Things To Do In SW Florida

By Darius Tahir, KFF Health News

Preparing cancer patients for difficult decisions is an oncologist’s job. They don’t always remember to do it, however. At the University of Pennsylvania Health System, doctors are nudged to talk about a patient’s treatment and end-of-life preferences by an artificially intelligent algorithm that predicts the chances of death.

Insurance leaders say that inflation has fueled the rising costs of coverage paid by Florida policyholders in recent years.

But an analysis by the South Florida Sun Sentinel shows that insurance premiums have increased significantly more than the rate of inflation, and experts cite a range of possible reasons why, including steep increases in reinsurance costs and continued high litigation costs.

The data shows that insurance costs have continued to increase since spring of 2022, when the Legislature and governor enacted reforms that made it more expensive for policyholders to sue their insurers.

Rising rates of litigation were causing losses that had grown out of control, leaders of the industry argued at the time.

Insurance costs would come back to earth within a couple years after the reforms stem the losses, many predicted.

That hasn’t happened, despite an easing of insurance cost increases over the past year.

During hearings of committees that determine which insurance bills will advance through the House and Senate, lawmakers expressed frustration with continued cost increases and claims handling delays. read more

By FU TING and DAVID COHEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the fate of TikTok hangs in the balance, U.S. TikTok users are flocking to the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, also called RedNote – making it the top downloaded app in the U.S.

Some of the “TikTok refugees,” as they call themselves, say the TikTok alternative, a Chinese app, is being chosen in protest of the TikTok ban. Here’s what you need to know about Xiaohongshu.

What is Xiaohongshu, the Chinese app that ‘TikTok refugees’ poured to?

It is a lifestyle social media app which allows users to post short videos, photos and texts, and it also includes functions like live-streaming and shopping.

A rare wave of U.S.-China camaraderie broke out online in recent days as “refugees” from the popular short video platform TikTok poured onto a Chinese social media platform to protest a now-delayed ban on the service.

They were met with surprise, curiosity and in-jokes on Xiaohongshu – literally, “Little Red Book” – whose users saw English-language posts take over feeds almost overnight.

Americans introduced themselves with hashtag TikTok refugees, ask me anything attitude and posting photos of their pets to pay their hosts’ “cat tax.” Parents swapped stories about raising kids and Swifties from both countries, of course, quickly found each other. read more

An Orlando hotel has agreed to institute new anti-discrimination policies after abruptly canceling a planned conference by an Arab American group in the wake of the outbreak of hostilities in Gaza in 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Managers at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Orlando at SeaWorld claimed they were concerned about safety risks as they shut down the event, even though they had received no threats and had no evidence indicating the conference posed a safety risk, a DOJ investigation concluded.

Instead, the federal agency said, the decision stemmed from the national origin of the group’s members, noting that in an internal text the hotel’s general manager referred to “an Arab group we can’t have meet at our hotel.”

“No one may be denied the right to use hotel facilities because of their national origin,” U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ Civil Rights Division said in a Thursday evening release. “The Justice Department is committed to protecting the rights of all people to be free from discrimination in hotels and other public accommodations around the country.” read more