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☆ 3 major hurricanes in the last 13 months did billions of dollars of damage to Florida's farmlands — and that was before Milton
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-18 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Hurricane Milton's estimated damage to Florida's agriculture could go up to $2.5 billion. That's according to estimates from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. AdvertisementHurricane Milton singlehandedly wrecked as much havoc on Florida's agriculture as three other major hurricanes combined, according to new estimates from the state's agriculture department. The commodities affected by hurricane damage include animal products, citrus and non-citrus fruit farming, field crops, greenhouses, and vegetable farming, per the damage assessment. Representatives of Florida's Department of Agriculture didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside business hours.

Persons: Idalia, Debby, —, Milton, — Helene, Wilton Simpson, Tom Vilsack, Simpson, Hurricane Milton, Hurricane Helene, Helene Organizations: Florida Department of Agriculture, Consumer Services, Hurricanes, Service, Milton, US Department of Agriculture, Department of, Agricultural Statistics Service, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Fitch, Hurricane, Analytics, Moody's Analytics, Florida's Department, Agriculture, Business Locations: Milton, Florida, Florida's

☆ I took a FlixBus from Miami to Naples for $50. Despite small drawbacks, it was a great way to see Florida's Paradise Coast.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( India Amos | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

I took a FlixBus from Miami to Naples and back for $50. The price of the ticket seemed fair and the ride took about as long as driving would've. My seat was comfy and I had a great experience taking the bus — I'd do it again for a day trip. AdvertisementAlthough I, like many in South Florida, have my own car, I don't always want to get behind the wheel for a day trip. So, I decided to try riding with FlixBus for my day trip from Miami to Naples.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, Florida's Department of Transportation, FlixBus Locations: Miami, Naples, Orlando, Tampa, Florida, South Florida

☆ Scholastic says state book bans are causing an 'impossible dilemma' for its iconic book fairs
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Scholastic's iconic school book fairs are facing an "almost impossible dilemma." There'll now be a separate section for books dealing with race and gender at elementary school fairs that schools can opt out of. AdvertisementAdvertisementChildren's book publisher Scholastic says that state efforts to ban literary works that discuss gender or race are causing an "almost impossible dilemma" for the iconic book fairs that it has hosted at elementary schools across the United States for decades. AdvertisementAdvertisementSchools in all 50 states have already opted to include the "Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice" collection in their book fairs, according to Sparkman. Meanwhile, PEN America — a nonprofit that advocates for free expression — urged Scholastic to explore other options instead of partitioning book titles.

Persons: There'll, —, it'll, Ketanji Brown Jackson, John Lewis, Anne Sparkman, Sparkman, Cailey Myers, Myers, PEN America —, We're Organizations: Service, Scholastic, Republican, Supreme, Fairs, Florida's Department of Education, Florida Department of Education, PEN America, PEN Locations: United States, Georgia, Florida

☆ DeSantis is taking aim at 'zombie studies' on the campaign trail. It's a real thing
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Her course lessons include chemical zombification, bacterial zombification and fungal zombification. Lauro, the University of Tampa professor, is scheduled to give a talk in Frankfurt, Germany, this month called, "Who's Afraid of Zombie Studies?" "The talk is pretty much entirely about this DeSantis nonsense, as well as what DeSantis is doing to education in Florida," Lauro said. Since DeSantis has taken aim at Black history, I think we can connect the dots on why the idea of 'zombie studies' gets under his skin so much. The first wave of zombie fiction hit the U.S. in the late 1920s, during the time of the Great Depression.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Paul Hennessy, Lightrocket, Eric Smaw, DeSantis, Smaw, automatism, Tatiana Tatum, Tatum, Gino Del Guercio, Del Guercio, Lauro, Sarah Juliet Lauro Organizations: Florida Gov, Rollins College, Rollins College In, Saint Xavier University in, Getty, Harvard Magazine, University of Tampa, Studies, Florida's Department of Education Locations: Florida, Auburndale , Florida, Winter Park , Florida, Canadian, Saint Xavier University in Chicago, tetrodotoxin, pufferfish, Haiti, Frankfurt, Germany, Africa, Caribbean, Hollywood

☆ Ronald DeSantis, whose nickname is Ron, is making some Florida students get their parent's permission to use their nickname
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Florida students now need parental permission to use a nickname in school. The new rule is thanks to legislation approved by the state's governor who famously goes by his nickname. The rule also applies to transgender students who want to go by a preferred name instead of a legal name. The form also applies to transgender students who do not want to use their legal name, the school district said in the memo, FOX 35 reported. The same goes for parents and students in Seminole County, Florida, who got a similar email on Tuesday morning from their school board, People reported.

Persons: Ronald DeSantis, Ron, DeSantis, Bill Organizations: Service, Florida's Department of Education, Florida House, Fox, Orlando, Orange County Public Schools, Legal Services, Orange County Public, FOX Locations: Florida, Wall, Silicon, Orange County, Orange, Seminole County , Florida

☆ DeSantis says Black people benefited from slavery by learning skills like 'being a blacksmith'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ron DeSantis said Black people learned beneficial skills as slaves. Florida approved a new African-American studies curriculum that teaches about the "personal benefit" of slavery. Ron DeSantis of Florida said Black people benefitted from some of the skills they learned in slavery — and students in the state will soon learn about that "personal benefit" in Florida's education curriculum. Florida's Department of Education on Wednesday approved a new curriculum for the state's African-American Studies program in public schools which instructs students on the personal benefit of slavery to Black people. The law was intended to push back against the supposed teaching of critical race theory – examining how America's history of racism and discrimination continues to impact the country today — in public schools.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, They're, DeSantis Organizations: Florida Gov, Service, Florida's Department of Education, American Studies, -, of Education Locations: Florida, Wall, Silicon

☆ ChatGPT helped a simulated study return up to 512% trading stocks based on news. Here's the prompt the researchers used — plus the positive and negative takeaways from their findings.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

ChatGPT excelled at predicting a stock's price direction based on news sentiment. They found that while ChatGPT excelled at predicting a stock's direction based on news sentiment, it is not without limitations. They prompted ChatGPT to assign the following scores to headlines: "1" for good news, "0" for unknown and "-1" for bad news. Is this headline good or bad for the stock price of (company name) in the term (short or long-term)?" This meant negative news had a greater and longer impact in the real world than in the simulation,, likely giving ChatGPT an advantage, Lopez-Lira noted.

Persons: ChatGPT, Bard, Alejandro Lopez, Yuehua Tang, Merrill Lynch, Lopez, Lira, Tang, Russell, BERT, Philip Morris, Gene Tipps, David Capablanca, Alpesh Patel, Praefinium, Patel, Capablanca, GPT's, it's, Cory Mitchell, would've, Mitchell, you'll, they're Organizations: University of Florida, of Florida's Department, Finance, Lira, Center for Research, Linux, NYSE, Nasdaq, GPT, Design, Cadence Design, Philip Morris Beats, Global, Global Operations, Dow Locations: GPT

☆ DeSantis asks Trump-appointed judge to dismiss Disney's lawsuit against him, claiming immunity
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

DeSantis asked a federal judge to dismiss Disney's lawsuit against him, claiming he has immunity. The lawyers for the Florida governor also said Disney had no business filing in federal court. Ron DeSantis of Florida filed a motion in federal court Monday evening asking a judge to dismiss Walt Disney World's lawsuit against him. Disney's lawsuit accuses DeSantis and his office of engaging in "a targeted campaign of government retaliation" against Disney that was "orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney's protected speech." Attorneys for the governor said in the 27-page motion that the federal district Disney filed the lawsuit in lacks jurisdiction.

Persons: DeSantis, Trump, —, Ron DeSantis, Walt, Allen Winsor —, Donald Trump —, Governor DeSantis, Mark Walker, Barack Obama, Disney, Winsor, Pam Bondi, Meredith Ivey Organizations: Disney, Service, Gov, Walt Disney, Court, Northern District of, British, Florida's Department of Economic, Central Locations: Florida, Northern District, Northern District of Florida, Tallahassee, Central Florida

A spokesman for Disney did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on the court filing. The 27-page motion to dismiss was filed by attorneys for DeSantis and Meredith Ivey, named as secretary for Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity. "Disney lacks standing to sue the Governor and Secretary, who are also immune from suit," they argued in a filing in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee. After Disney criticized the Republican-backed classroom bill, DeSantis and his allies moved to dissolve that special tax district. Days later, the DeSantis-appointed board countersued in state court.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, —, Donald Trump, Meredith Ivey, DeSantis, Ivey, Disney's, Disney Organizations: Florida Gov, Disney, Republican, GOP, DeSantis, Florida's Department of Economic, Florida's Walt Disney, Improvement, Central, State, Governor Locations: DeSantis, Tallahassee, Florida's, Central Florida

☆ A giant snail that eats plaster and is a threat to human health was spotted in a Florida county, forcing it into quarantine
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A giant African land snail was spotted in Broward County, forcing part of it into quarantine. The snail is among the world's most invasive species and lays thousands of eggs at a time. The giant snail is among the most invasive species in the world; it eats plaster, paint, and stucco, poses significant threats to vegetation, according to CBS. The portion of Broward County under quarantine covers Fort Lauderdale and is about 3.5 square miles, the report said. It's illegal to import or possess the giant African land snail in the US; the snail was first spotted in Miami in 1969, according to ABC News.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, CBS News, CBS, Florida's Department of Agriculture, Consumer Services, ABC News Locations: Broward County, Florida's Broward County, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Miami

☆ California investigators suspect Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis planned the flight carrying 16 migrants who were 'dumped' outside Sacramento church
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sixteen migrants arrived in Sacramento, California, over the weekend. California Gov. They'd first had a layover in New Mexico before arriving in Sacramento on Friday evening and being "dumped on the doorstep of a local church without any advance warning," California Gov. In an interview with Insider in April, Newsom called DeSantis' actions on numerous topics, including immigration, "performative" and "very destructive." DeSantis is scheduled to go to Sacramento for a fundraiser on June 19, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Gavin Newsom, DeSantis, —, they'd, They'd, Newsom, Rob Bonta, Karine Jean, Pierre, Monday, didn't, Joe Biden's, hadn't, Nikki Fried, Donald Trump Organizations: Gov, California Gov, Democrat, Service, Florida Gov, Vertol Systems Company, New York Times, Associated Press, California Department of Justice, CNN, Florida's Department of Emergency Management, Florida Democratic, Sacramento Bee Locations: Sacramento , California, Florida, California, Sacramento, Colombia, Venezuela, El Paso , Texas, New Mexico, San Antonio , Texas, Vineyard , Massachusetts, Mexico

☆ DeSantis threatened to put a prison next to Disney, but it may not be as scary an idea as he thinks — and in fact small Florida towns could probably use it way more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But it's unclear how much, if at all, a prison would actually impact Disney. A prison could also bring jobs to small towns that don't have a local employer as large as Disney. Ron DeSantis's threat to put a state prison next to the "Happiest Place on Earth" may not be as menacing as he thinks. But it's unclear how much a state prison close to Disney would actually impact the resort and theme park. As for how a prison could impact Disney World, she speculated that the primary factor would be how it impacts the company's brand and tourists' perception of safety.

☆ DeSantis-picked education board considers expanding so-called 'Don't Say Gay' law to 12th grade
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Florida's board of education is considering an expansion to a Parental Rights law critics call "Don't Say Gay." It would limit instructions about gender identity and sexual orientation for up to 12th grade. It wasn't immediately clear whether the proposal was aimed at supplanting or clarifying the 2022 law, formally known as the Parental Rights in Education Act. Some Florida school boards have shown they're confused about how to abide by the Parental Rights Act. Some have removed books exploring sexual orientation and gender identity from their libraries, though it's unclear for what grades.

☆ DeSantis administration sent undercover agents to an Orlando drag show and they found nothing wrong with it. The state is still trying to punish the venue.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Undercover agents were sent by the DeSantis administration to spy on a drag show, the Miami Herald reported. Still, Florida is moving ahead with a complaint against the venue to strip its liquor license. Ron DeSantis to spy on an Orlando drag show — and they found nothing "lewd" about it, according to the Miami Herald. A Florida drag queen told Insider before the Miami Herald report was published that they were concerned about rumors of undercover state agents showing up at performances. The DeSantis administration recently targeted the Hyatt Regency Miami after one of its facilities hosted "A Drag Queen Christmas" with minors present in the audience.

☆ A drag queen who survived the Orlando Pulse shooting says Florida's LGBTQ community is 'scared' of further hate following DeSantis' push to revoke a hotel's liquor license
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Lloyd Lee | Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A drag queen who survived the 2016 Pulse club shooting said it only further demonizes LGBTQ people. "Not just in terms of limiting opportunities for drag entertainers, but by demonizing the art of drag as a whole," she wrote. Fine told Insider his motivation for pursuing the bill came after he found out a drag queen show was hosted in a public space in his district last year. However, the representative also said he would not support a bill that eliminates drag shows for consenting adults. In Florida, there have been at least nine demonstrations against the LGBTQ community, the organization found.

☆ Deel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +32 min

Insider spoke with more than 30 current or former Deel workers about the HR company's extraordinary rise, and the unconventional tactics that made it possible. "I think if you talk to anyone, they would say that Alex is the face but all decisions run through Phillipe," one former Deel worker told Insider. "They lose every employment and labor protection," Valerio De Stefano, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, said of independent contractors. Alex Bouaziz, Deel on Centre Stage during day two of Collision 2022 at Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada. The company didn't have an internal human-resources team until sometime in 2021, by which point it had grown to hundreds of people.

An Insider review found that his company has sold to foreign governments, including a $228 million dollar contract. What Mills didn't advertise was Pacem's munitions contracts with foreign governments. The company's chief legal officer Joseph Schmitz said all of Pacem's foreign munitions sales are approved by the Department of State. Mills's influence over American military spending while having ties to a munitions company poses the potential for conflicts of interest, an ethics watchdog said. In Congress, Mills sits on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, which oversee military spending and foreign weapons sales.

☆ Florida's decision to punish the Hyatt Regency over a drag show could be a win-win for DeSantis by having a 'chilling effect' on similar events and scoring him political points
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Hyatt Regency Miami's alcohol license is being revoked after hosting a drag show, according to a complaint filed Tuesday. Ron DeSantis praised the move and could win political points for a potential 2024 run. A venue affiliated with the Hyatt Regency in Miami hosted "A Drag Queen Christmas" in December, a touring drag show that includes performers from "RuPaul's Drag Race." "Sexually explicit content is not appropriate to display to children and doing so violates Florida law," Bryan Griffin, DeSantis' press secretary, previously told Leonard. Deterring drag shows from occurring falls in line with the talking points of many prominent conservative figures, who view drag shows as harmful to children, even if might seem out of step with their "small government" values, he said.

Bills to block the app on state devices in California, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont have also been proposed. University of IdahoSchool’s policy: TikTok must be removed from university equipment "regardless of funding source," according to the school's help page. South Dakota University SystemSchool’s policy: The South Dakota Board of Regents, which governs six universities including Black Hills State University, University of South Dakota, Northern State University, Dakota State University, South Dakota State University and South Dakota Mines, told employees they could not use, download or access TikTok on university devices. University of Texas — AustinSchool’s policy: On Dec. 16, university officials announced that TikTok would be banned on state-issued devices. Texas Tech UniversitySchool’s policy: University employees are prohibited from using TikTok on school-issued devices and official university TikTok accounts must be deactivated.

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