Stet News🚨 A prominent downtown West Palm Beach property on the gateway to Palm Beach could be changing hands. Union Labor Life Insurance filed a $10 million foreclosure lawsuit last week against West Palm Point LLC, the company owned by New York investor and billionaire Charles S. Cohen. Cohen began moving dirt for West Palm Point, a 23-story office tower last year at the 2.4-acre site in the median of Okeechobee Boulevard between Quadrille and Dixie Highway, but construction has not gone vertical. Cohen leases the land from the city. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🥾 Will Rosenzweig, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, was fired last week by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department because of negative things he said about Trump on a social media blog in 2017, sources told the Miami Herald. Political activist Laura Loomer, a onetime congressional candidate in Palm Beach County and frequent Trump adviser, confirmed the reason for the firing on X: “SCOOP: DOJ sources tell me that Assistant US Attorney Will Rosenzweig was FIRED yesterday after he was exposed for running an anti-Trump blog.” (Miami Herald $$$)
🎵 Forbes takes a look at what it calls an unexpected collaboration between Related Ross and Palm Tree Crew, the entertainment brand co-founded by Norwegian music producer Kygo.
- Of note: Tickets start at $299 and Mary Lou’s nightclub will curate a VIP experience. (Forbes)
- “The partnership seeks to establish West Palm Beach as the next must-visit destination, beginning with the launch of Palm Tree Crew’s flagship music festival on Feb. 14 headlined by Kygo and Calvin Harris.”
🚽 Lake Worth Beach’s mayor broached the idea of charging 50 cents to use public bathrooms at city parks over concerns of chronic vandalism as city commissioners agreed to spend $98,000 to renovate a pavilion at Bryant Park, including replacing toilets and sinks so that they can’t easily be torn off. (Lake Worth Beach Independent)
💰 Boca Raton’s GEO Group, which operates more than four dozen immigrant detention facilities and prisons worldwide, landed contracts worth up to $500 million since President Donald Trump’s second term began. (Miami Herald $$$)
📅 A list of state laws that take effect Wednesday. (An end to the business rent tax is the big one.) (News Service of Florida via WUSF)
🎧 “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, tackles the question “Will Democrats matter again in Florida?” with Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani, who is running for Orlando mayor in 2027. (Listen here; watch after 4 pm Wednesday)
