Things To Do In SW Florida

While a Florida garbage company denies “intentional wrongdoing,” they’re shelling out $1.4 million to settle a lawsuit that alleges management allowed Black and Haitian-American workers to be hit with racist slurs and imagery from co-workers.

Waste Pro of Florida is based out of Longwood, but the accusations in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit involve what did or didn’t happen at Waste Pro’s Jacksonville office, 2940 Strickland St. Specifically, the lawsuit in Jacksonville federal court concerns what did and didn’t happen to welder Fednol Pierre after he transferred there in October 2021.

The $1.4 million will go to a group that includes Pierre, 25 co-workers named in the consent decree and any of Waste Pro’s Black and/or Haitian-American Jacksonville employees “who were subjected to a hostile work environment based on their race, color, or national origin, from February 2021 through Dec. 31, 2023.”

The consent decree also requires Waste Pro to hire a racial discrimination expert as a compliance officer to investigate race discrimination complaints and claims of retaliation for such complaints in Waste Pro’s Northeast region for the next 18 months and oversee those investigations throughout the company for the next three years. read more

By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday set a 25% tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea, as well as new tariff rates on Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos and Myanmar, all of which would go into effect on Aug. 1.

Trump provided notice by posting letters on Truth Social that were addressed to the leaders of the various countries. The letters warned them to not retaliate by increasing their own import taxes, or else the Trump administration would further increase tariffs.

“If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge,” Trump wrote in the letters to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.

The letters were not the final word from Trump on tariffs, so much as another episode in a global economic drama in which he has placed himself at the center. His moves have raised fears that economic growth would slow to a trickle, if not make the U.S. and other nations more vulnerable to a recession. But Trump is confident that tariffs are necessary to bring back domestic manufacturing and fund the tax cuts he signed into law last Friday. read more

The endless loop that is the soundtrack of “it’s a small world” is getting a new verse in the Magic Kingdom attraction.

The sounds of the finale of the gentle boat ride will change July 17 to add a verse written by Richard Sherman, who died in May 2024 at age 95. Richard Sherman and his brother Robert Sherman, who died in 2012, wrote the original lyrics along with several other Disney classics.

The new lines retain the global unity of the original “It’s a Small World (After All).”

Soon to be heard in the finale scene: “Mother Earth unites us in heart and mind / And the love we give makes us humankind / Through our vast wondrous land / When we stand hand in hand / It’s a small world after all.”

According to the official Disney Parks Blog, Gregg Sherman, son of Richard, said the new verse is meant to “celebrate that there’s more that unites us than divides us, and reinforce the message of that song.”

The verse was presented in November as part of “The Last Verse,” a three-minute Disney film now available on Disney+ streaming service and other online outlets. In February, the company announced that it would be incorporated in the Disneyland “small world” as part of the California park’s 70th anniversary. read more

Legoland Florida has introduced an upgraded U.S. Capitol building in the Miniland USA section of the Winter Haven theme park.

The structure, slid into place in time for Independence Day, has 381,000 Lego bricks. The park’s master model builders spent 1,500 hours on the project.

“What we like to do with our models is make them as accurate to the real thing as possible,” Calvin Casey, a Legoland Florida master model builder, said in a park video. For the latest renovation, lighting was added beneath the Capitol dome and lamp posts were put around the grounds.

The model continues to sport architectural details, Lego-style, and it’s still fronted by marching minifigures.  Other Washington, D.C., landmarks in Miniland include the White House, the Smithsonian and the Washington Monument.

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Legoland Florida’s Miniland also re-creates New York City (Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Guggenheim Museum), California (Golden Gate Bridge, Hollywood Bowl, Griffith Observatory), Las Vegas (casinos, wedding chapel, “fabulous” Las Vegas welcome sign) and various Florida scenes, including Daytona International Speedway, Kennedy Space Center, South Beach, St. Augustine, Bok Tower and Orlando Eye observation wheel, among others. read more

By MATT OTT

Shares of Tesla tumbled 7% Monday as the feud between CEO Elon Musk and Trump reignited over the weekend.

Musk, once a top donor and ally of Trump, announced that he was forming a third political party in protest over the Republican spending bill that passed late last week. Musk has been highly critical of the bill, which he said would kill jobs and bog down burgeoning industries.

In a social media post on Sunday, Trump said that the billionaire owner of SpaceX, Tesla and X had gone “off the rails” in recent weeks.

Investors fear that Musk’s companies, which receive significant subsidies from the federal government, could suffer further if his feud with Trump continues to fester.

“With the autonomous future ahead and the AI Revolution in full force Musk/Tesla do not need to keep poking the bear as Trump can create more hurdles for Musk/Tesla/SpaceX over the coming years if this political battle gets nastier heading into mid-terms in 2026,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to clients late Sunday. read more