Things To Do In SW Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Citrus growers called on lawmakers Tuesday to continue providing research and advertising money to help an industry that has seen production drop more than 90 percent in less than three decades.

Otherwise, they cautioned that more of the roughly 1,500 remaining citrus growers in the state could exit the industry.

Appearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday, Florida Citrus Mutual CEO and Executive Vice President Matt Joyner stressed the need to continue providing money for research in the long-running battle against deadly citrus greening disease.

Meanwhile, Department of Citrus Executive Director Shannon Shepp focused on money for marketing.

“We are admittedly an industry in need of your help on many levels,” Shepp said. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t hearken the words of Henry Ford, that, ‘Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping a clock to save time.’”

“There will be a renaissance in this industry,” Shepp added. “We need to maintain a market for these growers.” read more

By Queenie Wong, Los Angeles Times

Before Donald Trump kicked off his second term as president, Meta Platforms Chief Executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg took another big swing at hitting reset.

In a nearly three-hour conversation with Joe Rogan, a hugely popular podcaster and brash Trump supporter, Zuckerberg talked about the social media giant’s decision to stop using fact-checkers to combat misinformation. Instead, users would be left to keep one another in check.

Zuckerberg slammed the media and the outgoing administration, saying Biden officials would routinely yell at the social network’s workers during the pandemic to pull down what the government viewed as misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

Rogan has millions of listeners, but Zuckerberg’s message of it being a new day at Meta had already reached the person he perhaps cared about most. A few days before the podcast aired, Trump commented that he was pleased with the changes at Meta. The company, he said, had “come a long way.” read more

When Port Canaveral last year announced it wanted to take over areas used by the space industry for a future cruise terminal, the state Department of Transportation threatened to pull funding.

In the end, Canaveral Port Authority officials reversed plans, but the state DOT is now seeking an update to state policy “to safeguard Florida’s strategic position as America’s Preferred Space Launch State,” according to a press release highlighting parts of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposed state budget.

That includes “requiring Port Canaveral to receive state approval prior to utilizing any state funds intended for cargo and space activities for any other use.”

It’s unclear how the language differs from normal procedures any of Florida’s ports would go through when applying for state funding.

“Every grant the port applies for has requirements for being selected and conditions for being awarded the funding,” said Port Canaveral Director of Communications and Public Affairs Steven Linden. “We look forward to working with the state on future grant opportunities.” read more

By ZEN SOO, AP Business Writer

HONG KONG (AP) — The Chinese government’s move to open an antitrust probe into Google is the latest development in a long and tangled relationship that goes back to the early 2000s.

The investigation was one of a flurry of Chinese retaliatory measures announced Tuesday in response to a 10% tariff imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on imports from China.

Others included tariffs on American liquified natural gas and other products, and the placing of two other American firms on an unreliable entity list that could bar them from investing in China.

Here is a look at Google’s history in China and what the antitrust probe could mean for the company:

What is Google’s relationship with China?

Google launched the Chinese-language search engine google.cn in 2006. It was censored to comply with Beijing’s laws, and in 2009, was a major search engine in China with about 36% market share.

In 2010, in response to a cyberattack and an increasing unwillingness to comply with censorship rules, Google said it was no longer willing to block search results and shut down its Chinese search engine, redirecting users to its Hong Kong site instead. read more

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO and MELISSA PEREZ WINDER

Several businesses from day cares to grocery stores and hair salons closed Monday across the U.S. in a loosely organized day of protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.