The Florida Chamber of Commerce, with educators, human resource experts and law enforcement leaders, unveiled Wednesday the Institute for a Safer Florida (ISF) to focus its energy and expertise on enhancing school and workplace safety.

For more than 100 years, the Florida Chamber has been working to secure Florida’s future, and lead our state to a diverse and sustainable economy. For the past 40 years, the Florida Chamber has spawned several organizations that Floridians recognize today, including:

• Leadership Florida,

Red tide, oil drilling and harmful algal blooms were at the center of the discussion Wednesday at a Florida congressional delegation hearing in Washington, D.C. chaired by GOP Congressman Vern Buchanan and Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings.

On the agenda were some of the most pressing water quality issues currently affecting the Sunshine State.

It was the first meeting of the Florida congressional delegation in 2019. Some 16 congressmen attended -- more than half of the state delegation.

Two Democrats in the Florida House -- state Rep. Michael Grieco of Miami Beach and state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando -- introduced a proposal easing restrictions on recreational marijuana use in the Sunshine State. 

Boosted by support from the Legislature, Florida is showing significant improvement in the overall quality of care at long term care centers, now ranking among the top 10 states in the nation, according to a Quality Care Report issued today by the Florida Health Care Association (FHCA). 

The report shows that Florida is consistently among the strongest performers in terms of both current quality measures and gains made over the last several years, based on federal data on a wide range of standard quality measurements.

The Florida Supreme Court on Monday issued an order directing the impanelment of a statewide grand jury on school safety. The order comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis filed a petition with the court on Feb. 13 requesting the grand jury.

“We know Broward has to be looked at. I don’t know if Hamilton County needs to be,” DeSantis said in announcing his request while surrounded by families who lost children in the Parkland shooting. “There’s more evidence in Broward than other districts. ...

Firefly Aerospace is creating a launch and manufacturing project in Cape Canaveral, adding more than $50 million to Florida’s economy and adding more than 200 jobs in the area.  

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the news at a media event at Cape Canaveral on Friday as the Texas based company expanded its operations in the Sunshine State.  

“This new project will include the capability to locally manufacture, test and launch rockets delivering payloads that will harness the commercial potential of space exploration,” the governor’s office noted. 

Sen. Manny Diaz, Jr.-R-Hialeah Gardens, chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, and Sen. President Pro Tempore David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, announced Thursday key components of legislation the Senate will consider during the 2019 legislative session.

Business leaders from throughout Florida were in the Capital City Wednesday as part of the Florida Chamber’s 2019 Legislative Fly-In and have been sharing the 2019 Jobs Agenda, which the Chamber believes will help Florida create at least 150,000 new jobs this year.

Good jobs and economic growth are essential to Securing Florida’s Future, the Chamber says on its Agenda. The Chamber is calling on lawmakers to make Florida more competitive by:

• Lowering the Cost of Living,

• Reducing the Cost of Doing Business, and

Florida is one of the nation's top three consumers of surplus lines insurance -- coverage that must be purchased from a company not licensed by the state because it is not available through licensed companies. 

Despite a major hurricane, a lingering bout of red along the Gulf Coast, and a national press that focused on the worst of Florida's problems, 2018 was a record year for tourism in the Sunshine State.

VISIT FLORIDA announced Wednesday that Florida welcomed an all-time record number of visitors last year with 126.1 million out-of-staters in 2018. This announcement marks the eighth consecutive record year for visitation to Florida, exceeding the previous record of 118.8 million visitors in 2017 by an astounding 6.2 percent.