Things To Do In SW Florida

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation cooled a bit last month as prices for gas and used cars fell, a sign that stubbornly elevated cost pressures are slowly easing.

Consumer prices rose 0.3% in December from the prior month, the Labor Department said Tuesday, the same as in November. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 0.2%, also matching November’s figure. Increases at that pace, over time, would bring inflation closer to the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.

Many economists had expected inflation to jump last month as the government resumed normal data collection after the six-week shutdown last fall, so the modest increases that matched the November figures came as a relief. The price of manufactured goods was flat in December, a sign that the impact of tariffs may be starting to fade.

“Distortions caused by the government shutdown have made the inflation data harder to interpret, but the recent run of figures suggests inflation has peaked,” Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note to clients. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN and MARC LEVY, Associated Press

It won’t be easy for Big Tech companies to win the hearts and minds of Americans who are angered about massive artificial intelligence data centers sprouting up in their neighborhoods, straining electricity grids and drawing on local reservoirs.

Microsoft is trying anyway.

Related Articles

• 
  Google teams up with Walmart and other retailers to enable shopping within Gemini AI chatbot

• 
  Inflation cooled slightly in December though remains above Fed’s target

• 
  SpaceX knocks out 3rd Space Coast launch of 2026; readies for Crew-11 return

• 
  Tech industry group opposes Florida proposal to regulate AI

• 
  State orders Citizens Insurance to provide deeper rate cuts than requested

The software giant’s president, Brad Smith, is meeting with federal lawmakers Tuesday to push forward an approach that calls for the industry, not taxpayers, to pay the full costs of the vast network of computing warehouses needed to power AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s own Copilot. read more

TALLAHASSEE — A tech industry group that has battled Florida social-media laws in court is opposing new legislation dubbed the “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights.”

The Computer & Communications Industry Association on Friday sent a three-page letter to the Florida Senate saying the legislation “would impose an expansive and fragmented regulatory regime that risks chilling innovation, undermining free expression and placing Florida significantly out of step with recommended federal and international approaches to artificial intelligence governance.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis has made a priority of what he has called an AI bill of rights, and Sen. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, filed such a bill (SB 482) last month. Rep. Alex Rizo, R-Hialeah, filed an identical House proposal (HB 1395) on Friday.

The legislation addresses a variety of issues, such as establishing a “right” for parents to control children’s interactions with artificial intelligence; saying people have a right to know when they’re communicating with a human or an AI system or chatbot; and setting rules about the unauthorized AI-generated use of people’s names, images or likenesses. read more

For a second straight year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has been ordered to roll back its rate requests, reflecting what the governor insists is an increasingly favorable insurance market for beleaguered Florida policyholders.

A month after the state-owned company’s Board of Governors voted to ask regulators to approve a 2.6% statewide average rate cut, DeSantis called a news conference to announce that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation had increased the cut to 8.7%.

More than 150,000 of about 400,000 customers of the state’s insurer of last resort would see their rates cut by more than 10%, DeSantis said. Citizens’ new rates would take effect on June 1.

Last February, DeSantis announced that insurance regulators had agreed to raise rates by much less than the 14% requested by Citizens’ governors.

During Monday’s news conference at Broward College’s Davie campus, DeSantis said that Citizens’ recent recommended cuts — the first cuts in a decade — were “milquetoast.” read more