Japan’s automakers are facing a sales crisis in China, data shows, as a rapid shift to electric vehicles has upended the world’s largest auto market and led to a plunge in purchases of gasoline-powered cars.
The retailer will sponsor the BWT Alpine Formula One team in the Miami Grand Prix in Florida, it said in a statement.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Tuesday a bill banning state agencies and local governments from taking climate change and diversity factors into account when investing money.
The Government and Corporate Activism Act targets ESG, or environmental, social and governance standards, derided as “woke” by DeSantis and the GOP-led Legislature in their culture war battles.
Democrats and some business owners say the law could cost the state money and impact municipal bonds.
At an event in Jacksonville, DeSantis called ESG “an attempt by elites to impose ideology through business institutions, financial institutions, and our economy writ large. … They want to use economic power to impose this agenda on our society. And we think in Florida, that is not going to fly here.”
The bill, which passed both the House and Senate along mostly party lines, also bans banks from applying a “social credit score” and denying services to people based on political opinions or speech, which is defined to include religion, ownership of a firearm, being involved in “fuel-based energy, timber, mining, or agriculture,” or supporting the “combating illegal immigration.”
Hoping wrestling fans will pump up visitor numbers, Orange County commissioners today pledged $850,000 from tourist tax revenue toward a bid to bring WWE Royal Rumble 2024 to Camping World Stadium.
The board followed the unanimous recommendation of the Sports Incentive Committee, a panel created in 2017 to study funding proposals to attract marquee sporting events to Orange County stadiums and arenas.
The incentive money is part of a fund created from a small cut of revenue generated by the county’s 6% tax added to the cost of a hotel room and other short-term lodging. The tax raised a record $336 million last year.
Royal Rumble would draw an estimated 54,000 fans, more than half from outside Orlando, according to Jason Siegel, president and CEO of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission, who briefed the incentive panel in March.
But it also would provide millions more in promotional value for Central Florida tourism, he said.
Formerly held in smaller venues, Royal Rumble has exploded into a stadium show, Siegel said.
Cadillac chief Rory Harvey will succeed Carlisle as head of GM’s largest and most profitable region June 1.