Things To Do In SW Florida

By SALLY HO, Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which said the online retail giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime memberships and made it difficult for them to cancel after doing so.

The Seattle company will pay $1 billion in civil penalties — the largest fine in the agency’s history — and $1.5 billion will be paid back to consumers who were unintentionally enrolled in Prime, or were deterred from canceling their subscriptions, the agency said Thursday.

The surprise settlement comes just days after the trial began in U.S. District Court in Seattle this week. At the heart of the case is the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, a 2010 law designed to ensure that people know what they’re being charged for online.

FTC officials said Amazon had its back against the wall and the consumer refund amount exceeded even the agency’s expert projections.

“I think it just took a few days for them to see that they were going to lose. And they came to us and they paid out,” said Chris Mufarrige, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, on the settlement negotiations. read more

Eight Central Florida restaurants shut down the week of Sept. 14-20, according to data from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Orange

Burntwood Tavern at 5078 Dr. Phillips Blvd. in Orlando shut down on Sept. 16. Inspectors found 38 violations, six of which were high priorities. Those violations included an employee failing to wash their hands before working with food, roach activity and shelled eggs stored with broken or cracked eggs. Inspectors conducted a second inspection on Sept. 17. They found 16 violations, and only one high priority for roach activity. A third and final inspection occurred on Sept. 18. Officials found seven violations and none was a high priority. The restaurant received an extension and requires a follow-up inspection, but poses no immediate threat to the general public.

A’s Pizza Loco at 9401 W. Colonia Dr., Suite 256 in Ocoee shut down on Sept. 17. Inspectors found 13 violations, two of which were high priorities for roach activity and food being held at the wrong temperatures. A second inspection occurred on Sept. 24. There were 10 violations, one of which was a high priority for food being held at the wrong temperatures. The restaurant met inspection standards. read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street stumbled to a third straight loss on Thursday as U.S. stocks gave back more of their big gains for the year so far.

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% and marked its longest losing streak in more than a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 173 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.5%. All three indexes are still near their records set at the start of the week, though.

Stocks felt pressure from reports showing the U.S. economy may be stronger than economists thought. While that’s encouraging news for workers and for people looking for jobs, it could make the Federal Reserve less likely to cut interest rates several times in the coming months.

The Fed just delivered its first cut of the year last week, and officials had penciled in more through the end of next year. That was critical for Wall Street after U.S. stocks shot to records since April in large part because of expectations for rate cuts. Easier rates can boost the economy and make investors more willing to pay high prices for stocks and other investments. read more

By James Royal, Ph.D., Bankrate.com

While Bitcoin spent the last decade soaring and making millionaires out of many people, other owners of the world’s largest cryptocurrency have missed out. Why? One major reason: They’ve lost access to their account. In fact, more than $400 billion in Bitcoin is estimated to be lost — but some is recoverable, says at least one firm.

A 2023 report from Unchained Capital, a Bitcoin financial services company, estimated that up to 3.8 million bitcoins have been lost. That’s out of a total of about 19.9 million in existence today, and a maximum supply of 21 million tokens when Bitcoin is fully mined. That could mean as much as 19% of today’s supply is gone forever. Or is it?

Traders who have lost access to their Bitcoin or other digital currencies and assets may have the ability to recover them, at least with the help of one high-tech firm.

Bitcoins may be recoverable

Bitcoin’s vaunted security cuts both ways, preventing the bad guys from getting your stash but also — and often — you, too! read more

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes remained sluggish in August, even as a late-summer slide in mortgage rates brought home loan borrowing costs to a 10-month low.

Existing home sales slipped 0.2% last month from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s the slowest sales pace since June.

Sales rose 1.8% compared with August last year. The latest sales figure topped the 3.96 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

The national median sales price increased 2% in August from a year earlier to $422,600. That’s the 26th consecutive month that home prices have risen on an annual basis and the highest median sales price for any August on data going back to 1999.

The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. Through the first eight months of this year, home sales are down 1.2% compared to the same period last year. read more