Things To Do In SW Florida

As vet bills skyrocket, more and more pet owners are turning to insurance programs to prevent their pets’ surprise illness from becoming a financial hardship.

But the devil is in the details, and complaints have surfaced that procedures and care that consumers thought were covered by the policies they purchased actually weren’t covered.

A new law taking effect in Florida on Jan. 1 aims to provide pet owners with clarity about pet insurance products they might be considering purchasing to cover accidents and illnesses.

The bill “creates an efficient, effective regulatory framework for pet insurance that benefits consumers, empowers regulators, and ensures the marketplace operates fairly,” state Sen. Nick DiCeglie, a Pinellas County Republican, told the Senate’s Banking and Insurance Committee in March. “This bill is good for consumers, industry participants and the pet insurance marketplace.”

While pet insurance has been available in Florida for years, policies have become increasingly complex, imposing waiting times for injury, illness and orthopedic care, and exclusions for preexisting, congenital and hereditary conditions, according to a Senate analysis of the bill. read more

The “Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade” will be televised Dec. 25, and it will feature performances from all four Walt Disney World theme parks and other attractions.

Viewers will see Lady A sing “Winter Wonderland” from  Epcot’s World Celebration Gardens, Bebe Rexha perform “Last Christmas” at Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom, Coco Jones with “This Christmas” from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Mariah the Scientist with “Please Come Home for Christmas” at the Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Other performers will include Nicole Scherzinger as well as Gwen Stefani from Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland and Iam Tongi performing from Aulani, the Disney resort in Hawaii.

The prerecorded broadcast is hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro (“Dancing With the Stars”) and Ginnifer Goodwin (“Zootopia 2”). Maia Kealoha, the 9-year-old actress who plays Lilo in the 2025 live-action film “Lilo and Stitch,” serves as “parade correspondent,” Disney says. read more

A major expansion of Mount Dora’s Northeast Community Redevelopment Area will generate millions of dollars in new tax revenue, but city and county officials can’t agree on how to divvy it up.

Mount Dora’s City Council and Lake County Commissioners have been meeting since March to debate methods for splitting CRA increment revenue, and now they’ve pushed the decision into February, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

For years, the city and county have been sharing the revenue, with the city receiving 60% of the funds and 40% going to the county. During a joint workshop in Tavares last Tuesday, county commissioners asked for an even 50:50 split. If they can’t agree on the distribution, the matter could end up in court.

Created in 1989, the Northeast CRA generally includes the area south of Limit Avenue, north of 11th Avenue, east of Baker Street, and west of U.S. Highway 441. It was originally set to expire in 30 years, but the city has since extended the district to 2049.

The state’s Community Redevelopment Act allows cities to keep up to 95% of tax revenues generated by new development in the district, but they must spend the money for improvements within the district. Mount Dora CRA Administrator Adam Sumner said he expects the funds to end by 2045, given threats from state lawmakers eager to axe the special district. Under the current allocation, Sumner estimates the county would receive $5.9 million over the next 20 years, with $7.5 million going to the city. read more

By JOHN LEICESTER

Two NATO-nation intelligence services suspect Russia is developing a new anti-satellite weapon to target Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation with destructive orbiting clouds of shrapnel, with the aim of reining in Western space superiority that has helped Ukraine on the battlefield.

Intelligence findings seen by The Associated Press say the so-called “zone-effect” weapon would seek to flood Starlink orbits with hundreds of thousands of high-density pellets, potentially disabling multiple satellites at once but also risking catastrophic collateral damage to other orbiting systems.

Analysts who haven’t seen the findings say they doubt such a weapon could work without causing uncontrollable chaos in space for companies and countries, including Russia and its ally China, that rely on thousands of orbiting satellites for communications, defense and other vital needs.

Such repercussions, including risks to its own space systems, could steer Moscow away from deploying or using such a weapon, analysts said. read more

CHRISTINE BENZ of Morningstar

It might surprise people that my husband and I pay a financial planner, given that I spend a lot of time on financial, tax, and investment planning at work. However, hiring a planner has delivered a return that can’t be quantified: peace of mind.

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Here are some key reasons we pay for financial advice.

1) We wanted a second opinion on a few important decisions.

I wanted a different perspective on less-familiar subjects, such as handling employer stock, and whether we needed long-term care insurance. We could have confronted both issues on our own, but having professional guidance helped us move forward more confidently. read more