Things To Do In SW Florida

NASA’s second mobile launcher needed for future missions in the Artemis program is already years late and millions over budget, and NASA’s Office of the Inspector General warns it could get even worse.

In an audit released last week, the OIG said the mobile launcher 2 (ML-2), which was originally awarded a $383 million contract in 2019 for delivery by 2023 but only began construction at Kennedy Space Center last August, could continue to see ballooning costs and delays so that once delivered it will cost taxpayers more than $2.7 billion and not be ready until 2029.

“Despite progress since our last report, NASA has struggled to develop a reliable cost and schedule estimate for the ML-2 project and incentivize significant improvement in contractor performance,” reads the OIG report. “Given the importance of ML-2 for future Artemis missions, it is critical that NASA effectively manage the project to control cost increases and avoid further schedule delays.”

The first Artemis launch took place in 2022 on the existing mobile launcher (ML-1), but ML-2 is needed to support a larger version of the Space Launch System rocket that will be used beginning with the Artemis IV mission. read more

For nearly a year, residents at Lake Runnymeade Mobile Home Park in St. Cloud have turned on their faucets only to get discolored water with the aroma of rotten eggs. But often, nothing at all comes out.

The problem has gotten so bad that some residents take buckets of slimy green liquid from the park’s unchlorinated pool to flush toilets. The flow of water is sporadic, they say, but they can go as many as 13 hours a day without it.

“It was H-E-double hockey sticks,” said Angela Silas, a Lake Runnymeade resident of nearly 13 years, using a euphemism for “hell.” “I had to go out and get water bottles just so we could wash our hands … the kids couldn’t take showers until 10:30 at night.”

Runnymeade residents say park management tells them the water pump isn’t working consistently due to electrical issues that frequently trip the breaker. They have contacted local and state officials looking for a fix, but they say it’s been to no avail, although the state is now monitoring water quality in the park and insists it is safe to drink. Many residents say they want to leave as they face increasing rents and calls to management go unanswered — but they’re stuck as they can’t find anything affordable. read more

By STAN CHOE

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks tumbled Tuesday to their worst day since an early August sell-off, as a week full of updates on the economy got off to a discouragingly weak start.

The S&P 500 sank 2.1% to give back a chunk of the gains from a three-week winning streak that had carried it to the cusp of its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 626 points, or 1.5%, from its own record set on Friday before Monday’s Labor Day holiday. The Nasdaq composite fell 3.3% as Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks led the way lower.

Treasury yields also stumbled in the bond market after a report showed U.S. manufacturing shrank again in August, sputtering under the weight of high interest rates. Manufacturing has been contracting for most of the past two years, and its performance for August was worse than economists expected.

“Demand remains subdued, as companies show an unwillingness to invest in capital and inventory due to current federal monetary policy and election uncertainty,” said Timothy Fiore, chair of the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing business survey committee. read more