Things To Do In SW Florida

By MARY CLARE JALONICK (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The young voices in the messages left for North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis were laughing, but the words were ominous.

“OK, listen, if you ban TikTok I will find you and shoot you,” one said, giggling and talking over other young voices in the background. “I’ll shoot you and find you and cut you into pieces.” Another threatened to kill Tillis, and then take their own life.

Tillis’s office says it has received around 1,000 calls about TikTok since the House passed legislation this month that would ban the popular app if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake. TikTok has been urging its users — many of whom are young — to call their representatives, even providing an easy link to the phone numbers. “The government will take away the community that you and millions of other Americans love,” read one pop-up message from the company when users opened the app.

Tillis, who supports the House bill, reported the call to the police. “What I hated about that was it demonstrates the enormous influence social media platforms have on young people,” he said in an interview. read more

By MELISSA GOLDIN (Associated Press)

Conservative influencers and politicians are calling for a boycott of Tyson Foods after false claims spread online saying the multinational meat producer is planning to hire 52,000 people who came to the U.S. illegally.

“Tyson is closing its facility in Perry, Iowa and laying off its 1,200 workers,” reads one X post that had received approximately 20,000 likes and 11,700 shares as of Friday. “Instead, they plan to hire thousands of new illegals in states like New York. #BoycottTyson. Pass it on.”

But the company, the latest in a growing list of businesses targeted with calls for a boycott amid claims of “woke” policies, has no such plans.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Tyson Foods is hiring 52,000 people who entered the U.S. illegally.

THE FACTS: The company has no current plans to hire 52,000 workers in the U.S., a spokesperson for the company said. In addition, all of its workers are required to have legal authorization for employment in the country. read more

Persistent developers who lost a fight to change land-use rules to build 1,800 homes on idle ranchlands east of the Econ River have sued to set aside the Orange County commission vote against them.

Lake Pickett North LLC, which had proposed the so-called Sustanee development on the former Rybolt cattle ranch in rural east Orange, filed the action this week asking a judge to order the county to transmit the land-use change for a state review.

A judge has not yet been assigned to the case. County lawyers haven’t yet been served the lawsuit.

Commissioners voted 4-3 in January against sending the plan to Tallahassee, a mandatory step in Florida’s process to make large-scale land-use changes.

The vote capped a marathon board meeting which started at 9 a.m. Jan. 23 and ended after midnight.

Filed by lawyers Brent Spain and David Theriaque, the lawsuit alleged Commissioner Emily Bonilla’s final-hour oration against the project “introduced incorrect or incomplete information” that developers were not permitted to rebut. read more