Things To Do In SW Florida

There is still time to nominate your business or organization for the Orlando Sentinel’s 2024 Top Workplaces program, which recognizes the best places to work in Central Florida.

The deadline for applications has been extended to April 12. Get information or submit your nomination at OrlandoSentinel.com/nominate or by calling 407-428-2696.

Nearly 200 companies have already signed up to participate in the program, now in its sixth year with the Sentinel. Participation is free and there is no obligation to purchase any product or service.

Any organization – public, private, non-profit or governmental – with 35 or more employees in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Sumter, Polk, Brevard, Volusia, Flagler or Marion counties may enter the Top Workplaces program. Workplaces are evaluated by their employees, who are sent a short 24-question survey to complete.

The survey period runs through May.

The Sentinel is again partnering with Energage as the program’s survey company. Energage conducts Top Workplaces surveys for media companies in 65 markets and surveyed more than 2 million employees at more than 8,000 organizations in the past year. read more

The value of publicly traded Astra Space has been falling since it shelved a rocket design that only went for 2 for 7 on launches, including two highly visible failures from the Space Coast. Now the company is going private.

Once valued at more than $2.1 billion, the Alameda, California-based company closed at about $20 a share on the Nasdaq Stock Market in February 2021, months before its first orbital success with its Rocket 3 design. It has since made a steady drop in value. including the threat of delisting from Nasdaq last year and the potential for bankruptcy looming.

The deal announced Thursday calls for a group that includes company cofounder and CEO Chris Kemp and cofounder and CTO Adam London to buy back company shares for $0.50 per share. The stock was trading at $0.55 on Friday morning. The closing price was $0.86 per share on Wednesday.

The takeover transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024.

The company managed to reach orbit in November 2021 during a demonstration flight for the Space Force from Alaska and that led to its first launch attempt from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in March 2022. read more

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate on Thursday gave final approval to a plan aimed, in part, at addressing “party houses” at short-term rental properties, as the use of online platforms such as Airbnb continues to skyrocket.

Regulation of vacation rentals for years has been a thorny issue for the Legislature. Champions of short-term rentals maintain that they provide extra income for homeowners, while critics complain that noise, trash, and traffic woes from a revolving cast of visitors negatively transform neighborhoods.

The Senate voted 23-16 to approve the plan (SB 280), which was approved Wednesday by the House in a 60-51 vote. The House made changes to a version passed earlier by the Senate, requiring another vote Thursday in the Senate. The bill is now ready to go to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The bill addresses one of the key sticking points over the years — an effort to “preempt” regulation of short-term rental properties to the state.

Current law bans local ordinances or regulations passed after 2011 that prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rentals. read more