Things To Do In SW Florida

Bad news, coffee drinkers: According to the latest inflation report, the average retail price of roasted coffee has risen 14.8% since last July.

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Worse news: Some of President Donald Trump’s highest new tariffs started this month and are throwing the coffee supply chain into disarray. They appear destined to send prices of America’s go-to beverage even higher in the months ahead.

High-quality coffee beans are grown in a few key countries, virtually all of which are subject to new tariffs. Brazil is by far the biggest, supplying 37% of global production last year, and it was hit with a blanket 50% tariff that took full effect Aug. 6. read more

By DAMIAN J. TROISE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are holding near breakeven in afternoon trading on Wall Street Tuesday as indexes hover just below their recent all-time highs.

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  Tariffs are a buzzkill for the coffee biz

The S&P 500 edged 0.1% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 15 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 12:14 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%.

Boeing rose 1.8% after Korean Air announced a $50 billion deal with the company that includes buying more than 100 aircraft. Dish Network parent, EchoStar, surged 76.2% after AT&T said it will buy some of its wireless spectrum licenses in a $23 billion deal. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN and BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writers

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A study of how three popular artificial intelligence chatbots respond to queries about suicide found that they generally avoid answering questions that pose the highest risk to the user, such as for specific how-to guidance. But they are inconsistent in their replies to less extreme prompts that could still harm people.

The study in the medical journal Psychiatric Services, published Tuesday by the American Psychiatric Association, found a need for “further refinement” in OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude.

It came on the same day that the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman alleging that ChatGPT coached the California boy in planning and taking his own life earlier this year.

The research — conducted by the RAND Corporation and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health — raises concerns about how a growing number of people, including children, rely on AI chatbots for mental health support, and seeks to set benchmarks for how companies answer these questions. read more

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic sent condo prices skyrocketing in Florida, the market is now lagging as new building regulations drive up costs and foreign buyers stay away.

After the tragic 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South complex in Surfside, which killed 98 people, the Florida Legislature mandated inspections for condo buildings 30 years old and older. As a result, owners are facing hefty renovation bills, forcing many to put their units up for sale, flooding the market.

Meanwhile, the foreign buyers who long powered that market, primarily from Latin America, are bowing out. In South Florida, the region with the most condos statewide, sales to foreigners fell to the lowest level since at least 2015. With the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, the trend is likely to persist, said Peter Zalewski, an independent condo analyst who writes the Miami Condo Investing Club newsletter.

The result is a market that became saddled this year with 10 months’ worth of supply, the most since 2011. In Q2 2025, the number of available listings statewide (73,225) was nearly 25% higher than a year before. read more

Outsiders now can go inside Orlando’s latest theme park via a televised special titled “Inside the World of Epic Universe.”

The 45-minute program, which originally aired on NBC, is now available through the Peacock streaming service. It’s hosted by actor Joe Manganiello, who gives a guided tour that includes special guests, including Warwick Davis, Bowen Yang and the stars of the live-action version of “How to Train Your Dragon.” Viewers see director Steven Spielberg multiple times.

If you followed the development of the Universal Orlando park, there’s not much new here. But there’s plenty of colorful footage of the attractions serving as reminders in case it’s been a while since your visit. Still, it’s not a blow-by-blow travelogue. Some rides — including Stardust Racers roller coaster — are limited to quick cameos, and the centerpiece Helios Grand Hotel is seen but not heard about. Overall, it’s a positive spin involving Comcast corporate cousins.

The timing might seem odd to Orlandoans since the park debuted three months ago, but far-flung possible Epic visitors are probably more of the target audience. There are scenes from the park’s construction era, staged promotional footage, backstage animatronic scenes (barefoot Dracula alert) and the pre-opening, star-studded celebration. read more