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The new Harry Potter land at Epic Universe theme park will feature a Ministry of Magic-based ride, a full-scale theater experience and characters roaming the streets of 1920s Place Cachee, Universal Orlando announced Wednesday.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic is the fifth Epic land to be detailed by Universal. It will have Parisian settings based on the “Fantastic Beasts” films and British elements from the “Potter” franchise created by author J.K. Rowling.

The news was made public on the birthday of the Harry Potter character, which is also Rowling’s birthday.

The centerpiece ride – dubbed Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry – will transport visitors from Paris to the British Ministry of Magic for the trial of Dolores Umbridge, once the cruel headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In the attraction storyline, Umbridge tries to escape, then the familiar wizarding trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione, plus a house-elf known as Higgledy, chase after her whilst dodging Death Eaters. read more

By DAVID KOENIG

Boeing named an aerospace industry veteran with a background in mechanical engineering as its next chief executive Wednesday, looking to open a new chapter at a company rocked by legal, regulatory and production problems and mounting financial repercussions.

Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, a former CEO at aerospace manufacturer Rockwell Collins, will succeed David Calhoun as CEO and president effective Aug. 8, the company said. Calhoun said in March that he would retire at the end of the year, and analysts generally praised the quicker transition.

“There is much work to be done, and I’m looking forward to getting started,” Ortberg said in a statement issued by Boeing.

Boeing announced its new CEO as it reported a loss of more than $1.4 billion on falling revenue during the second quarter. The loss was wider and the company’s revenue lower than Wall Street’s dismal expectations, as both Boeing’s commercial-airplanes business and defense unit lost money.

The disappointing results came at a tumultuous time for Boeing, which is the subject of multiple investigations into its safety culture and manufacturing quality. read more

Evidence of debris stemming from return trips of SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has prompted the company to shift future landing operations from Florida to California.

The move was announced Friday during NASA’s press conference previewing the upcoming Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station, and it won’t take effect until 2025 after Crew-9 has returned.

“After five years of splashing down off the coast of Florida, we’ve decided to ship Dragon recovery operations back to the West Coast,” said Sarah Walker, SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management.

This includes both cargo and crew versions of its spacecraft.

At issue is the trunk portion of the Dragon capsule that is discarded before reentry and splashdown. Initially, the cargo version of Dragon made returns in the Pacific 21 times from 2011-2020, but when crew capability came online, SpaceX made the shift to allow for capsule landings off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico.

Feeding that decision were models that predicted how the trunk portion would break up in Earth’s atmosphere. read more

While Osceola County’s NeoCity district is raking in millions in public funds to grow production of much-needed semiconductors, the long-promised city center has been stalled while the county decides how to move ahead with plans for a performing arts complex now estimated to cost nearly $150 million.

The joint venture led by New York-based Sciame Construction and Edward J. Minskoff Equities was supposed to file its first set of development plans in July, but County Manager Don Fisher granted a 90-day extension until Sept. 22, according to a report in GrowthSpotter. This is the developers’ fifth contract extension since taking over the project in early 2022. Sciame is working with New York-based SHoP Architects to implement the vision in the NeoCity master plan, which revolves around a new performing arts center as the anchor of the city center.

“As indicated before, the County has been working on the Performing Arts Center,” Fisher told GrowthSpotter. “This facility will be integral to Sciame’s plans for the City Center. Regarding the Performing Arts Center (OPAC), the County has been visiting other venues for best designs and operations. We have also been trying to right-size the cost of the facility.” read more

By Eliza Haverstock | NerdWallet

This fall, high school seniors may find college acceptance letters in their mailboxes before they complete a single application. It’s not a scam — it’s a nascent college admissions program called “direct admissions,” offered by a growing number of states and third-party organizations.

Students eligible for direct admissions receive college acceptance letters before they apply, usually during the fall of their senior year of high school. Direct admissions decisions typically hinge on GPA only. Students may have to submit supplementary application materials to finalize and accept their offers, but the process doesn’t require application fees, teacher recommendations, standardized test scores or endless essays. It’s a streamlined route to college, which students can leverage in addition to (or instead of) the regular and early decision processes.

“The goal is really just to break down barriers for students, because students are worried. College is scary and foreign, and so the idea is to try and alleviate some of those anxieties and fears that students may have about, ‘am I going to be admitted to a school?’,” says Jessica Eby, Apply Idaho program manager at the Idaho State Board of Education. read more