Things To Do In SW Florida

Florida’s new tough law against employing undocumented immigrants has generated waves of fear among foreign nationals who work at hotels, restaurants, agricultural fields and construction sites around the state.

A number of immigration and employment lawyers and economists are forecasting an exodus of some degree from Florida to other states. In the meantime, they say, consumers may well see a rise in prices as employers increase wages to replace workers who vacated their jobs.

The law targets illegal immigration into Florida by imposing more stringent employment requirements on businesses and creating some of the strongest penalties in the country.

Leaving town

Already, some legal professionals and observers are hearing of worker plans to move to other states, an exodus that could damage the state’s labor market. .

“What’s going to happen is illegal immigrants are going to leave the state of Florida because it’s hard for them to find a job here,” said Monica Escaleras, who chairs the economics department at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business. “That’s going to hurt our economy, like it or not.” read more

Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk officially have something else in common, as NASA awarded its second moon landing contract for the Artemis program to a large group of aerospace companies led by Blue Origin.

“I’ve said it before. We want more competition,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson at a press conference Friday. “We want two landers, and that’s better. It means that you have reliability. You have backups. It benefits NASA. It benefits the American people.”

Musk-owned SpaceX already is tasked to bring astronauts back to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972 with a version of its in-development Starship on NASA’s Artemis III mission currently targeting November 2025. Starship also has the contract for Artemis IV that isn’t slated until 2028.

The lander by the group led by Blue Origin, owned by Bezos, will be for Artemis V, which won’t be until at least 2029. It will be designed to venture from the planned mini space station Gateway down to the moon’s south pole for stays up to 30 days. read more