Things To Do In SW Florida

Orange County Regional History Center will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz musician Sam Rivers with a panel, a pop-up photo gallery and a concert in October.

Rivers died at age 88 in Orlando on Dec. 26, 2011, after spending about two decades in Central Florida. He was born in Oklahoma in 1923, grew up in Chicago, and his career as a composer and saxophonist included working with jazz and blues artists such as Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker.

The history center events set for Oct. 7 start with a panel discussion moderated by Matt Gorney, Rivers’ manager and producer in Central Florida. Participating will be Monique Rivers Rencher, daughter of the musician; Doug Matthews, leader of the Sam Rivers Rejuvenation Orchestra; Rick Lopez, who wrote “The Sam Rivers Sessionography,” a biography; and Michael Heller from the University of Pittsburgh Department of Music, which is the home base of the Sam Rivers Archive.

The panel starts at 2 p.m. at the history center in downtown Orlando. read more

TITUSVILLE — Just off a tree-covered side road past businesses selling boats and fishing gear sits a fenced-off building that’s home to a $700 million satellite nearly ready for launch. Its mission: To study the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, which scientists suspect could mirror the inner core of Earth and other planets in the solar system.

The probe, which also is named Psyche, awaits an October trip to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. But after missing a chance to launch in 2022, NASA parked it at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility across the river where it has been sitting in the center of the stark, white clean room.

With its solar panels installed this month, teams are finally set to load it with the fuel needed to send it on its 2.5-billion-mile trip to the asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A is targeting as soon as Oct. 5 with a window that stretches until Oct. 23. It’s not slated to arrive at Psyche, which can range from 235 million to 309 million miles away from Earth until August 2029, and only then will it get down to the business of figuring out what’s special about the distant asteroid. read more

Officials with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ tourism oversight district are asking Florida’s inspector general to investigate theme park passes, discounts and other Disney “perks” they say were given to employees and board members for years.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is moving to eliminate those benefits offered to employees of the district that provides government services to Disney World, according to a news release.

Yet, employees will instead obtain a $1,000 annual stipend as part of the proposed changes to the district’s annual pass program, according to an email to employees obtained by WFTV.

An internal analysis showed only about 50% of employees used the annual pass perk, according to the email.

The stipend can be used for theme park tickets, car repairs, savings or other needs, district officials told employees in the email. Annual Disney passes can range in price from $399 to $969 per person for Florida residents, some with significant black-out dates, according to Disney’s website. read more