Things To Do In SW Florida

By COREY WILLIAMS

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. has stepped up technology in its popular F-150 pickup to combat the ever-evolving techniques car thieves have at their disposal.

It is the latest cat-and-mouse move that the automaker hopes will help customers avoid the costly and frustrating process that occurs when vehicles are swiped and includes a feature that won’t allow an engine to start even if a key fob is in the pickup.

Motor vehicle thefts recently have been on the decline in the U.S. after several years of increases. Still, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that more than 850,000 vehicles were stolen in the U.S. in 2024, pegging losses at $8 billion.

But thefts dropped 23% during the first six months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to an analysis by the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Ford’s F-150 was in the top 10 of most stolen models.

“F-150s have been the bestselling vehicle for decades, so there are a lot of them on the road,” said Christian Moran, Ford Secure general manager. “Thieves do like to go after pickup trucks. They also like to go after the contents that are often in pickup trucks. Oftentimes, there are people who have thousands of dollars worth of tools and products in the back that are valuable above and beyond what the vehicle is worth.” read more

As the Stardust Racers roller coaster sped downward in its first descent last September, Kevin Rodriguez Zavala was flung forward, his head slamming into the seat in front of him repeatedly. Blood from his wounds splattered his girlfriend, who tried to hold him back while screaming for help.

Dr. Anna Marshall, a vacationing medical doctor standing in line to board the Epic Universe ride, said that when the coaster returned and stopped, she heard someone screaming and ran to help. The ride staff seemed “frozen,” she later told sheriff’s deputies. And she was shocked by Zavala’s condition.

He was unconscious and one of his legs was “was completely broken in half and resting on the back of the chair,” the doctor said. The 32-year-old would be pronounced dead at a hospital later that night.

The new details about Zavala’s Sept. 17 death, including what witnesses saw that night, were released Thursday by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, which wrapped up its investigation and determined the death was accidental and that no criminal charges were warranted. read more

SpaceX and United Launch Alliance are combining for a busy week of rocket launches on the Space Coast.

Watch Falcon 9 launch 29 @Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida https://t.co/CuHgfe46z8

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 11, 2025

First up Thursday evening was SpaceX’s planned Starlink 6-90 mission with 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:01 p.m.

This was the 16th flight of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

The launch sets a turnaround record between launches at SLC-40, coming 2 days, 2 hours, 44 min since the Dec. 9 NROL-77 mission.

The rocket pads will be quiet for a few days, but get busier Sunday night through early Friday, Dec. 19, with four more potential launches, including three that could fly within 15 hours from Sunday-Monday.

SpaceX plans to be back on SLC-40 for the Starlink 6-82 mission with another 29 Starlink satellites targeting liftoff during a launch window that runs from 9:43 p.m.-1:43 a.m. Dec. 15. This will be the ninth flight of the first-stage booster, which will aim for a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. read more

By RIO YAMAT, Associated Press

The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued new guidance telling airlines they do not have to cover passenger expenses, such as meals or hotel stays, when flight cancellations or long delays are caused by aircraft recalls.

The guidance, released on Wednesday, comes after widespread disruptions last month amid the busy Thanksgiving travel period in the U.S. stemming from inspections and software updates that carriers had to perform immediately for safety reasons on a widely used Airbus commercial aircraft. About 6,000 planes were impacted.

Airlines worldwide scrambled to fix a computer code issue that may have contributed to a sudden drop in altitude on a JetBlue plane in October, which injured at least 15 people. Airbus said an examination of the JetBlue ordeal found a software glitch that could have affected flight-control systems on its A320 family of aircraft, the primary competitor to Boeing’s 737 planes.

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By FATIMA HUSSEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is proposing to overhaul a regulatory panel that monitors the nation’s financial stability, by advocating for looser regulations.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, a U.S. body created in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, monitors risks to the financial system and coordinates regulators’ approaches to overseeing the U.S. financial system. In a letter released by Bessent Thursday, he said “too often in the past, efforts to safeguard the financial system have resulted in burdensome and often duplicative regulations.”

“Our administration is changing that approach,” said Bessent, who chairs the committee, which is meeting on Thursday.

Bessent said the council will begin to “consider where aspects of the U.S. financial regulatory framework impose undue burdens and where they harm economic growth, thereby undermining financial stability.”

Voting members of the FSOC committee include the head of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; the Comptroller of the Currency; the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and several other agency heads. read more