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Why Tampa Bay's 'real' home ownership rate is so much lower than we think
Wake up and good morning. How important is home ownership to a community? What if the “official” home ownership rate in America is puffery and that the real rate is much lower? And what if certain...
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Weakest rated Florida banks top 50 in new quarterly ratings but state may be...
Wake up and good morning. Fifty-one Florida-based banks received a "zero" rating, the lowest possible health rating from zero to 5 "stars" based on their condition at the end of the first quarter....
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Tampa's Eric Polins a finalist in "greatest" sales person contest, all for...
Wake up and good morning. Call me thick as a brick, but Tampa's Eric Polins (left) stands on the edge of greatness. He's six days away from competing in Cannes, France, for "World's Greatest...
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Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the economic water, oil...
Wake up and good morning. Earlier this week we reported that 51 or nearly a fifth of the 280 banks based in Florida are "zero" rated -- meaning they are the lowest rated and weakest banks,...
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BP may find cash outlay to cover spill damages harder to close than spewing...
Wake up and good morning. The good news for Florida and other gulf oil spill-tainted states is that BP agreed to a $20 billion fund for oil spill victims. The decision, with White House...
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Never mind: Texas Republican apologizes to BP for pushy feds, then retracts...
At the start of the BP oil spill hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, accused the White House of conducting a "$20 billion shakedown" by requiring oil giant BP to establish what...
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Pick your pain: Banker leaps from one struggling area bank to another as CEO
Wake up and good morning. I've heard of jumping from the frying pan into the fire, but why would a bank CEO at one gasping area bank leap to another struggling institution?Anthony Leo was named CEO of...
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Gus Boulis, SunCruz Casinos founder gunned down in 2001, immortalized in...
Wake up and good morning. Readers familiar with Tampa Bay gambling-in-the-gulf lore will remember Gus Boulis, founder of SunCruz Casinos (and the Miami Subs chain), who at one time turned gambling...
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Tampa's Polins denied 'World's Greatest Salesperson' title but may he inspire...
Wake up and good morning. Three finalists took to the stage in Cannes Monday seeking to become the "World's Greatest Salesperson" as chosen, on the spot, by leading executives of the advertising...
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High risk (or insanity) lurking in Orlando's luxury and stratospheric housing...
Wake up and good morning. We've already seen a flurry of signs that while the recession lingers, pieces of the luxury market are rebounding. Here's the latest: Walt Disney Co. this morning officially...
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Florida public pension fund takes 3rd biggest hit nationwide from decline in...
Wake up and good morning. The longer we examine BP and its devastating gulf oil spill, the more we realize the many ways the company is damaging the Florida economy. Next up: Public pension funds,...
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Years in making, Encore, Tampa's major downtown redevelopment project, set to...
Remember this photograph in the St. Petersburg Times? The shot is of the remarkable line of folks looking for construction work on March 25 on what will be the site of the 29-acre Encore mixed-used...
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Frenzy for new iPhone 4 spreads across Florida as thousands wait and scrap in...
Wake up and good morning. We knew it was coming. Now it's arrived. Madness over Apple's new iPhone 4 invaded Florida Thursday as people lines up outside Apple stores across the state in pursuit of the...
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Bond Street: Buyer of latest failed Florida bank aspires to become state's...
Wake up and good morning. Peninsula Bank in Englewood, just south of Tampa Bay, was shut down and sold by regulators little more than a week after its CEO, Anthony Leo, left the stricken bank to run...
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Electric vehicles: One view on what it will take for Tampa Bay to prep for...
Wake up and good morning. Helda Rodriguez attended last week's Get Ready Tampa Bay event outside Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg that "sparked" one of our first regional gatherings aimed at...
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Ex-BofA's Gene Taylor starts building new bank by taking over South Florida's...
Wake up and good morning. In December we reported how former Florida banker, Panhandle native and ex-Bank of America executive Gene Taylor (AP photo) had assembled a dream team of commercial and...
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Florida continues to shed construction jobs, 38,400 in past year and still...
Wake up and good morning. We know we've been losing construction jobs for years across Tampa Bay and Florida at a prodigious clip. Is there any sign that cascade is easing? A new analysis of federal...
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Home prices: What if we're nowhere near the market bottom and prices drop a...
Wake up and good morning. We Floridians and, of course, the Sunshine State real estate industry have been hoping month after month that housing prices here are near or at the bottom, and should start...
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Add yet another schemer to Florida's bulging collection of Ponzi scamsters
Update: It seems hard to even post a blog about Ponzi schemes in Florida without it becoming outdated... in hours! Here the latest from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and its July 6...
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Analyst report targets home builders with concentrated housing risks near...
Wake up and good morning. Here it comes. Wall Street analysts are starting to dissect the gulf coast economy and identify those businesses that are at greater risk to exposure to the BP oil spill....
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