Things To Do In SW Florida

TERRA CEIA — As the rising sun seeps through twisted mangroves, JP Clark’s fly fishing rod bends suddenly.

The clear, quiet waters of this hidden coastal flat splash to life. A 20-inch redfish shoots up from the shallows.

Clark and his brother, Steve, fish this secluded spot at the mouth of Tampa Bay every weekend. Some family time in nature, away from the clamor of city life, is the highlight of their week.

But early on a recent Saturday morning, their outing feels different. More depressing, the brothers say. More urgent.

The brothers learned recently that the mangrove forest just feet from their boat could one day be gone. Their favorite fishing spot sits within the private 328-acre Knott-Cowen tract in Manatee County, the location where a leading cruise company, SSA Marine, is proposing to build a multiberth cruise port.

“Look around. This is one of the last remaining natural places in the estuary,” Steve Clark, 52, says. “There’s already not much left. How much more of this do we have to destroy?” read more

By MATTHEW PERRONE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Telehealth company Hims & Hers said Thursday it will launch a cheaper, off-brand version of the weight-loss pill Wegovy, just weeks after drugmaker Novo Nordisk launched its highly anticipated reformulation of the blockbuster medication.

The announcement from Hims is the latest example of the company’s efforts to capitalize on the booming popularity of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy, which have revolutionized weight loss treatment in the U.S.

For years, Hims has sold compounded versions of the weight-loss drugs, which were initially only available as injections. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy is the first of the medications to become available in a pill format.

The Danish drugmaker responded to the news Thursday by vowing to sue Hims, calling the new product “an unapproved, inauthentic, and untested knockoff” of semaglutide, the chemical name for Wegovy.

“Novo Nordisk will take legal and regulatory action to protect patients, our intellectual property and the integrity of the U.S. gold-standard drug approval framework,” the company said in a statement. read more

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

Pizza Hut plans to close 250 U.S. restaurants in the first half of this year as its parent company considers a sale of the chain.

Yum Brands said Wednesday it’s targeting underperforming Pizza Hut restaurants in its system. Pizza Hut has more than 6,000 locations in the U.S.

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Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum Brands said in November it was conducting a formal review of options for Pizza Hut, which has struggled with outdated stores and growing competition. The chain’s U.S. same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 5% last year, Yum said. read more

Tourist-tax collections in Orange County continued a record run in December, the ninth straight month in which receipts were the highest ever for the month, according to figures released this morning by Comptroller Phil Diamond.

Receipts totaled $34.3 million for December, up about 8.1% or $2.56 million better than December 2024.

“Orange County enjoyed its own ‘Santa Claus Rally’ with TDT collections,” Diamond quipped in the announcement, employing a term sometimes used by Wall Street analysts to describe a common post-Christmas surge in stock prices.

Through the fiscal year’s first quarter, which ended Dec. 31, collections are about $10 million ahead of last year’s record pace.

The Tourist Development Tax, or TDT for short, is a 6% surcharge added to the cost of a hotel room or other short-term lodging option in Orange County, including home-sharing rentals like AirBnb and VRBO. TDT is often viewed as a measure of the tourism industry’s health.

Beginning in April 2025, monthly TDT collections consistently have topped the number for the same month from the previous year. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN, AP Technology Writer

The two artificial intelligence startups behind rival chatbots ChatGPT and Claude are bracing for an existential showdown this year as both need to prove they can grow a business that will make more money than they’re losing.

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The fiercest competition between the two AI developers, along with bigger companies like Google, is a race to win over corporate leaders looking to adopt AI tools to boost workplace productivity. The rivalry is also spilling into other realms, including the Super Bowl.

Anthropic is airing a pair of TV commercials during Sunday’s game that ridicule OpenAI for the digital advertising it’s beginning to place on free and cheaper versions of ChatGPT. While Anthropic has centered its revenue model on selling Claude to other businesses, OpenAI has opened the doors to ads as a way of making money from the hundreds of millions of consumers who get ChatGPT for free. read more