Things To Do In SW Florida

Howard and Melissa Fellman say it’s bad enough that they lost their lawsuit to prevent an investor from terminating their Florida condominium and forcing them to sell their unit for a below-market price.

Then the Fellmans, whose condo is in Boca Raton, watched a court in Miami side with condo owners there who waged a similar fight. Yet the couple say they can’t use the ruling to compel their district court to reconsider its decision.

And now the investor who terminated the condominium has sent a letter to the Fellmans’ longtime tenant telling her to stop paying rent to the couple. “We, as the new owner, would like to offer you a NEW LEASE so you may continue to occupy the Leased Premises without any interruption,” the letter says.

Court records and correspondence provided by the Fellmans present a story of a long legal battle to prevent The Scully Company, a Pennsylvania-based operator of rental communities, from taking over a condo unit the couple purchased for $65,000 in 1992 — back when the condominium’s declaration stated it would take 100% of unit owners to approve any termination. read more

Novelist Kyla Zhao, a 26-year-old Singapore native who moved to the Bay Area to attend Stanford University when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, used the extra alone time that came with stay-home orders to work on her writing.

After graduation and a short stint as a fashion writer, she started working as an analyst in the male-dominated Silicon Valley tech ecosystem. Now her third novel, May the Best Player Win, is scheduled to come out this fall.

Q: Can you talk about how you came up with the ideas for your most recent book, Valley Verified?

A: A few months after graduation I made the switch from the high fashion industry to the high tech industry. With that came a lot of impostor syndrome and a massive confidence crisis.

I was feeling really down about myself, and I didn’t think I could really confide in anyone, because all my friends seemed so successful and accomplished.

So I kept it all bottled up within myself. But at some point, I just had to get all these feelings out of me, so I started writing this story of this young woman who works in fashion in New York City, but because of circumstance, she’s forced to move across the country to Silicon Valley to take on a new role and a tech startup. And she’s like a fish out of water. read more

By Anna Helhoski | NerdWallet

Wading through unnecessary paperwork is no one’s idea of a good time. Same goes for being forced to hear a dreaded loop of Muzak while waiting on hold for what feels like eternity.

In the hopes of removing some of the suffering from the pain of customer service interactions, the Biden administration announced a new bundle of government-wide actions today nicknamed “Time Is Money.” The administration says the hassles that Americans face are often designed to deter people from activities that could hurt a company’s bottom line, such as refunds or subscription cancellations.

“This work came from scores of conversations with people — consumer advocates and others — about practices that are really designed to get people crazy and, honestly, they’re really designed for you to give up.” says Neera Tanden, director of the Domestic Policy Council of the United States.

During his presidency, Biden has addressed a bevy of corporate-instituted annoyances that everyday Americans face, including things like junk fees. These new actions also provide a glimpse into what areas of consumer protection Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to emphasize on the campaign trail. read more