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Tuesday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
Florida's tourism agency campaigns for 'legal' Mexican visitors
The state of Florida, hoping to boost tourism from Mexico, is ready to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to increase "legal" travel from south of the border. Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing arm, is advertising a $368,000 contract for "protecting and growing visitor volume from Mexico to Florida" and "extending the length of stay and increasing spending by Mexican visitors," according to a request for proposals. [Source: Fort Myers News-Press]
ULA scrubs attempt of 1st Boeing Starliner mission with humans
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will have to wait at least another day for its first human spaceflight as teams scrubbed a Monday night launch attempt. With just over two hours on the countdown clock before a planned 10:34 p.m. liftoff, an issue with an oxygen relief valve led to the call while NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were strapped into the spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 awaiting the start of the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission to the International Space Station. More from the Orlando Sentinel and NBC News.
Preserve or develop? The race against time to protect Florida’s Wildlife Corridor
Behind the Corridor Act’s sparkling reputation and its real successes lies the limiting reality that it has no regulatory teeth. It remains entirely legal to develop land within much of the corridor’s boundaries, even if such development would destroy the landscape-scale connectivity the law is meant to preserve. The corridor, in other words, remains under siege by development. And the state and federal governments have not been too eager to stop it. [Source: WFIT]
Space agency points to expansion needs
Space Florida anticipates the need to add a large amount of wharf property around one of the world’s most-active cruise ports to help the expanding private space industry over the next half-century. Florida’s aerospace agency envisions it must nearly double by 2033 the current footprint of about 2,800 linear feet of wharf space around Port Canaveral. The need would incrementally grow to an additional 9,135 linear feet by 2073, according to the agency’s “Florida Spaceport System Maritime Intermodal Transportation Study,” which was released last week. [Source: News Service of Florida]
How much money do you have to earn in Florida to be considered rich? Take a look
If you win the lottery in Florida, then you’d definitely be considered rich. But what about everyone else who isn’t as lucky? Just how much would a person in the Sunshine State need to earn to be considered rich? And how would that compare to other states? A new analysis from GoBankingRates, a personal finance site, examined the average household income of the top 5% of earners in each state. [Source: Miami Herald]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Federal government sues over toxic cleanup in Seminole County
The federal government is suing to recover environmental cleanup costs on Seminole County industrial land that’s been polluted by companies for decades, according to a new lawsuit. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “has determined that there may be an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or welfare or the environment because of a release of hazardous substances or a threatened release of hazardous substances at and from the Site,” according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court’s Orlando division.
› Industry magazine ranks Tallahassee No. 1 in nation for growing economy
The Tallahassee Metropolitan Statistical Area ranked No. 1 in the nation for its growing economy, according to the “2023 Leading Metro Locations” report by Area Development magazine. The publication, geared toward executives of large manufacturing companies and site selectors, compared more than 380 cities around the country and used a range of economic factors, such as unemployment rates, Gross Domestic Product ( GDP) and job growth in certain industries.
› Miami mayor subpoenaed to testify in SEC’s case against developer who paid him
When the Securities and Exchange Commission sued developer Rishi Kapoor in December, accusing him of defrauding investors in his real estate projects, the SEC’s lawsuit made no mention of his company’s consulting agreement with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. But that didn’t leave Suarez, who was not named as a defendant, entirely unscathed.
› Sarasota County a national leader in mosquito management, officials say
Four months after the groundbreaking for its new facility, Sarasota County Mosquito Management recently hosted its annual media day to showcase the operations that will be moving. Those operations — and the investment, personnel and knowhow behind it — are a significant part of what local officials, starting at the top with Sarasota County Administrator Jonathan Lewis, say make the county a national leader in mosquito control.
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