Things To Do In SW Florida

A Seminole County woman who plugged a stormwater pipe in her yard with concrete and caused months of extensive neighborhood flooding has fixed the problem and expects to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the end.

“I apologize,” Diane Goglas, a resident of the Shadowbay neighborhood, said to Special Magistrate Sherry Sutphen at Thursday’s afternoon hearing.

“But I had a situation that was not being addressed at the time and I begged for mercy,” Goglas said in explaining why she hired a company in April to fill the old pipe with concrete during a long dispute with the Shadowbay homeowner’s association.

“It’s a new and improved system now,” she said. “And as you can see the streets are fine.”

Sutphen then ordered Goglas to pay Seminole $1,246.64 in administrative fees and other costs for prosecuting her code enforcement case.

“I think that this is probably a testament to relying on our professionals and making sure that before you change a drainage pattern on your property –— even if it is your property — that you should probably hire an engineer and go through the proper channels to make sure that you’re not disrupting anyone else around you,” Sutphen told Goglas before imposing the fine. read more

By HALELUYA HADERO, AP Business Writer

TikTok has cemented itself as a quintessential entertainment app, offering everything from funny skits and makeup tutorials to social commentary and news.

The platform, though, could vanish from U.S. app stores by Jan. 19 if the Supreme Court does not step in to block a federal law that forces TikTok to cut ties with its China-based parent company or face a nation-wide ban.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, recently asked the court to put a pause on the law so he can work out a “political resolution” to the issue during his second term. If the Justices — who heard oral arguments Friday over the law — grant his request, a potential ban on TikTok will be delayed even further. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision within days.

TikTok has more than 170 million U.S. users. According to the Pew Research Center, that includes most teens and a third of adults. If you are an avid user, or a creator who relies on the platform for income, here’s what you need to know to prepare: read more

Construction of Space Mountain at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in underway on Aug. 24, 1973. (Sentinel file)

View of Space Mountain under construction at Walt Disney World. (Sentinel file)

Walt Disney World opened its new $15 million Space Mountain attraction Jan. 15, 1975, and on hand for the ceremonies were (left to right) astronauts Gordon Cooper, James Irwin and Scott Carpenter (all standing) with Robert Sarnoff, chief executive of RCA, which sponsors the attraction, who is seated next to Mickey Mouse in Lunar Rover. (Sentinel file)

Blue LED lighting fills the ‘Starport’ as guests blast off on Space Mountain during a soft-opening preview at the Magic Kingdom, at Walt Disney World, Nov. 16, 2009. The ride, which will officially re-open Nov. 22, has been updated with new theming, queue enhancements and coaster technology improvements. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Space Mountain at the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom on Sept. 18, 2015, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) read more

A closely-scrutinized vote by the Winter Park City Commission to add a member’s home to the local historic register was abruptly canceled Wednesday at the request of the commissioner after his former foe and the local state senator publicly objected to the move.

But the brouhaha about Commissioner Todd Weaver’s 67-year-old lakefront home looks likely to continue. Weaver says the accusations made about him, and his property, by former Commissioner Pete Weldon, who he defeated in 2019, are false and could result in legal action. And the commission plans to take up the matter again in a few months.

The commission voted unanimously to delay until April 23 — after Weaver’s term ends in March and he leaves office — a vote on his request to add his home to the Winter Park Registry of Historic Places.

He told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday that for years he’d discussed placing the home on the register with the city’s longtime planning director, Jeffrey Briggs, who he says for decades has been its leading advocate for historic designation. Weaver wanted to add the home to the registry before Briggs retires at the end of the month. read more