Economy

Winds of Change: How Our Reporting on Pastor O'Neal Dozier Made Some People Very Nervous

By Stefan Kamph Mon., Aug. 20 2012 at 9:06 AM
Categories: Economy, Religion, or Something Like It
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O'Neal Dozier
I did not set out writing last week's feature -- about pastor O'Neal Dozier's connection to a plan hatched by the successor to Desmond Tutu, which just might save Africa -- with the intention of getting Dozier fired.

All I did was try to find out what was going on, and why.

The story centers around a new initiative launched by one of the most influential religious figures in the world -- Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, successor to Desmond Tutu. He appeared in a video address at a public event held at Dozier's church in February, and in person in Jacksonville four months later. Everything we reported about these events was publicly released information, plus the question: how did this all come together?
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Julius Jackson Sr, O'Neal Dozier, Royal Bafokeng Holdings, Thabo Makgoba, Winds of Change
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Fire Ant

Citigroup to Palm Beach County School District: Pony Up!

By Fire Ant Mon., Aug. 6 2012 at 6:13 AM
Categories: Economy, Education, Fire Ant
fireant_small.jpg

Fire Ant -- an invasive species, tinged bright red, with an annoying, sometimes fatal bite -- covers Palm Beach County. Soon, his column will appear twice a week on The Pulp. Got feedback or a tip? Contact fire.ant@browardpalmbeach.com.

Would the fine folks at an institution like Citigroup steal the pennies off a dead man's eyes? Would they stonewall the Palm Beach County School District, thereby taking millions of dollars annually away from public education? We wouldn't say that. Not yet.

But according to economists at the Florida Public Services Union, Citigroup is reaping windfall profits from a deal with the District, a deal that originally made sense but changed with changing circumstances. The union --an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union -- has urged the District to renegotiate the deal. But the District has hemmed and hawed and Citigroup has kept its cards face down. If things don't change, Fire Ant may have to revise his judgment about the bank. Here's the deal:

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Palm Beach County School Board
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Economy

Fort Lauderdale Almost Dead Last on Forbes' List of Best Places for Businesses and Careers

By Chris Sweeney Mon., Jul. 9 2012 at 3:50 PM
Categories: Economy
kid-money.jpg
Invest elsewhere, kid
The big business brains over at Forbes compiled a list of 200 American cities that the magazine says are the best for "business and careers."

Don't get your hopes up, folks. Fort Loddy Doddy did terrible, coming in 192 out of 200. We barely beat out notorious hellhole Flint, Michigan.

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Forbes, Fort Lauderdale, Lists
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Economy

South Florida at the Bottom of New Job Creation Rankings

By Rich Abdill Thu., Mar. 29 2012 at 11:21 AM
Categories: Economy
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"Gallop pole."
​More than one in five South Florida residents said their employers were firing workers in 2011, according a Gallup poll released this morning.

In a Gallup ranking of the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas, the "Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach" area ranked 44th out of 50 for job creation last year -- the worst in the state.

The rankings are the result of a yearlong survey in which respondents were asked if their employer was currently hiring or firing employees -- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, came out on top, with 37 percent saying their firm was hiring and only 12 percent saying their employer was letting workers go.
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Economy

PBSO Conducts West Palm Trailer Park Prostitution Sting, Releases Price List

By Rich Abdill Mon., Mar. 5 2012 at 7:15 AM
Categories: Crime, Economy
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​The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office arrested 17 people Thursday in "an enforcement operation targeting street level prostitution" in the Plantation Mobile Home Park in West Palm Beach, according to a news release.

The release also included a dissemination log of the arrests, but the spreadsheet was spelled "dissemenation log," which, believe it or not, is only the second-most amusing part of the documentation: Police also included what appears to be documentation of what each suspect allegedly wanted and how much they were going to pay.

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Almost-Great Ideas

Lake Worth Gun Shop and Shooting Range Gets $500K Stimulus Loan

By Lisa Rab Wed., Feb. 15 2012 at 12:00 PM
Categories: Almost-Great Ideas, Economy, Gone Shootin'
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Flickr user: kevitivity
Your stimulus dollars at work.
​Buying guns and shooting targets in Lake Worth is officially part of the economic recovery effort.

According to data compiled by the nonprofit journalism website ProPublica, the Palm Beach Shooting Center in Lake Worth received a $550,000 loan backed by the Small Business Administration using stimulus funds.

The loan, which was awarded in February 2010, was made possible through a program designed to keep mom-and-pop operations afloat during the recession. Since 2009, federal stimulus funding has helped the government back billions of dollars in loans to small businesses that would not otherwise be able to get credit in the private marketplace.

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gun shops, Lake Worth, recession, small business loans, stimulus funding
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Wild, Wild West

Unemployment Rates Dropped in January; Allen West Says No They Didn't

By Rich Abdill Sat., Feb. 4 2012 at 4:57 PM
Categories: Economy, Wild, Wild West
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The numbers would make more sense if he were wearing his glasses.
​The jobs numbers released yesterday look promising -- the nation's overall unemployment rate dropped from 8.5 percent to 8.3 percent in January, and the rate of black unemployment dropped from 15.8 percent to 13.6, the lowest it's been since March 2009.

Still, the last time another president faced unemployment this high was in December 1983, according to Department of Labor archives. An article in Saturday's New York Times presented the political situation like this:
The burst of job growth in January gives President Obama a fresh -- but tricky -- opportunity to revise the grim economic narrative of his presidency while offering Mitt Romney a choice: embrace a new optimism or campaign against a sinking economy even as it shows signs of turning around.
Fortunately, Congressman Allen West has found a third option: Instead of getting caught up in how to spin the numbers, he just says somebody's faking them.

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Allen West, Bureau of Labor Statistics
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Economy

The Bill That Could Bring Destination Resorts to Broward "Dead for This Year"

By Rich Abdill Fri., Feb. 3 2012 at 12:05 PM
Categories: Economy, Politics
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"Hey, you take your giant casino drawings and you GET OUT OF TOWN, MISTER."
​The Florida House bill that would grant three licenses to developers looking to build South Florida resorts has been killed, at least for the time being. The House Business and Consumer Affairs committee postponed a vote rather than voting it down, which theoretically keeps the bill alive but makes it extremely unlikely it will go anywhere this legislative session.

Adding to that perception is a news release from House Rules Committee Chairman Gary Aubuchon saying that "as long as I am the Chairman of the House Rules Committee, this bill will not be withdrawn from any committees and is dead for this year."

As far as we know, Aubuchon is still chairman of the House Rules Committee, and the bill
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Economy

Florida Worst State in Study of Long-Term Unemployment

By Rich Abdill Tue., Jan. 31 2012 at 4:01 PM
Categories: Economy
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This is what a think tank is, right?
​More than 53 percent of Florida's unemployed residents went six months or more without work last year -- the highest rate in the country, according to a study from the Hamilton Project, run by the Brookings Institute, a D.C. think tank.

To compare, the average unemployed worker between 2004 and 2007 spent two months without work, according to the study. After the "Great Recession," the authors wrote, time between jobs has skyrocketed.

"It has always been harder to find a job the longer you are unemployed," the study said. "But the situation facing American workers today goes well beyond historical norms."
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Economy

Doug Darling, Rick Scott Job-Creation Adviser, Quits

By Rich Abdill Mon., Jan. 30 2012 at 9:34 AM
Categories: Economy, Rick Scott
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Hired to help the unemployed, now keeping them company
The man who oversees much of the state's job-creation effort submitted his resignation late last week for "personal reasons."

It's not clear why Department of Economic Opportunity Director Doug Darling, who was hired for the gig last July, is calling it quits, but it probably isn't for a lack of results: The most recent numbers suggest Florida's unemployment rate is lower than it's been in years. The state gained 113,900 jobs between December 2010 and December 2011 -- the third-largest jump in the country, according to Department of Labor numbers released last week.

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Doug Darling, Rick Scott
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