Ford EVs will connect to 12,000 Tesla superchargers
Starting in 2025, Ford EVs will be built with Tesla’s North American Charging Standard ports, removing the need for an adapter.
Pride celebration organizers grapple with new Florida laws on drag, transgender rights
In the small south-central Florida city of Sebring, a “Bearded Lady” contest almost got an upcoming Pride celebration canceled.
“Is that not really another name for a drag queen show?” Sebring City Council Member Terry Mendel asked Highlands County LGBT+ Caucus director Christopher Davies during a May 16 public meeting. Davies was seeking approval for road closures for the fourth-annual Highlands County Pride Fest on June 11.
“It does seem to me that this is going to result in inappropriate displays of sexuality in front of our children, so I’m very concerned about that,” Mendel said.
Davies told city council members the “Bearded Lady” contest is a costume contest and not sexual in nature. He added that the event would be closed off to anyone younger than 21 years of age, in an effort to comply with SB 1438.
The bill, signed into law last week, established penalties against businesses for hosting live performances that display unsuitable, salacious material in front of minors. Critics say it was vaguely written to allow the targeting of drag performers.
Virgin Galactic returns to spaceflight after nearly 2 years
Virgin Galactic’s space tourism business plans are back on track after not launching its rocket-powered spacecraft for nearly two years.
Company founder Richard Branson was on board that July 2021 flight besting fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin flight to space by a few weeks. But while Blue Origin went on to launch several spacebound flights with paying customers, Virgin Galactic put its plans on hold.
On Thursday morning, though, a test flight crew on board the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity space plane was dropped from the VMS Eve support aircraft and rocketed up to more than 54 miles altitude, which is above the 50 mile threshold the Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration consider for a person having flown into space. Blue Origin’s New Shepard rockets, however, fly past what is known as the Karman Line, which is 100 km or just over 62 miles high. That line is the internationally known line for having made it into space.
While future plans are for Virgin’s fleet of spaceships to make it that high, there is no shortage of customers lined up for the company to begin the short trips that allow a few minutes of weightlessness while also seeing the curvature of the Earth in the blackness of space.
California farm eager to reintroduce sweet, nutritious mulberries to America
“All fruits are beautiful, but the mulberry is the king of fruits.”
– Persian Proverb
Move over cherry, there’s a new berry in town.
Thousands of cherry lovers throughout the Bay Area make their way each spring to one of dozens of U-pick farms in Brentwood for the plump, juicy round fruits, but now – for the first time – there’s another option that is arguably just as sweet: the Himalayan purple mulberry, which looks a bit like an elongated blackberry with tiny clusters of fruit.
Not only is Habitera Farms the only one allowing visitors to partake in the picking of the tasty, dark-colored fleshy fruit — the season lasts about eight weeks — but it appears to be the only business selling mulberries on such a large scale commercially in the United States.
Habitera’s organic Very Mulberry business opened for its first U-pick season on May 13, and by all accounts, it has been a great success, according to Harvest Time spokeswoman Nancy Mai. Mai’s marketing company helped promote the unusual fruit and also promotes the other farms in the nonprofit farming organization.
People on the move
Engineering
Daniel Durrance was promoted to senior project manager and mechanical engineer at Matern Professional Engineering, Maitland.
Real estate
Elaine Barnes has joined Ocean Properties & Management Inc., New Smyrna Beach, as a real estate sales agent.
Transportation
Doug Dvorak was appointed vice president of sales at SpeedBird, a private jet charter company.
Other
Rebecca L. Palmer, managing partner, The Rebecca L. Palmer Law Group, Orlando, was reappointed to the City of Orlando Public Arts Advisory Board.
Tiffany Jeffers was hired as communications project director at The Osceola Chamber of Commerce.
Submit professional appointments, management-level promotions and significant awards for individuals, along with photos as .jpg attachments, to peopleonmove@orlandosentinel.com.