Things To Do In SW Florida

The Space Coast is set for another busy year in 2025 with new moon missions, new spacecraft and the debut of a new rocket.

Meanwhile, NASA could see billionaire Jared Isaacman confirmed as its new administrator while prep continues for the Artemis II human spaceflight to orbit the moon in 2026.

Coming off a record 93 launches in 2024 among pads at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the Space Coast launch total in 2025 could climb past 100 with the continued frenetic pace set by SpaceX, an increase from United Launch Alliance and the debut of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.

Among the missions are at least four human spaceflights, including one with a new SpaceX Crew Dragon, three commercial lunar landers and the debut of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spacecraft on a cargo mission to the International Space Station.

Here’s a rundown of the top space stories coming in 2025:

A new rocket: Jeff Bezos’ game of catchup to Elon Musk could get a big push with the debut launch of Blue Origin’s heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. The first launch could come soon with the Federal Aviation Administration approving its license at the end of 2024. read more

Those stabilized home insurance costs that industry leaders and state insurance regulators touted over most of 2024?

It looks like premiums might be heading up again.

That’s what a South Florida Sun Sentinel analysis of insurance market share data from the third quarter of 2024 shows.

The statewide average premium paid for an all-perils single-family home policy in Florida increased by 3.1% between the second and third quarters, the data shows. That follows two straight quarters that saw increases of 1.3%, a reduced rate that experts attributed to a decrease in lawsuits, a mild 2023 hurricane season and lower hikes in the cost of reinsurance.

In 2022, Florida’s Legislature required that insurers release the statewide data to the public as part of a series of insurance reforms that imposed restrictions on what insurers described as runaway litigation. Prior to the mid-2010s, county-level data was publicly available through the Office of Insurance Regulation until State Farm Florida won a lawsuit that sought to shield it as a “trade secret.” read more

By Dave Lieber, The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

If you’re someone who manages the family’s finances, worries about identity theft and values maintaining a good credit score, The Watchdog has the latest updates for you.

Specifically, let’s dive into what credit reports and scores really mean, how you can access them and why staying on top of them is so important.

I recently tuned in to a town hall on consumerism sponsored by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Much of it was old hat, but my ears perked when I heard one speaker casually mention that you could get a free copy of your credit report once a week.

Bam! It used to be you get a free copy of your credit reports every 12 months.

How did this happen? The rules were temporarily suspended during the pandemic. Afterward, they were kept in place.

It’s a little confusing because the government-sponsored website — AnnualCreditReport.com — is still keeping its name. It should be WeeklyCreditReport.com, but the feds have spent a lot of time and money promoting the website. read more

Brian Baker, CFA | (TNS) Bankrate.com

Stocks have mostly been on a tear in 2024, with the S&P 500 up more than 23% as of mid-December. But the strong performance has left stocks trading at elevated valuations, and the Federal Reserve has signaled it needs to see more progress on inflation in order to cut interest rates further in 2025.