Things To Do In SW Florida

Orange County commissioners will be asked next month to approve a special district that could help pay for a passenger rail line linking Orlando International Airport, the Orange County Convention Center and Epic Universe, Universal Orlando Resort’s new theme park now under construction.

Universal City Development Partners, a business associated with the theme parks, wants the commission to approve the Shingle Creek Transit and Utility Community Development District, according to a petition that outlines a plan to fund $174 million in public infrastructure, including a transit station and tracks.

The 719 acres in the proposed district primarily involve land associated with Epic Universe, a Universal park with attractions built around characters from Super Nintendo video games and “How to Train Your Dragon” movies.

The money would be raised by special property assessments and the sale of tax-exempt bonds.

Universal is the biggest of just two property owners in the proposed district. Hilton is the other. read more

By Anna Helhoski and Taryn Phaneuf | NerdWallet

When Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 — well before artificial intelligence and remote work — the American workforce faced other significant disruptions.

Workers were beginning to leave the farming jobs that, up until the 1880s, had made up over half the workforce, according to a 1966 Wesleyan University study. Many of those farmers, as well as new immigrants, headed to growing cities for industrial work.

Then the industrial workforce changed, too. Manufacturing, as a percentage of the nonfarm workforce, peaked in 1953 at 32%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). As of July 2023, that figure stands at 8%.

Since 1948, when the BLS began collecting employment figures, the nonfarming workforce has increased fivefold — and continues to evolve.

The last few pandemic-scrambled years have seen a huge spike in unemployment followed by an equally dramatic decline, as well as a work-from-home movement for office workers that may have changed some jobs for good. read more

By Meghan Coyle | NerdWallet

If your swimsuit is still drying from your last trip or you’re packing for a Labor Day getaway, traveling for Thanksgiving or the winter holidays probably isn’t top of mind. After all, it’s not even September.

And remember last year when people were procrastinating and finding last-minute holiday travel deals? Well, the surge in air travel this year has changed all that.

The most recent data from Google Flights shows the lowest average price for flights starting in mid-December (around Christmas) are usually available around 71 days before departure. That’s a whopping six weeks earlier than Google’s findings last year when holiday prices were lowest about 22 days before departure.

So now, the best time to book your end-of-December flights is by mid-October. And if you apply the same thinking to Thanksgiving flights, you’ve got just a few weeks until you should book.

Thanksgiving flights will probably be cheapest around mid-September. Wait too long, and you might pay more, get stuck with an inconvenient layover or be forced to book basic economy (read: middle seat). read more