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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2007
TAMPA:
Outback Gets Vote Needed for Sale [St. Petersburg Times]
After three rejections by shareholders in the past month, parent company OSI Restaurant Partners finally got permission Tuesday to accept a $3.2-billion buyout offer -- but just barely.
Related article:
More on this topic from Florida Trend:
EVERGLADES:
Regulators Reject FPL's Controversial Coal Plant [Palm Beach Post]
Florida Power & Light Co. has spent more than two years trying to sell a coal-fired power plant as part of the state's new energy policy. On Tuesday, utility regulators took fewer than three hours to say they weren't buying it.
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VERO BEACH:
Just How Much is Keeping Piper Worth? [TC Palm]
At stake are the aircraft maker's 1,050 existing jobs and the estimated 500 people who would be hired to manufacture the light jet. Also vying for Piper are Tallahassee, Albuquerque, N.M., Columbia, S.C., and Oklahoma City. However, Vero Beach City Council has kept details of the local incentive package under tight wraps.
FORT MYERS:
Florida's Agriculture Hanging On [Fort Myers News-Press]
A study released Tuesday by Florida Gulf Coast University shows the Southwest's agribusiness has a lot going for it — great weather, great support and great fruit.
But in interviews with two dozen experts, researchers found just as many cons lurking on the horizon, with developers' dollars enticing farmers to sell their land while immigration proposals and citrus disease jack up the cost of doing business.
More on this topic from Florida Trend:
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
›Costly New Water Sources Needed to Keep Up with Growth [Sun-Sentinel]
The amount of water consumed by each person in Broward County is down sharply in the past two decades, but population growth expected in the next 20 years has water managers looking at expensive new sources to keep up with demand.
›UM May Host Presidential Debate in Spanish [Miami Herald]
With earpieces and translators, South Florida could host the first-ever presidential debates entirely in Spanish.
›House Speaker: Tax Plan Out This Week [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Under the proposal, all taxpayers, including businesses and non-homestead property owners, would see savings. The first part of the plan includes rolling back property tax rates and then tying them to personal income growth, he said.
›Spain: Will Now Board, Search Treasure Hunting Ships [Tampa Tribune]
A Tampa lawyer says Spain's effort to stop and search treasure-hunting ships belonging to Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration is a ploy designed to force the company to the bargaining table.
›Diaz: Bar Troubled Housing Contractor [Miami Herald]
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz vowed to institute reforms and continue improvements to the city's affordable housing program. From Tuesday: Housing deals blasted; mayor defends agency
›Legal Teams Haggling Over Donovan's Exit [Florida Today]
The jilted Orlando Magic are requiring that UF coach Billy Donovan agree not to coach in the NBA for at least five years if he wants to break the contract he signed with the team.
›Errors Mar Law Professor's Paper [St. Petersburg Times]
Some students question how the legal writing director at FAMU's law school got her job.
›Kids and Cellphones: Luxury or Necessity? [Miami Herald]
Do they reduce working parents’ stress by keeping families connected or are they simply an expansive luxury for kids?
›Opinion: Vague, Secret Deals: No Way to Fix Taxes [St. Petersburg Times]
Florida's property tax system needs an overhaul, but springing a complicated backroom deal on lawmakers, local governments and homeowners at the last minute is a prescription for disaster.
›Florida Back On Top in Travel [Orlando Sentinel]
A widely watched survey of travel trends says Florida has regained its perch as the nation's most-coveted vacation destination, a year after dropping to second place in the wake of two traumatic hurricane seasons.
›Castro Talks About Past, Not Cuba's Future in TV Interview [Miami Herald]
Fidel Castro looked more robust but spoke slowly and warned of looming health dangers.
›Sarasota: Rentals Aplenty, But Not Discounts [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
The apartment and home rental vacancy rate is at nearly 10 percent, but instead of lowering rents, some landlords are simply getting out of the business.
›Tech Data Poised For Solid Growth [Tampa Tribune]
The chief executive of the Tampa Bay area's largest company by revenue based his assessment on becoming more efficient at stocking and shipping hundreds of thousands of types of tech equipment worldwide.
›Column: Solar Power in the Florida: This Is Progress? [Tallahassee Democrat]
Steve Liner: I got really curious when we found out a restaurant was adding solar power for something other than brewing tea in the summertime.
›Shuttle Crew Counts Down for Friday's Launch [Florida Today]
With a prediction of good weather for Friday and a clean mechanical bill of health, the countdown to the launch of shuttle Atlantis began Tuesday night.
›Holy Land's Debts Erased in Christian Network Deal [Orlando Sentinel]
Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world's largest Christian television system, has come to the rescue of the financially troubled Holy Land Experience, a Bible-based tourist attraction near Universal Orlando.
›Seniors Can Get Caught In a Tax Trap [Miami Herald]
Retirees seeking to downsize homes or move closer to the grandkids are getting caught in South Florida’s property-tax squeeze.
›A Shovel-Free Archaeology Dig [St. Petersburg Times]
USF archaeologists use laser scanners to create 3-D images.
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