Leeds has a U.S. ownership group that contains a couple of major-winning golfers.

Economists said shoppers are more cautious because of inflation, higher interest rates and student loan repayments.

With the holiday shopping season gearing up, Florida Chief Financial Officer is warning people to watch out for potential scams surrounding Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Leading Russian banks are looking into using a Chinese payment rival after Visa and Mastercard suspended operations over the invasion of Ukraine.

The initial report of Florida's inspector general detailed enormous cost overruns when the system was developed under then-Republican Gov. Rick Scott and problems that were exposed when unemployment skyrocketed during an increase in unemployment when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered a business shutdown a year ago. As hundreds of thousand of Floridians sought unemployment compensation after losing their jobs, DeSantis called the online claim system a jalopy trying to compete in the Daytona 500 and ordered a review of why the system failed. In May, DeSantis ordered the state inspector general to investigate the contract awarded to Deloitte in 2011 to create the unemployment filing system.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and Deloitte Consulting LLP are fighting a request by plaintiffs' attorneys for an extension of time to file a revised class-action lawsuit related to problems in the state unemployment-compensation system. But Cooper gave plaintiffs' attorneys 30 days to file an amended complaint, which would refuel the legal fight. The state cited a June 22 hearing that went into detail about issues in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in April after hundreds of thousands of coronavirus-caused unemployment claims overwhelmed the state’s online CONNECT system. The Department of Economic Opportunity runs the unemployment system, while Deloitte was a contractor that helped put CONNECT in place in 2013.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. A government watchdog is crying foul over the states decision to award an estimated $135 million contract to Deloitte, the same firm that built Floridas flawed unemployment system. In its report, Florida TaxWatch called the contract award hard to believe. The Agency for Health Care Administration did not consider how poorly the unemployment portal built by Deloitte worked before awarding the consulting firm a new nine-figure contract. Bob Nave, vice president of research at Florida TaxWatch, a nonprofit government watchdog group, believes the state agency should have taken that information into account. Jonathan Gandal, a managing director for Deloitte, offered this statement on the contract award: Deloitte received the highest score in an open and competitive procurement after an independent committee evaluated all the proposals and determined that we offered the best value to Florida taxpayers from both a technical and financial perspective.

Since then, Deloitte won a bid for a contract worth more than $100 million with the Agency for Health Care Administration. In May, DeSantis ordered the state inspector general to investigate the contract awarded to DeLoitte in 2011, when now Republican Sen. Rick Scott was governor. The contract was originally worth $40 million, but the cost ballooned to nearly $78 million after 14 contract amendments. The contract for a Medicaid database was awarded to DeLoitte Aug. 3 over four other vendors, but has since been protested. DeSantis said part of the reason Deloitte won the bid was it dropped its price, and he said the issue with the unemployment system wasn't necessarily a factor in the award.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida state agency announced it will award a large contract to the same company that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has repeatedly criticized for bungling the state's unemployment system. In May, DeSantis ordered the state inspector general to investigate the contract awarded to DeLoitte in 2011, when now Republican Sen. Rick Scott was governor. The contract was originally worth $40 million, but the cost ballooned to nearly $78 million after 14 contract amendments. Sen. Lori Berman said Deloitte's unemployment system design caused “pain and grief” for Floridians who have been left without jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida’s unemployment system was back online Monday after three days offline to process claims and to be upgraded. Florida’s unemployment website technology is now being called “a jalopy” or “clunker” by Gov. At $275 a week for just 12 weeks, Florida has some of the stingiest benefits in the country. For the third time in a month, a handful of cars with signs critical of the state’s unemployment system circled the DEO headquarters with horns blowing on Monday. Last week, the state agreed to make payments retroactive to March 9, or the day someone was laid off.