Things To Do In SW Florida

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. declined for the third week in a row, another positive move for prospective homebuyers during what’s traditionally the housing market’s busy season.

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The rate fell to 6.62% from 6.64% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.88%.

The average rate has mostly trended lower since reaching just over 7% in mid-January. When mortgage rates decline, they boost homebuyers’ purchasing power.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, were unchanged from last week. The average rate remained at 5.82%, but is down 6.16% a year ago, Freddie Mac said. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN, Associated Press Technology Writer

OpenAI is suing Elon Musk for unfair competition and interfering with its business relationships with investors and customers, escalating a legal battle between the ChatGPT maker and the billionaire who helped bankroll the artificial intelligence startup a decade ago.

The allegations against Musk were filed Wednesday in a federal court in California as a counterclaim to the Tesla CEO’s lawsuit against OpenAI, which is heading to a jury trial next year.

Musk, an early OpenAI investor who now runs his own AI firm, xAI, along with Tesla, SpaceX, social media platform X and President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, began a legal offensive against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman more than a year ago.

He first sued for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit research laboratory, and later expanded his claims.

A federal judge in March denied Musk’s request for a court order blocking OpenAI from converting itself to a for-profit company but said she could expedite a trial to consider Musk’s claims. She offered to hold a trial later this year, but it has been pushed back to March 2026. read more

Seven Central Florida restaurants shut down the week of March 30 – April 5, according to data from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Orange

Sunshine Soulfood Cafe at 2528 W. Colonial Dr. Suite B in Orlando shut down on April 2. Inspectors found 15 violations, three of which were high priorities. Those violations included roach activity, a stop-sale on potato salad being at the wrong temperature and food held at the wrong temperature. Inspectors conducted another inspection on April 3. They found five violations, only one was a high priority. Authorities issued a time extension and the restaurant met inspection standards.

Made In Puerto Rico Latin Cuisine & Sports Bar at 6651 S. Semoran Blvd. Suite #109 in Orlando shut down on April 3. Inspectors found 27 violations, six of which were high priorities. Those violations included operating with an expired license, roach activity and stop-sale issued on food due to temperature abuse. Officials revisited the restaurant on April 4. They found six violations, but none was a high priority. The restaurant met inspection standards. read more

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. inflation declined last month as the cost of gas, airline fares, and hotel rooms fell, a sign that price growth was cooling even as President Donald Trump ramped up his tariff threats.

Consumer prices rose just 2.4% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday, down from 2.8% in February. That is the lowest inflation figure since September.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.8% compared with a year ago, down from 3.1% in February. That is the smallest increase in core prices in nearly four years. Economists closely watch core prices because they are considered a better guide to where inflation is headed.

Yet economists warned that the data is mostly backward-looking and likely to be overtaken by the impact of the tariffs that Trump has left in place, including huge duties on China, even after the 90-day pause of some tariffs announced Wednesday. Inflation should start to pick up in two to three months’ time and possibly remain elevated through at least the end of this year. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN

Microsoft said it is “slowing or pausing” some of its data center construction, including a $1 billion project in Ohio, the latest sign that the demand for artificial intelligence technology that drove a massive infrastructure expansion might not need quite as many powerful computers as expected.

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The tech giant confirmed this week that it is halting early-stage projects on rural land it owns in central Ohio’s Licking County, outside of Columbus, and will reserve two of the three sites for farmland.

“In recent years, demand for our cloud and AI services grew more than we could have ever anticipated and to meet this opportunity, we began executing the largest and most ambitious infrastructure scaling project in our history,” said Noelle Walsh, the president of Microsoft’s cloud operations, in a post on LinkedIn. read more