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Wednesday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Florida says it’s helping feds deal with migrant surge but not directly intervening
Florida’s emergency response to the influx of migrants from Cuba and Haiti arriving by boat will be one of surveillance and not interdiction as 150 to 200 troops and officers work with federal Homeland Security officials “to increase coastal vigilance and provide improved situational awareness on migrant activities,’’ state emergency operations officials said in a statement on Tuesday. More from the Miami Herald.
USF opens $22 million indoor practice facility. Next up: an on-campus football stadium
When USF formally opened its Porter Family Indoor Performance Facility on Tuesday, it didn’t feel like the culmination of a project five years and $22 million in the making. It was more like a celebration for what’s next. “This is a great start, right?” president Rhea Law told a crowd of several hundred supporters. “But we all know that there’s something in our mind about the next step, and that is the on-campus stadium.” More from the Tampa Bay Times.
ULA to ship 1st Vulcan Centaur rocket to Cape Canaveral
United Launch Alliance is getting its ducks in a row for the first-ever launch of the new Vulcan Centaur rocket from the Space Coast. ULA had been awaiting the delivery of the first-ever flight-ready BE-4 engines from Blue Origin, which finally made their way in late 2022 to ULA’s Decatur, Alabama factory where they were attached to the first stage. Now teams have slapped on the shrink wrap and loaded the stage onto the company’s R/S RocketShip. The second-stage will soon join it for the 8- to 12-day river and ocean trip for arrival to Cape Canaveral later this month. More from the Orlando Sentinel.
Lights out? Elon Musk tunnel idea getting dimmer in Fort Lauderdale
A long-hyped vision that would have Elon Musk’s Boring Company building twin tunnels to whisk Tesla passengers from downtown Fort Lauderdale to the beach might be on life support. But it’s not quite dead yet. Mayor Dean Trantalis, who has championed the idea for nearly two years as a way to get more cars off the road, still has tunnel vision. “The Boring Company says this project is so important to them that they might fund the whole project,” Trantalis said during a City Hall meeting Tuesday afternoon. “To me, this is a game-changer.” More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
JaxPort, Crowley chart electrification of port in era of climate change
For much of its history, Jacksonville's port has run on diesel and oil, the kind of heavy fuels that match the sheer weight of steel-hulled ships and the cargo they carry. The future is shaping up to follow a different route for what makes the port run. It's already moving increasingly toward electrification of the big cranes that unload cargo from ships and the smaller cranes that shuttle containers around terminal yards. Hydrogen could someday become the fuel of choice for ships that only recently left behind diesel for liquified natural gas. More from the Florida Times-Union.
Florida Dining
Mount Dora eatery to bring hot dog, pizza sushi to Maitland
How do you get someone to give sushi a try? One Central Florida restaurant shapes it like pizza, tacos and hot dogs. And now that restaurant, Mount Dora’s popular Wave Asian Bistro and Sushi, is aiming to open another location in July or August. The Maitland restaurant will be called just Wave Sushi. “It’s a less intimidating way of eating raw fish,” owner Jonathan McKinney said.
» More from the Orlando Sentinel.
Event
2023 Florida Magician of the Year Competition set to wow audiences
The 2023 Florida Magician of the Year competition is set to take place in Central Florida. The competition will feature both amateur and professional magicians and will be emceed by Jeremy Mikaelson, who won the competition in 2020. Jeremy got started in magic when he was 10 years old.
» Read more from WESH.
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