DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

Jesus Campos said he worked at Brawner Builders alongside the men missing after a bridge collapse in Baltimore. “We’re low-income families,” said Jesus Campos, who has worked at the construction company, Brawner Builders, for about eight months. The executive, Jeffrey Pritzker, and the Coast Guard said that all of the missing workers were presumed dead, given how long it had been since the collapse. Embassies for the other two countries mentioned by Mr. Campos did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Officials said that in addition to the six missing workers, two people had been rescued from the water.

Persons: Jesus Campos, “, ”, Jeffrey Pritzker, Mr, Pritzker, “ It’s, Campos, Francis Scott Key, Miguel Luna, Luna, Gustavo Torres, Jacey Fortin, Miriam Jordan, Patricia Mazzei, Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, Kirsten Noyes Organizations: Brawner Builders, Brawner, Coast Guard, Baltimore Banner Locations: Baltimore, Baltimore County, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Maryland, Petén, Mexican, Washington, Brawner

☆ Miami Beach, Seeking Quieter Spring Break, Sets Curfew
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Escalating its aggressive push for a quieter spring break, Miami Beach declared a three-night curfew beginning on Friday, citing the large crowds it expects over what has usually been the peak weekend of the season. The curfew will run from midnight through 6 a.m. each night until Monday, Alina T. Hudak, the city manager, announced on Friday morning. It will apply only to South Beach, the part of the city most popular with tourists and revelers. “We did not make this decision lightly, but it should not come as a surprise,” Ms. Hudak said in the announcement. “We have been very clear about our intent to protect the public from the dangerous mayhem that has accompanied spring break crowds in recent years.”The sale of alcoholic beverages for “off-premises consumption” — read: on the street — will also be prohibited after 6 p.m. each day the curfew is in place.

Persons: Alina T, “, ” Ms, Hudak Organizations: Miami Beach Locations: South Beach

☆ Miami Beach Is Done With Spring Breakers: ‘It’s Not Us. It’s You.’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More than two decades ago, Wayne Jones traveled to Daytona Beach, then Florida’s spring break mecca, not to party but to study. Maybe Miami Beach, which had its own unruly scene every year over Memorial Day weekend, could learn a thing or two. Officer Jones is now Chief Jones of the Miami Beach Police. Last year, the police made more than 500 arrests and confiscated more than 100 guns over the spring break period. “This is going to be the best spring break ever,” he said in a recent interview at his South Beach office.

Persons: Wayne Jones, Jones, ” Organizations: Daytona, Miami Beach Police Department, Miami Beach Police, Miami Beach, South Locations: Daytona Beach

A former U.S. ambassador accused of working for decades as a secret agent for Cuba indicated on Thursday that he would plead guilty, a move that would bring to a swift end the legal case over one of the biggest national security breaches in years. Manuel Rocha, 73, said in federal court in Miami that he would file a change of plea, signaling that he is prepared to plead guilty. He was charged in December with acting as an agent of a foreign government and defrauding the United States. Mr. Rocha is expected to plead guilty to two counts of conspiring to act as a foreign agent. Prosecutors are expected to drop the other charges; the wire fraud charge carried a 20-year maximum sentence.

Persons: Manuel Rocha, Rocha, Rocha’s Organizations: Prosecutors, Associated Press Locations: U.S, Cuba, Miami, United States

☆ In on the Joke at the First-Ever Florida Man Games
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-25 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | Jason Andrew | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Wouldn’t it be fun, Mr. Melfi thought, to hold another race, this time with a big after-party? And what if the theme was none other than the meme that launched many thousands of headlines about his home state: Florida Man? His wild idea morphed into an all-day competition with a series of zany events: A mullet contest. (But, to be clear, there were no actual arrests in the race. The handcuffs came from a sex toy shop.)

Persons: Pete Melfi, Melfi Locations: St, Augustine, Fla, Florida

☆ Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, Through Miami’s Airport Yours Probably Flew
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | Scott Mcintyre | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The roses that you buy this week from a florist, supermarket or website for Valentine’s Day in all likelihood arrived in the United States through one place: Miami International Airport, the port of entry for about 90 percent of the nation’s imported cut flowers. All year, farmworkers snip flowers by hand, mostly in Colombia and Ecuador, to be sent on cargo planes to Miami, where they are inspected and then loaded on trucks to reach every mainland state. Sometimes, flowers cut in the morning can be in South Florida, a three- or four-hour flight away, by the afternoon. It is a logistical feat, especially in the weeks leading up to Feb. 14 — one of the flower industry’s two peak holidays, along with Mother’s Day. Yet few consider that when they pick up bouquets for $20 at Target.

Organizations: Valentine’s, Miami International Airport, Mother’s, Target Locations: United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Miami, South Florida

☆ This Florida Mall Has Gucci, Prada … and Soon, Affordable Housing?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In Bal Harbour, Fla., an oceanside village north of Miami Beach, a luxury mall says it wants to help tackle one of the nation’s — and Florida’s — most intractable problems: a lack of affordable housing. It is an unexpected move for a retail temple where Gucci, Chanel and Rolex are on offer. Affordable? But in a rare instance of bipartisan agreement, the Florida Legislature passed a law last spring intended to encourage projects like the one that the owner of the mall, Bal Harbour Shops, has in mind. And nowhere has seen more backlash to date than little Bal Harbour.

Persons: Chanel Organizations: Miami Beach, Rolex, Florida Legislature, ” Locations: Bal Harbour, Fla, oceanside, Miami, Florida, Bal

Forgive Florida voters for feeling a little whiplash. Ron DeSantis appeared unstoppable in late 2022. He had just won re-election, thumping his opponent by nearly 20 percentage points in a victory attributed in large part to voters rewarding him for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But this week, he dropped out of the Republican presidential race after a single contest, in Iowa, where he received a thumping of his own, losing to former President Donald J. Trump by about 30 points. “I thought he was going to go all the way,” said Taylor Brame, 24, who moved to Florida in part because she was a fan of Mr. DeSantis’s minimal restrictions during the pandemic.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Donald J, ”, Taylor Brame Organizations: Florida, Republican, Trump Locations: Iowa, Florida

☆ Ousted Florida Republican Party Chairman Won’t Be Charged With Sexual Assault
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida who was ousted earlier this month amid a criminal investigation will not be charged with sexual battery, the Sarasota Police Department said on Friday. But the authorities will seek to charge him with video voyeurism, a felony. Christian Ziegler, the ousted chairman, recorded a sexual encounter he had in October with a woman who later accused him of assault. Officers prepared a probable cause affidavit for the video voyeurism charge and sent it to state prosecutors on Friday. They did not pursue a more serious sexual battery charge because the video, which the police obtained, “showed that the encounter was likely consensual,” the statement said.

Persons: Christian Ziegler, “, Mr, Ziegler, Bridget Ziegler Organizations: Republican Party of, Sarasota Police Department, Police Department Locations: Republican Party of Florida

☆ Criminal Investigation Roils Florida Republican Party
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Florida’s Republican Party found itself roiled on Thursday after the police said they were investigating an accusation made two months ago that the party’s chairman had engaged in sexual battery. The chairman, Christian Ziegler, was elected to the post this year as top Florida Republicans were fretting over whether to support Gov. Mr. Ziegler was seen as the choice of Mr. Trump’s allies. No charges have been filed against Mr. Ziegler, who denied wrongdoing through his lawyer, Derek Byrd. Mr. Ziegler responded to a request for comment by sending the same statement from his lawyer.

Persons: Christian Ziegler, Ron DeSantis, Donald J, Trump, Mr, Ziegler, Trump’s, Derek Byrd, “, ” Mr, Byrd Organizations: Republican Party, Florida Republicans, Gov, Mr

☆ Insight: Italy is no country for young chefs
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Antonella Cinelli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

For the past year, the 25-year-old has cooked at Piccola Cucina, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan's glitzy SoHo district, home to designer boutiques and high-end art galleries. The current outflow of Italian chefs due to difficult conditions at home is not a new phenomenon. A peep into the kitchens of even the most traditional Italian restaurants shows the local dishes are often prepared by low-paid immigrants. Partly for this reason, young chefs in Italy take home half the salary of their peers in Britain while working longer hours, Mazzei said. British people have become knowledgeable about Italian food, even learning about regional differences, he said, so he preferred to hire Italian chefs to satisfy an increasingly demanding clientele.

Persons: Davide Sanna, Brendan McDermid, Sanna, he'd, It's, Massimo Bottura, Roberto Gentile, Paese, Gentile, Di Marzo, Julio, Francesco Mazzei, Mazzei, Giorgia Meloni's, Francesco Lollobrigida, Antonio Bassu, Bassu, Gavin Jones, Daniel Flynn Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Star, Michelin, European, European Labour Authority, Reuters, MELONI'S, PRIDE Italian, Thomson Locations: SoHo, New York City, U.S, Sardinia, New York, Italy, Italian, glitzy SoHo, Modena, Spain, Japan, France, Europe, United States, Sicily, ITALY, Le, Toulouse, Britain, Milan, Gaeta, Rome, Naples, Roman, Emilia, Peruvian, Calabria, Italy's, London, Malta, England, Sardinian, Barcelona

☆ Italy is no country for young chefs
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Antonella Cinelli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Italy's food is famous the world over but many talented young chefs, hoping to make a career in their country, find themselves frustrated by low pay, lack of labour protection and scant prospects. The current outflow of Italian chefs due to difficult conditions at home is not a new phenomenon. A peep into the kitchens of even the most traditional Italian restaurants shows the local dishes are often prepared by low-paid immigrants. Partly for this reason, young chefs in Italy take home half the salary of their peers in Britain while working longer hours, Mazzei said. British people have become knowledgeable about Italian food, even learning about regional differences, he said, so he preferred to hire Italian chefs to satisfy an increasingly demanding clientele.

☆ Her Livelihood? Hunting Pythons in the Dead of Night.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

People would see hatchlings and think, “Oh, well, this isn’t a very big snake,” according to Ms. Siewe. “It’s going to get to be 10 feet long in three years.”But that did not make the next part any easier. Trees, grass, trash. Recently, one of Ms. Siewe’s friends caught a 17-foot, 2-inch python — so big and heavy, at 198 pounds, that multiple people were needed to contain it. “I arrived and there were five of them sitting on this python, keeping her secured,” she said.

Persons: Siewe, “ It’s, ”, Roberts, “ Locations: Florida

☆ Ohio Voted to Protect Abortion Rights. Could Florida Be Next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Florida has always been a deeply libertarian state,” said Anna Hochkammer, executive director of the Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition. It is deeply offensive to Floridians’ sense of independence and freedom.”Since June 2022, when Roe was overturned, states have given voters a direct say on abortion access, either to protect abortion rights, weaken them or explicitly exclude them from state constitutions. Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan all voted to expand or maintain abortion rights. Abortion was legal up to 24 weeks in Florida until last year. Most donations have come from Florida, with limited interest so far from the out-of-state donors who propelled campaigns in Ohio and elsewhere.

Persons: ”, Anna Hochkammer, we’ll, Roe Organizations: Freedom Coalition, American Civil Liberties Union Locations: Florida, Kansas , Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio

☆ Florida Dentist Convicted in Murder-for-Hire Plot Against Law Professor
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For nearly a decade, the sensational killing of a prominent Florida law professor in 2014 centered on a single, sordid question: Did his ex-wife’s family, motivated by an ugly custody dispute, hire hit men to murder him? On Monday, a jury concluded that it did, and convicted Charles Adelson, the former brother-in-law of the slain professor, Dan Markel, of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder. Mr. Adelson closed his eyes, mouthed “No” and put his head down when the verdict was read at the Leon County Courthouse in Tallahassee, Fla. Mr. Markel, 41, a well-known legal scholar at Florida State University, was shot on July 18, 2014, in his home in an upscale Tallahassee neighborhood. The police found him wounded, and he died 14 hours later at a hospital.

Persons: Charles Adelson, Dan Markel, Adelson, Mr, Markel Organizations: Florida State University Locations: Florida, Leon, Tallahassee, Fla

The official said that Mr. Card was later evaluated at a mental health facility. Mr. Card was in his hometown, Bowdoin, to hunt deer as recently as last fall, a neighbor of his family said. Robert has a brother who had also been in the military and a younger sister, Mr. Goddard said. At the address for the Card family home, no one answered the door on Thursday, and there was only one car parked out front. “We’re on edge right now because we know this is his stomping area,” Mr. Goddard said.

Persons: Robert R, ” Col, William G, Ross, Card, Camp Smith, Bryce Dubee, Dubee, Bowdoin, Rick Goddard, Robert, Goddard, Card’s, Mr Organizations: Maine State Police, Pentagon, Army Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment, Army, Police, National Guard, West, Subaru, Bowdoin, Mr Locations: Maine, Lewiston, U.S, Saco , Maine, West, Card’s, Lisbon

Image Robert Card. Mr. Card was last known to be driving a white Subaru Outback with a black bumper, officials said. The neighbor, Rick Goddard, 44, said he had known the Card family most of his life, because Mr. Goddard lives less than a mile down the road from the Card family house. At the address for the Card family home, no one answered the door on Thursday, and there was only one car parked out front. “We’re on edge right now because we know this is his stomping area,” Mr. Goddard said.

Persons: Robert R, Robert Card, ” Col, William G, Ross, Robert Russell Card II, Card, Bowdoin, Rick Goddard, Goddard, Robert, Card’s, Mr Organizations: . Lewiston, . Lewiston Maine Police Department, Associated Press, Maine State Police, Pentagon, Army Reserve, Subaru, Bowdoin, Mr Locations: Maine, Lewiston ., ., . Lewiston Maine, U.S, Lisbon, Lewiston

The fastest train in the country outside of the Northeast began service between Miami and Orlando on Friday, connecting two major cities in car-loving Florida and testing whether private passenger rail can thrive in the United States. Tickets from Miami to Orlando start at $158 round trip for business class and $298 for first class, with discounts for families and larger groups. Brightline became the nation’s first private passenger rail to launch in a century when it started its service between Miami and West Palm Beach, where the company’s trains do not reach such high speeds, in 2018. If Brightline proves profitable in Florida, it could represent a turning point for American passenger rail. The last private intercity passenger train — the Rio Grande Zephyr, which connected Denver and Salt Lake City — shut down four decades ago.

Persons: Brightline Organizations: Northeast, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Salt Lake City —, Amtrak Locations: Miami, Florida, United States, West Palm, Rio, Denver, Salt Lake City

☆ Changes Bring Friction, and Lawsuits, to Florida College Targeted by DeSantis
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

More than 200 students have been moved from on-campus dorms to off-campus hotels to make room for the recruited athletes and other new students. The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a complaint that New College, in its new iteration, discriminated based on disability. State lawmakers sent about $50 million to the school this year, a big jump from recent years. “What was really missing more than anything else at New College was leadership,” Mr. Corcoran, a former Florida House speaker and state education commissioner, said in an interview. “We’ve been able to do something that wasn’t accomplished in 63 years at the college, and that was grow enrollment.

Persons: Richard Corcoran, ” Mr, Corcoran, “ We’ve, “, ” Organizations: U.S . Department of Education, New College, L.G.B.T.Q, Florida House Locations: Florida

On the debate stage last month, Mr. DeSantis declined to raise his hand when a moderator asked the Republican candidates if they thought human behavior was causing climate change. His campaign and the governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment about his views. Instead, Mr. DeSantis has seemingly reverted to an old Republican Party line that climate change is happening naturally, without being accelerated by human behavior like the burning of fossil fuels. Mr. DeSantis says he is simply being realistic about the country’s economic and national security needs. As the governor of a traditionally purple state on the front lines of climate change, Mr. DeSantis has been confronted with clear evidence that the environment is changing.

Persons: DeSantis, “, Joe Biden’s Organizations: Republican, Republican Party, Fox Business, Joe Biden’s Green Locations: Florida

☆ Florida Supreme Court Considers Upholding Abortion Restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Florida Supreme Court’s conservative justices repeatedly questioned on Friday whether the state’s privacy rights extend to abortion as they considered whether to uphold a ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy — a decision that could overturn decades of legal precedent and trigger a far more restrictive ban. Few women know they are pregnant by six weeks, and abortion rights backers say such an early ban amounts to near total prohibition. The justices did not indicate when they would rule. During a closely watched oral argument in Tallahassee on Friday, a lawyer for Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and several abortion providers argued that the court should not narrow the scope of the privacy rights that Floridians have relied on for 40 years. The state’s solicitor general countered that the court erred in extending privacy rights to abortion, as it first did in 1989.

Organizations: Florida Supreme, Republicans, American Civil Liberties Union of Locations: Florida, American, Tallahassee, American Civil Liberties Union of Florida

Dan Ellison started shrimping when he was 12, bringing a change of clothes on the boat so he could make it to school after early-morning outings. He would sketch shrimp boats in class, before quitting school in eighth grade to pursue his passion. “I couldn’t do what a doctor or lawyer does,” Mr. Ellison, 61, said. You’ve got to know so much to survive.”He joined his father shrimping and fishing in tiny Horseshoe Beach, Fla., a business that took a significant hit when the state banned net fishing in the 1990s. “It’s just a dying breed,” Mr. Ellison said of shrimpers in the Big Bend region, where the Florida peninsula meets the Panhandle.

Persons: Dan Ellison, shrimping, Mr, Ellison, You’ve, “ It’s, shrimpers, Hurricane Idalia Organizations: Hurricane Locations: Fla, Bend, Florida

☆ Idalia Sweeps Through Georgia After Pelting Florida’s Coast
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Matthew Cullen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hurricane Idalia made landfall this morning in Florida’s Big Bend, hitting the area with heavy rain and devastating winds before marching northeast into Georgia. The storm severed power to hundreds of thousands of homes and left behind life-threatening floods across wide swaths of the region. Idalia, which briefly reached Category 4 strength, is now a tropical storm with sustained 70-miles-per-hour winds. Still, forecasters warned that as it moves north tonight it could produce dangerous conditions in parts of Georgia and southern South Carolina. Two deaths from car crashes have so far been attributed to Idalia, but the full extent of the damage is not yet known.

Persons: Idalia, Patricia Mazzei, Patricia, Donna Knight, ” Patricia, ” Locations: Florida’s Big, Georgia, South Carolina, Bend, Gulf, Mexico

Higher winds. In a 2018 paper, Dr. Kossin wrote that hurricanes over the United States had slowed 17 percent since 1947. Dr. Kossin likened the problem to walking around your back yard while using a hose to spray water on the ground. Because warmer water helps fuel hurricanes, climate change is enlarging the zone where hurricanes can form. There is a “migration of tropical cyclones out of the tropics and toward subtropics and middle latitudes,” Dr. Kossin said.

Persons: ”, James P, Kerry Emanuel, “, Kossin, “ you’ll, Emanuel, Dr Organizations: National Oceanic, Atmospheric Administration, Hurricanes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Hurricane Center, Researchers Locations: United States, subtropics, Japan

☆ ‘We Should Have Gotten Off the Island’: Cedar Key Residents Survived Idalia’s Wrath
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Patricia Mazzei | More About Patricia Mazzei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Hours after the waters of the Gulf of Mexico swept through her house, Donna Knight emerged in a windbreaker and boots to try to get her Chevy SUV to higher ground. By noon on Wednesday, the center of the Category 3 storm had passed, and she and her 19-year-old son knew they had survived. “We should have gotten off the island,” she said. The homes in her neighborhood, many of them Old Florida-style beach houses, were battered and flooded, though some of their metal and wooden shutters remained on windows. The storm surge lingered on some roads, smelling of salt water and gasoline.

Persons: Donna Knight, Idalia Locations: Gulf, Mexico, ”, Old Florida

Search resuls for: "Mazzei"

25 mentions found