Things To Do In SW Florida

Canada’s history of trying to poach skilled foreign technology talent from Silicon Valley continued Tuesday with the announcement of a new program to lure away thousands of tech workers from the U.S.

“I would say the majority would come from Silicon Valley,” said Rana Sarkar, consul general of Canada in San Francisco. “This is where the talent is. This is where we’re coming to attract talent.”

The nation to the north, with a population that just surpassed 40 million thanks to high immigration numbers, is once again attempting to leverage foreign workers’ difficulties with the U.S. H-1B visa, the work permit of choice for Bay Area companies wanting to hire tech workers.

“We’re targeting newcomers that can help enshrine Canada as a world leader in a variety of emerging technologies,” Canada’s immigration minister, Sean Fraser, said in a statement.

Canada’s overt efforts to persuade Silicon Valley H-1B workers to abandon the U.S. and head northward date back a decade, when the Canadian government paid for a billboard beside Highway 101 that said, “H-1B problems? Pivot to Canada.” read more

If you get the sense you’ve been seeing more bad accidents on the road lately, you probably have. Crashes claimed an estimated 42,795 lives on U.S. roadways in 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a fairly dramatic increase over 2019 by more than 6,000 deaths.

Though traffic on U.S. roadways plummeted in the first year of the pandemic, roadway deaths did the opposite. Traffic fatalities experienced double-digit growth four quarters in a row beginning in the second half of 2020.

And death rates haven’t really improved since then. “Driving is back up almost to normal, but fatalities are continuing to go up,” says David Zuby, executive vice president and chief research officer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

This is a paradox that spurred U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to call it a “national crisis of traffic deaths”.

What’s to blame?

A deadly cocktail of speed, carelessness and mass

There isn’t one contributing factor to the rise in roadway deaths, but many. read more

Universal Orlando is adding three free months onto its annual passes — for both new purchases and renewals — by Florida residents.

This deal applies to the range of season passes as well as to the two-park and three-park options. Two-park passes allow entry into Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure theme parks. A three-park pass includes Volcano Bay water park.

Posted prices for two parks currently range from $324.99 to $529.99, depending on the level. Season and Power Pass levels come with several days of block-out dates; the Preferred Pass has no block-out dates and includes parking in the Universal Orlando garages.

Prices for three parks range from $424.99 to $979.99

Gatorland: Next generation of Bonecrusher crocodiles has hatched

The resort also sells a top-level Premier Pass that includes valet parking, a ticket to Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Express after 4 p.m. and no block-out dates. It goes for $789.99.

Passes also include an assortment of discounts on food and hotel stays and access to the Passholder Lounge at Islands of Adventure. Payments can be monthly or in full. There’s a limit of six passes per purchase. read more