Thursday, Florida’s University System Board of Governors reviewed its legislative budget requests for the 2018-19 fiscal year which will be sent for consideration by the governor and the Legislature.
Lodging alternative marketing service Airbnb released figures Thursday that shows families and friends of college graduates piled into vacation rental homes from Pensacola to Miami Guests booking rooms in Airbnb-marketed vacation rental homes more than doubled in Gainesville and Tallahassee during the University of Florida and Florida A&M University commencement weeks in April. Tallahassee also saw a significant spike the following week for the Florida State University Commencement, while Pensacola, Jacksonville and Daytona Beach also saw large increases in Airbnb…
Asked to prepare for 10 percent budget cuts, Florida’s state university and college leaders pledged to try to avoid affecting students but told the House Subcommittee on Higher Education Appropriations Friday the impacts would still be profound. “The target reductions are set at 10 percent for each entity,” Subcommittee Chairman Larry Ahern said after spelling out the challenges faced by the larger House Appropriations Committee of possible 10 percent budget cuts this year to deal with a $1.7 billion shortfall.…
Senate President-Designate Joe Negron is heading back to college. Negron kicks off a four-day listening tour of Florida’s State University System on Monday. The Stuart Republican is expected to visit all 12 of the state universities during the listening tour. “Over the last several years, I have had the opportunity to discuss with fellow senators my goal of making Florida’s good universities great,” he said in a statement earlier this month announcing the trip. “My colleagues share this coal. We…
Amateur archaeologist Tom Garner had time to kill and took a drive along Pensacola Bay in the Florida Panhandle. Spying a newly cleared lot, he poked about, hoping to find artifacts from the city’s rich history dating back centuries to the Spanish explorers. Garner stumbled upon some shards of 16th Spanish pottery. “There it was, artifacts from the 16th century lying on the ground,” said Garner, a history buff whose discovery has made him a celebrity in archaeological circles. Experts…
Today on Context Florida: Sarah Maricle Ayers says that Jeb Bush’s sluggish movement in the national polls betrays the refreshingly presidential-like behavior he has been exhibiting. In a campaign environment marked by shallow squabbling and impulsive barb-throwing, Bush’s recent statement about limiting governmental benefits demonstrates a serious and sorely needed focus on policy concerns. Forcing corporations to pay what they owe can be a tough job. But when Paul Heroux worked in the insurance business and was responsible for getting a…
Today on Context Florida: According to Daniel Tilson, the 99 percent of us who haven’t benefited from — and in many cases have been harmed or held back by — almost 20 years of increasingly conservative Republican domination of Florida government and public policy, deserve and desperately need a high-functioning opposition party with a specific plan and timeframe for restoring political and legislative balance to our state. After all, independent and Republican 99-percenters benefit just as much as Democrats do from…
