Things To Do In SW Florida

By James Royal, Ph.D., Bankrate.com

Congress has shaken up retirement plans once again, and the changes benefit a wide swath of Americans saving for their golden years through IRAs or employer plans such as 401(k)s.

The SECURE Act 2.0 became law in the last days of 2022, and the new rules provide assistance for retirement savers, small businesses and many others. In fact, the changes are so wide that many of them didn’t officially begin until 2024 or later. The law is a sweeping follow-up to 2019’s SECURE Act, which itself shook up retirement funding and planning.

It’s worth noting that while the new law permits the following features, in many cases employers have to set up their retirement plans such as 401(k)s to actually enable those features. So you’ll want to check with your employer to see if they offer the new features and when.

Here are ten of the most important changes in the SECURE Act 2.0 and what you need to know.

1. The age for required minimum distributions rises

The SECURE Act 2.0 changes the age for when savers must begin taking required minimum distributions (RMDs) from retirement plans, not once but twice. The age to start taking RMDs has now become 73, as of 2023, up from age 72. Then starting on Jan. 1, 2033, the age for beginning to take RMDs jumps to 75. The law applies to 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans and IRAs, among others. read more

Epic Universe visitors loomed at the theme park Saturday afternoon in anticipation of the Stardust Racers roller coaster reopening.

It would be the first day the thrill ride has been available to the public since a man died Sept. 17 after riding it.

Universal Orlando Resort announced the move Friday afternoon, saying it had worked with local and state officials to observe testing of the attraction. The ride system’s manufacturer and a coaster engineering expert did their own examinations that validated Universal’s findings, the company said.

Saturday morning, both sides of the dueling coaster were put through their paces — sometimes empty, sometimes with Universal employees on board. Epic workers told passers-by that it was hoped the ride would be available by late afternoon or early evening.

Guests were finally allowed to line up at 6 p.m., but a fire alarm at the park delayed proceedings again. At 6:45 p.m. the first full trains of the day launched. The park was scheduled to close at 10 p.m. read more

By Linda Bell, Bankrate.com

The Federal Reserve just did something it hadn’t yet done in 2025: It lowered its benchmark overnight lending rate.

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While the markets largely expected September’s quarter-point rate cut, it does mark the beginning of a potential easing cycle after months of holding rates steady. That matters for homeowners because the Fed’s decisions ripple through to home equity loan and HELOC rates, shaping how expensive (or affordable) it is to tap into the value of your home.

The natural questions now are: How much rate relief can home equity borrowers actually expect? And how might that impact the appetite for borrowing? read more

By MATTHEW BROWN and MEAD GRUVER

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials in the coming days are set to hold the government’s biggest coal sales in more than a decade, offering 600 million tons from publicly owned reserves next to strip mines in Montana and Wyoming.

The sales are a signature piece of President Donald Trump’s ambitions for companies to dig more coal from federal lands and burn it for electricity. Yet most power plants served by those mines plan to quit burning coal altogether within 10 years, an Associated Press data analysis shows.

Three other mines poised for expansions or new leases under Trump also face declining demand as power plants use less of their coal and in some cases shut down, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor.

Those market realities raise a fundamental question about the Republican administration’s push to revive a heavily polluting industry that long has been in decline: Who’s going to buy all that coal? read more

The competition for airspace is just beginning as the space age kicks into high gear on the Space Coast.

At the center of it all is SpaceX, which seeks to bring its game-changing Starship to Florida but with a sobering cost, delaying as many as 12,000 commercial flights each year.

The company’s target of as many as 120 Starship launches and landings annually could cause regular conflicts with takeoffs and landings at surrounding airports, according to two recent studies, the FAA’s draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for proposed SpaceX Starship activity from Kennedy Space Center and a similar EIS from the Department of the Air Force for a second Starship launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Elon Musk’s rocket company insists the concerns are overblown.

In a missive posted to its website, SpaceX said the so-called aircraft hazard areas defined in the studies “are extremely conservative by nature and are intended to capture a composite of the full range of worst-case outcomes, but not any single real-world operation.” read more