Things To Do In SW Florida

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

Johnson & Johnson says it will invest more than $55 billion within the United States over the next four years, including four new manufacturing plants.

A number of companies have highlighted investments in the U.S. in recent months, a focus of the Trump administration. J&J rival Eli Lilly and Co. announced in late February that it planned to build four new factories in the U.S. Both Lilly and J&J cited tax cut legislation passed in 2017 as factors in their U.S. investments.

Johnson & Johnson said Friday that it is a 25% increase in investment compared with the prior four years and estimates the U.S. economic impact will be more than $100 billion a year.

“Our increased U.S. investment begins with the ground-breaking of a high-tech facility in North Carolina that will not only add U.S.-based jobs but manufacture cutting edge medicines to treat patients in America and around the world,” Chairman and CEO Joaquin Duato said in a statement. read more

By DAMIAN J. TROISE, AP Business Wirter

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in morning trading Friday and Wall Street is veering toward its fifth straight weekly loss.

WINTER HAVEN – A new underwater habitat is taking form at Legoland Florida Resort. Work continues on Sea Life Florida Aquarium, the latest piece of the attraction’s expansion plan.

For now, there’s no sea life — or enough water — to see inside Sea Life. Curved rebar shows how faux rock work will frame views into giant tanks that will house more than 3,000 animals representing 150 species.

Sea Life Florida is wedged between two theme parks — Legoland and Peppa Pig parks — but it will have its own submerged park as decor in its large ocean tank. The concept was what fish want to do when they come to Florida, said Blake Boyter, senior project manager with Merlin Magic Making, the creative arm of Legoland’s parent company.

“Of course, being the theme park capital of the world, they want to come to a theme park,” Boyter said during a recent hard-hat tour of the aquarium building.

“We’ve got the castle with all the different roller coaster features around it,” he said. “We’ve got a Ferris wheel in the back corner that’s got clams.” read more

Amazon is ending a little-used privacy feature that let some users of its Echo smart speaker prevent their voice commands from going to the company’s cloud.

Homeowner insurance costs fell by 0.7% between the third and fourth quarters of 2024, a result of declining rates that insurance officials in Florida have been touting for the past several months as signs that the market is returning to health.

The decline in costs of multiperil insurance for owners of single-family houses — from an average premium of $3,668 to $3,644 — marks the first time that costs have dropped since the Office of Insurance Regulation began releasing quarterly Residential Market Share Reports in mid-2022.

Average premium costs are revealed by dividing the total premiums by the number of policyholders reported by companies.

Stacey Giulianti, chief legal officer for Florida Peninsula Insurance, which saw a 3.9% decline in average homeowner premiums, said the result reflects recent reforms that the Florida Legislature enacted to reduce costs resulting from runaway litigation.

“As experts have been predicting for the last few years, the strong actions of the Florida Legislature and governor to decrease frivolous litigation are starting to show solid reductions in personal residential insurance rates,” Giulianti said. “This pro-consumer trend will continue, unless the Legislature makes the big mistake of reversing it in the current session.” read more