Things To Do In SW Florida

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — SpaceX chalked up another human spaceflight Monday night, taking four civilians on a trip around the Earth that has never been done before.

Now circling the planet on a first-ever polar orbit, the crew of the Fram2 mission had climbed aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience on Monday night launching atop a Falcon 9 rocket from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at 9:46 p.m.

The rocket rumbled off the pad with a barrage of thunderstorms lighting up the sky in the distance. KSC had been under lightning and hail warnings as a stormfront with 40 mph winds plowed through the Space Coast even as the crew sat in its spacecraft at the pad awaiting launch.

But launch they did, with the rocket path arcing to the south off Florida’s East Coast creating a unique blue-and-orange plume in the night sky billowing out like a jellyfish. The trajectory took it over Cuba and then off the Pacific Coast of South America.

Footing the bill for the flight is Chinese-born Chun Wang of Malta, an entrepreneur who made a fortune in cryptocurrency and an avid adventurer who has visited both the Arctic and Antarctica, but by land. What he’s paying has not been announced, but a similar private mission run by Axiom Space but contracting with SpaceX for use of its spacecraft cost each of its passengers $55 million. read more

By WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump invited Kid Rock into the Oval Office on Monday and signed an executive order that he says will help curb ticket scalping and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live events are priced.

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“Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years — no matter what your politics are — knows that it’s a conundrum,” said Kid Rock, who wore a red bedazzled suit featuring an American flag motif and a straw fedora. read more

TALLAHASSEE — As the Florida House and Senate prepare to negotiate a new state budget, among the big issues they will face is a push by Senate President Ben Albritton, a citrus grower, to help the state’s struggling citrus industry.

The Senate on Friday released a proposed $117.36 billion budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year that includes $200 million directed toward the citrus industry. That would come on top of $200 million that the Senate has approved in a bill (SB 110) that Albritton has dubbed the “rural renaissance” to bolster rural communities.

The citrus-industry proposal includes $125 million for new tree plantings, an amount that Albritton isn’t sure is enough for an industry facing its lowest seasonal production in a century because of deadly citrus greening disease, damaging hurricanes and encroaching development.

“If and when we get this proposal across the line, again, we have to work with our (House) partners, whatever the number is at the end, maybe $125 million, we’ll see,” Albritton, R-Wauchula, told reporters last week. “But we’ll know pretty quickly what the appetite (from growers) to participate in this … program will be. As I moved around the industry, and talked to friends of mine, there appears to be a pretty solid appetite for it.” read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” is fast approaching, and stock markets from Wall Street to Wellington, New Zealand, are falling Monday in advance of it.

In New York, the S&P 500 was down 0.8% following one of its worst losses of the past couple of years on Friday. It’s on track to finish the first three months of the year with a loss of 5.9%, which could make this its worst quarter in nearly three years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 111 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.7% lower.

The U.S. stock market’s drops followed a sell-off that spanned the world earlier Monday as worries build that tariffs coming Wednesday from Trump will worsen inflation and grind down growth for economies. Trump has said he’s plowing ahead in part because he wants more manufacturing jobs back in the United States.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index dropped 4%. South Korea’s Kospi sank 3%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 1.6%. In New Zealand, the NZX 50 slipped a more modest 0.1%. read more

An Atlanta-based developer has purchased the multifamily site in downtown Clermont’s mixed-use Lumberyard District and is moving to redevelop the Lake County site.

PENLER paid $7.4 million to longtime owners Wolfe & Wallace Properties for the 7.2-acre parcel next to Victory Pointe Park and the South Lake Trail. PENLER has secured a $45.7 million construction loan from Mississippi-based Renasant Bank.

The Lumberyard District is the site of a former lumber mill, and historic themes will play out in its two-phase redevelopment. The first phase will include the development of 262 apartments across four multifamily buildings. The second phase will include commercial construction of mixed-use and live-work buildings, along with another 130 dwelling units and two-story parking garage.

Wolfe & Wallace will grade the entire 12.3-acre district and build the interior roads as part of the first phase.

PENLER Managing Partner Brian Metzler told city officials the apartments would use Hardie Board siding for the exterior finish as an homage to the lumber mill. The developer also requested and received a height waiver from the city to allow for 9-foot ceilings on all floors and a pitched roof. read more