Things To Do In SW Florida

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

Southwest Airlines is hitting the pause button on some of its hirings, internships and employee events this year as the company looks to lower costs.

“We are limiting discretionary costs, including holding on the Southwest Rallies for this year, as we focus on reducing costs,” the company said in a prepared statement on Tuesday. “We’re also pausing on most summer internship positions (honoring offers already made) and pausing all noncontract internal and external hiring.”

Southwest said that it will continue to evaluate its hiring needs on an ongoing basis to determine when it makes the most sense to restart hiring.

Back in September Southwest announced that it would revamp its board and that its chairman would retire in 2025, in a partial concession to hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, which has been pushing for changes at the airline.

Elliott, the fund led by billionaire investor Paul Singer, has built a minority stake in Southwest and advocated for changes it says will improve the company’s financial performance and stock price. read more

By SARAH PARVINI, AP Technology Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations, such as large-scale data centers and new clean power facilities, can be built quickly and at scale in the United States.

The executive order directs federal agencies to accelerate large-scale AI infrastructure development at government sites, while imposing requirements and safeguards on the developers building on those locations. It also directs certain agencies to make federal sites available for AI data centers and new clean power facilities. Those agencies will help facilitate the infrastructure’s interconnection to the electric grid and help speed up the permitting process.

While the tech industry has long relied on data centers to run online services, from email and social media to financial transactions, new AI technology behind popular chatbots and other generative AI tools requires even more powerful computation to build and operate. read more

By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale inflation rose last month on higher energy prices.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — rose 0.2% last month from November, down from a 0.4% gain the month before. Compared to a year earlier, producer prices rose 3.3%, biggest jump since February 2023 and up from a 3% gain in November.

A 3.5% November-to-December increase in energy prices — led by a 9.7% increase in gasoline prices — pushed the overall index higher. Food prices dipped 0.1% in December.

Still, the overall increases were slightly less than economists had forecast. U.S. markets leapt higher immediately on the new inflation data.

Excluding food and energy prices, so-called core wholesale inflation was unchanged from November but up 3.5% from a year earlier.

The producer price report came out a day before the Labor Department reports on consumer prices. Its consumer price index is expected to rise 0.3% from November and 2.8% from December 2023, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. read more

The Epcot International Festival of the Arts again kicks off the special-event season for Walt Disney World. The daily fest showcases visual, theatrical and culinary arts for theme park visitors.

A new element for the festival is “Once Upon a Stage: Celebrating 30 Years of Disney on Broadway,” a walk-through exhibit in the new CommuiCore Hall in the World Celebration neighborhood of Epcot. It features costumes, set models and behind-the-scenes items from the company’s stage productions.

It is exciting “for us to be able to expand this and introduce more of an audience to our Disney on Broadway community, literally right down there in Orlando, right in front of you,” said Michael James Scott, who was raised in Orange County and currently plays Genie in the Broadway production of “Aladdin.”

Scott has first-hand knowledge about some of the costuming skills that will be seen in the Epcot exhibit.

“I think what people will be surprised about my costume is the detail, the intricate detail that goes into the costumes,” he said. “You know, it is sewn and made within an inch of its life to my body. And when you are up close, you get to see literally every snap, every hook, every little detail that goes into that.” read more