Things To Do In SW Florida

Anna Claire Vollers | (TNS) Stateline.org

Peggy Malone walks the quiet halls of Crozer-Chester Medical Center, the Pennsylvania hospital where she’s worked as a registered nurse for the past 35 years, with the feeling she’s drifting through a ghost town.

The sprawling hospital serves the diverse and densely packed Philadelphia suburb of Upland, and a large proportion of its patients earn low incomes. Malone remembers a time when the hospital, once the largest in the county with nearly 500 licensed beds, was such a hub that neighbors would come to the cafeteria just to have dinner.

Now many of the units sit empty. Gone are the pediatric unit, the transplant program, the surgical residency and the detox program where Malone used to work. Staff has been reduced and supplies are scarce.

Patients’ rooms in the main building haven’t had television since the cable was disconnected last month, she said.

Malone has grown accustomed to telling this story over and over to reporters, to researchers, even to Congress in recent years. Her community — her hospital — is a cautionary tale for what can happen when private equity comes to town. read more

By Kimberly Palmer | NerdWallet

For Ambus Hunter, what started as a fun trip to Las Vegas when he was 25 soon turned into a gambling addiction. “I got consumed with the vibes,” he says, recalling how he loved the feeling of winning at first. He began gambling back home in the Midwest and on business trips, playing roulette whenever possible. He burned through thousands of dollars of savings before realizing he needed to find a way to stop.

Now fully financially recovered at 37, Hunter works as an accredited financial counselor in Baltimore, helping other people recover their finances that have been damaged by problematic gambling. “I learned a lot about myself and my relationship with money,” he says, lessons he helps others apply to their own lives and budgets.

Gambling is a growing problem among young adults, according to experts, largely because sports betting and other forms of online wagering are so easily accessible. “More and more youth are becoming vulnerable to gambling and problem gambling. It’s a social contagion,” says Dorothy Nuckols, who teaches personal finance for the University of Maryland Extension in Central Maryland. read more

Disney’s lawyers argued in court Tuesday that the oversight district aligned with Gov. Ron DeSantis is failing to turn over emails and text messages that could be pertinent to the company’s legal dispute with the state.

The entertainment giant wants to see communications, including those on personal devices, between the governor’s office and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s board and employees.

“The district appears to have made no effort to search for, collect, or review documents from personal email accounts or mobile devices of district board members or employees,” Steve Brody, a lawyer representing Disney, told Orange Circuit Court Judge Margaret Schreiber.

Brody asked the judge to order the district to produce the records within seven days. She took the matter under advisement and will issue a ruling later.

Paul Huck, a lawyer for the tourism oversight district, disputed Disney’s claim. He said officials have reviewed nearly 300,000 documents. The additional information sought by Disney isn’t relevant to the core issue of the lawsuit, which centers on a development agreement limiting the new board’s authority, Huck also told the judge. read more