GM looks to Japan’s TDK to make U.S. batteries with China tech
GM looks to Japan’s TDK to make U.S. batteries with China tech.
Proposed ‘glamping’ upgrades for Osceola park worry environmentalists
A 35-acre Osceola County park on the southern shore of Lake Toho is set to get a $19.5 million “glamping” upgrade — with dozens of new lodging units, an amphitheater and an upgraded restaurant — but the proposal is stirring controversy amid statewide debate about the appropriate amount of development in parks.
Environmental advocates are objecting to the plans for Southport Regional Park, which sits just east of the Nature Conservancy’s Disney Wilderness Preserve and is home to wildlife including protected bald eagles, endangered Everglades snail kites and threatened sandhill cranes.
“It sets a bad precedent of selling public land for private ownership and private development,” said Marjorie Holt, Central Florida Sierra Club’s conservation chair. “It now shows Osceola is not committed to maintaining a wildlife-friendly habitat.”
The developer — Boggy Creek Adventures, which operates an airboat concession at the park — insists the project will be sensitively done. But it also comes at a touchy time, in the wake of the August rollout of a controversial plan by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to install recreational amenities including golf courses, pickleball courts and lodges with up to 350 rooms at nine state parks.
Toyota dealerships get fired up about flag football
About 40 percent of Toyota’s U.S. retailers have gotten involved with flag football as part of the automaker’s new NFL sponsorship.
'Fight is coming:' UAW, VW brace for start of bargaining
Profit sharing, COLA, retirement security, affordable health care and the elimination of tiers appear to be the UAW’s focus points for bargaining with VW.
SpaceX bringing Polaris Dawn crew home with overnight splashdown off Florida coast
SpaceX is bringing the four crew members of Polaris Dawn with a planned splashdown landing off the coast of Florida early Sunday.
The Crew Dragon Resilience which launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday is slated to land at 3:36 a.m. off the coast of the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico.
It will mark the completion of the five-day orbital trip taken by billionaire Jared Isaacman and his crewmates Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. The quartet launched from Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday on the first of up to three missions as part of the Polaris Program, a partnership between SpaceX and Isaacman, who was making his second trip to space after 2021’s Inspiration4 mission.
As part of the partnership, Isaacman’s trips are designed to test out innovations for SpaceX, and both Gillis and Menon became the first SpaceX employees to fly to space.
Billionaire, SpaceX employee crewmate make history with 1st commercial spacewalk
The highlight of the trip has been the first commercial spacewalk, which Isaacman and Gillis performed on Thursday with each venturing outside the Crew Dragon Resilience for a little more than 10 minutes each while connected with a 12-foot-long tether.