The city of Cape Coral is suspending road impact fees in hopes of attracting new businesses to the community. WGCU’s Valerie Alker has more.

The Jackson Laboratory announced Wednesday it will expand its operations into Sarasota – dashing the hopes of boosters who had hoped the Maine based non-profit genetics researcher would move into Collier County.

Jackson lab’s Vice President for Advancement Mike Hyde says significant community opposition in Collier shifted their focus to Sarasota. “You know our investigation over the last couple of months made it clear that that community would welcome the presence Jackson Laboratory and in particular with our partners from USF Health.”

The Jackson Laboratory Florida will partner with the University of South Florida, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, Sarasota County and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation to create a bio-medical village developing genetics based treatments for heart disease, Alzheimer’s and diabetes. It has potential to create 22 hundred jobs by 2030.

Hyde says the next step is to convince Governor Rick Scott to help fund the project. Governor Charlie Crist had pledged 130 million dollars over the next three years.

Experts are meeting in Miami this week reviewing advances in storm forecasting technology and ongoing research. Forecasters have gotten fairly accurate at predicting the path a storm will take – but predicting intensity remains a challenge.

National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read says Hurricane Charley, which made landfall in Charlotte County in 2004, is an example of a storm that intensified in an unpredictable manor. “I wasn’t a fulltime employee at the Hurricane Center but I was detailed over here for Charley and we all had that knot in the pit of our stomach about not being able to forecast that in advance, just observing it.”

Charley strengthened from a category 2 to a category 4 hurricane in less than two hours and made landfall about 100 miles south of Tampa Bay - where forecasters initially said it was headed.

The information exchange between federal and military officials, emergency managers and researchers concludes Thursday with recommendations to improve predictions for the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season which begins June 1.