Things To Do In SW Florida

The Space Coast lost out on getting the Department of Defense’s U.S. Space Command headquarters last year, but its two military installations have been named the preferred location for a smaller entity, the Space Force’s training headquarters known as STARCOM, according to an announcement from U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, both former Air Force facilities, were named the presumptive home for STARCOM, which stands for Space Training and Readiness Command. It’s one of three Space Force field command units, similar to an Air Force air command.

STARCOM is “responsible for the deliberate development, education and training of space professionals in addition to the development of space warfighting doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures, and the operational test and evaluation of Space Force systems,” according to an Air Force press release.

Under each field command are several smaller groups known as deltas, similar to Air Force wings. One of STARCOM’s five deltas — Space Delta 10: Doctrine and Wargaming — is also tapped to make its way to Brevard County. Patrick SFB was named the “sole candidate location being considered to host this mission because of its proximity to a Department of Defense modeling and simulation capability with resident space.” read more

By ALEXANDRA OLSON (AP Business Writer)

After ballooning for years, CEO pay growth is finally slowing.

The typical compensation package for chief executives who run S&P 500 companies rose just 0.9% last year, to a median of $14.8 million, according to data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar. That means half the CEOs in the survey made more and half made less. It was the smallest increase since 2015.

Still, that’s unlikely to quell mounting criticism that CEO pay has become excessively high and the imbalance between company bosses and rank-and-file workers too wide. Discontent over that gap has helped fuel labor unrest, and even some institutional investors have pushed back against a few of the most eye-popping packages.

The smaller increase came after CEO pay soared 17% in 2021, when boards rewarded top executives handsomely for steering their companies through the pandemic-induced recession.

Many of the compensation packages were approved early in 2022 but even a small raise might seem lavish in retrospect against the backdrop of a year in which stock markets tanked to their worst performance since 2008, inflation erased wage gains, fears of a recession grew, and tech giants began laying off workers. read more

For decades, members of the LGBTQ community have gathered in Orlando the first weekend of June for parties, pools and theme parks.  The array of events, loosely defined as “gay days” offerings, draws thousands of tourists to Central Florida.

But this year, Florida’s political climate worries organizers, who nonetheless believe many travelers are still coming to Orlando despite new laws that affect transgender people, medical care, drag performers and what subjects are allowed in schools.

Yet, some previous visitors are skipping the 2023 festivities, they say. Travel advisories and the recent Lake Nona incident in which an electronic traffic sign was altered to read “Kill all gays” made international headlines and heightened awareness on the heels of the state’s so-called “don’t say gay” law approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature.

“There’s definitely concern out there,” said Joseph Clark, CEO and owner of Gay Days Inc., which throws multiple parties and activities. “There are lots of guests who just won’t come because it’s hosted in Florida. And they don’t want to support a state that is making it obviously not a welcome place for them.” read more

By TOM KRISHER and ASHRAF KHALIL (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government’s auto safety agency plans to require that all new passenger cars and light trucks include potentially life-saving automatic emergency braking and meet stricter safety standards within three years.

Wednesday’s announcement by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration represents the agency’s latest move toward regulating electronic systems that take on certain tasks that drivers themselves have normally done. NHTSA has been reluctant in the past to impose such regulations, saying the technology will change during the time it takes to enact new rules.

Ann Carlson, the safety agency’s chief counsel, says 90% of new passenger vehicles already include the braking technology under a voluntary program that automakers have approved. But she says NHTSA wants to make the braking systems more effective at higher speeds and better at avoiding pedestrians, especially at night.

The regulation proposed by NHTSA will require, for example, that the systems allow vehicles to fully avoid other vehicles at up to 50 miles per hour if a driver should fail to react. If a driver brakes some but not enough to stop a collision, the system would have to avoid hitting another vehicle at up to 62 mph. read more