwa Springs from septic-system pollution. The gated community of more than 180 homes was the first of 17 neighborhoods in Orange County near the springs to buy into a septic-to-sewer conversion, a multiphase project originally estimated to cost $123 million. But now, more than two years after bulldozers rolled in, King and many other residents have regrets.

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› Can you lose your home when you lose a court case? Why Miami’s Joe Carollo faces seizure [Miami Herald]
Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo may be out of legal luck if he hopes to keep his Coconut Grove residence. Both his house and personal belongings are up for grabs as he faces the reality of paying a $63.5 million judgment won last year by two Little Havana businessmen who accused him of trying to destroy their livelihood by siccing Miami code enforcement officers on their Ball & Chain restaurant and club.

› Jacksonville-based homebuilder to expand to South Carolina, Tennessee markets [Jacksonville Business Journal]
Dream Finders Homes will expand into markets in South Carolina and Tennessee with the acquisition of a private homebuilder. The Jacksonville-based company acquired Crescent Ventures LLC, a private company that builds single-family homes in Charleston and Greenville, South Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee. Through the transaction, Dream Finders Homes received 457 homesites in varying stages of construction, a sales order backlog of about 460 homes and 6,200 lots, according to a press release.

› Tampa Bay's biggest tech deal spun off start-ups on the move [Tampa Bay Business Journal]
Arnie Bellini, the Tampa magnate, answers the phone for an interview and says its coincidental timing — he just hung up from a call discussing a multi-million-dollar deal. It’s official: Bellini’s short-lived retirement is over. In a watershed 2019 deal, Bellini sold ConnectWise, the managed service provider he co-founded with his brother, to Silicon Valley private equity firm Thoma Bravo for more than $1 billion. The deal created 70 millionaires overnight.

› Zoning board rejects medical-marijuana site near Orlando’s College Park [Orlando Sentinel]
A medical-marijuana dispensary needing permission to set up shop on Edgewater Drive will have to appeal or find another location after a zoning board said no, siding with College Park neighbors and Orange County’s school board chair. The Plants of Ruskin, a Tampa-area firm which owns cannabis company MÜV, sought a variance to bypass state law and an Orange County rule forbidding a medical-marijuana dispensary from operating within 500 feet of a school property.