Florida Trend

📰 Our November issue is here!

Inside this month:
💼 What's Your Worth? Women-led startups still receive a small share of venture capital. For many female founders, the question is whether chasing it is worth the cost.
🧬 The IVF Advocate: An in vitro fertilization patient-turned-advocate in Tampa Bay is making nationwide waves in fertility law.
🍺 Craft Beer Shakeout: As the state's brewery count falls for the first time in years, survivors are betting on quality, hospitality and community to stay ahead.
🚁 Vertical Integration: The age of air taxis is nigh, but will Florida be first in flight?

#WomenInLeadership #IVF #CraftBeer #AirTaxis #FloridaTrend

Nearly three years after the St. Petersburg City Council approved the purchase of 50 Flock cameras without discussion, council members received a presentation on how the Police Department uses the license plate reader technology.

Council vice chairperson Richie Floyd asked for the presentation in August, following national public outcry over the technology and its database network. He was absent from the Jan. 4, 2024, meeting when the council approved the $730,250 contract in a bundle with other items.

"I think we've crossed a line in that we're giving up too much privacy for safety right now," Floyd said.

Where would you draw the line between privacy and safety?

Via the Tampa Bay Times.

#FloridaTrend #QOTD #StPetersburg #Privacy #PublicSafety

Florida became the first state in the nation to pass a stablecoin regulation law. Stablecoins are digital currencies designed to hold a steady value, usually tied 1-to-1 to the U.S. dollar.

The law was supposed to take effect Oct. 1, but federal regulators must first confirm it is "substantially similar" to the federal GENIUS Act.

Miami's Ryan Kirkley, whose company uses stablecoins to move money across borders, wants rules that catch bad actors "but allows people like me to be able to build a business."

Would you use stablecoins to make payments?

#FloridaTrend #Finance #Stablecoins #Crypto #Miami

It was July 15, halfway through what would turn out to be the hottest July ever recorded in the United States, and the heat index had hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit for much of Miami-Dade County.

At a nursery, a worker earning $14 an hour had been weeding since 8 a.m., carrying a cooler with a dozen water bottles she brought from home up and down the rows. A minute not spent on a plant is a minute of "break," which means docked pay, she said.

Via the Miami Herald.

#FloridaTrend #QOTD #MiamiDade #Agriculture #Workforce

Breast cancer science has made "awesome progress," says Karen Patti, the new executive director of the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation. "Access is the challenge, not so much the science."

Many Floridians face barriers like insurance coverage, transportation, rural challenges and language. Patti has added a coordinator to the foundation's statewide resource line so any Floridian can call for vetted breast cancer resources.

#FloridaTrend #HealthCare #BreastCancerAwareness #Florida #WomensHealth

@FLBreastCancer @ThePromiseFund