Things To Do In SW Florida

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s appointee to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors said Monday that the central bank’s key interest rate should be much lower than its current 4.1% level, staking out a position far different than his colleagues.

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Stephen Miran, who is also a top economic adviser to Trump, said in remarks to the Economic Club of New York that sharp declines in immigration, rising tariff revenue, and an aging population all suggest that the Fed’s rate should be closer to 2.5% instead. According to projections released last week, that’s almost a full percentage point lower than any of his 18 colleagues on the Fed’s rate-setting committee, an unusually high divergence. read more

Legoland Florida theme park has revealed the name of its under-construction, space-themed indoor roller coaster. The ride, set to open in early 2026, will be called Galacticoaster.

“Galacticoaster marks the first indoor coaster built inside the main park since Legoland Florida opened in 2011. From the very beginning, we aimed to create an immersive experience for our guests from the moment they step inside,” Blake Boyter, senior project manager at Merlin Magic Making, said in a news release.

“From the engineering precision to the Lego DNA woven throughout, guests will experience more Lego storytelling, more excitement, and more out-of-this-world fun than ever before,” he said.

The Winter Haven park, owned by Merlin Entertainments Group, also said Galacticoaster will be the “most ambitious and technically advanced ride ever built at any Legoland Resort.”

Legoland also released some stats for the family-friendly coaster. It will have almost 1,500 feet of track, reaching a height of 50 feet.  (Sister attraction Dragon is similar length and stands at 42.7 feet, according to Roller Coaster Data Base.)  Galacticoaster’s 48 track sections are supported by 120 columns. The building’s footprint is the size of 10 basketball courts. The station’s conveyor belt weighs 9 tons. read more

By ALAN SUDERMAN

President Donald Trump said prominent billionaires – including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and tech founder Michael Dell – could be part of a deal in which the U.S. will take control of the social video platform TikTok.

Trump namedropped the 94-year-old Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, the head of Fox News and News Corp, as part of a group of possible participants in a deal during an interview recorded Friday and aired Sunday on Fox News.

“I think they’re going to be in the group. A couple of others. Really great people, very prominent people,” Trump said. “And they’re also American patriots, you know, they love this country. I think they’re going to do a really good job.”

Trump’s disclosure of the potential involvement of the Murdochs and Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, is the latest twist in a fast-moving potential deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S.

Trump also said Sunday that tech giant Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison was part of the same group. His involvement had been previously disclosed. On Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Oracle would be responsible for the app’s data and security and that Americans will control six of the seven seats for a planned board. read more

Question: I plan on purchasing gold coins for investment and possibly provide gifts to some relatives. What are the tax considerations if there are increases in value.

Answer: An excellent source for this issue is “Your Guide to Paying Taxes on Precious Metals.” The source is Hero Bullion (214-210-9948). If you hold the coins for longer than one year before you redeem them, then you can report the gains as long-term capital gains on your tax return. If you only hold the coins for less than a year, then you have to report the gains and pay tax based on your marginal tax rate. You are allowed to deduct any expenses such as sales tax or storage expenses on your return.

Only five states have no sales tax on the purchase of gold coins. If you give these coins as gifts to any relatives or acquaintances, you should indicate to these individuals that they have to compute any gains or losses on their tax returns in the year they sell the coins. So, you should indicate the market value of the coins at the time you make these gifts. read more

By Emily Scherer for The 19th

Last October, a 13-year-old boy in Wisconsin used a picture of his classmate celebrating her bat mitzvah to create a deepfake nude he then shared on Snapchat.

This is not an isolated incident. Over the past few years, there has been case after case of school-age children using deepfakes to prank or bully their classmates. And it keeps getting easier to do.

When they emerged online eight years ago, deepfakes were initially difficult to make. Nowadays, advances in technology, through generative artificial intelligence, have provided tools to the masses. Here, The 19th highlights a troubling consequence: the prevalence of deepfake apps among young users.

“If we would have talked five or six years ago about revenge porn in general, I don’t think that you would have found so many offenders were minors,” said Rebecca Delfino, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University who studies deepfakes.

Federal and state legislators have sought to tackle the scourge of nonconsensual intimate image (NCII) abuse, sometimes referred to as “revenge porn,” though advocates prefer the former term. Laws criminalizing the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images — for authentic images, at least — are in effect in every U.S. state and Washington, D.C., and last month, President Donald Trump signed a similar measure into law, known as Take It Down. read more