Things To Do In SW Florida

You’ve met folks who are just a little “too Disney.” Maybe they’re hyper-focused on Figment popcorn buckets, incensed about a beloved theme-park ride closing or using their retirement fund to finance a week in Orlando.

They could be called overenthusiastic enthusiasts. These days, the more common term is “Disney Adult.”

Let’s not judge. Walt Disney World puts food on tables, and its fandom isn’t that far astray from the ones dedicated to college football, “Real Housewives,” Taylor Swift and the ilk.

Or is it?

The new book “Disney Adults: Exploring (and Falling in Love With) a Magical Subculture,” written by AJ Wolfe, delves into why Disneymania is a thing – and why people are mad about it.

It’s a deep dive into the phenomenon and features expert interviews with professors, former Imagineers, journalists and self-identifying Disney Adults, not to mention surveys and the monitoring the demographic makeup of theme-park queues.

The subject begs for the insider knowledge that Wolfe amassed as a Disney fan, once $17,000 in credit card debt that funded WDW excursion trips. But Wolfe is now the owner of Cambrick Yard Media, which operates fan sites including Disney Food Blog and AllEars. read more

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is holding steadier on Tuesday following its see-saw ride that bracketed the weekend.

The S&P 500 was inching up by 0.1% in early trading, coming off its best day since May, which followed its worst day since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 77 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.

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Worries are still high that President Donald Trump’s tariffs may be hurting the economy. But increased hopes for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve later this year, along with a stream of stronger-than-expected profit reports from U.S. companies, are helping to support the market. read more

By Allison Martin, Bankrate.com

Summer is winding down, and it’s almost time for back-to-school shopping. If your state offers a sales tax holiday — fewer than 20 states do this year — you might be able to give your wallet a bit of a break.

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And that’s true whether or not you have children: These sales-tax holidays can be a good time to buy new clothes, a computer or other items.

Sales tax holidays: How they work

Many states offer their sales tax holidays in August. Most states limit the types of items that are eligible for the sales tax holiday — clothing is the most common qualified purchase — and they usually put a dollar limit on how much of the purchase will be tax-free. read more

Rarely have we seen a day when the Florida East Coast Railway has publicly spoken ill of Brightline, its higher speed passenger rail partner in South and Central Florida.

Nor has it openly uttered objections against a planned commuter rail line Brightline envisions operating in concert with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties over the FECR-owned corridor east of Interstate 95.

Until recently.

In a sharply worded lawsuit filled last month in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the venerable freight carrier based in Jacksonville, and owner of the 351-stretch of rail between Miami and the northeast Florida city, alleges that Brightline kept the FECR in the dark when it started speaking with county officials about a possible commuter line that would run through all three counties, over 85 miles between Miami and Jupiter.

The lawsuit was first reported by the Miami Herald.

The Coastal Commuter Link idea is an outgrowth of a plan researched and coordinated by the Florida Department of Transportation starting in 2003, decades after passenger rail service along the line founded by oil baron Henry Flagler ceased in 1968. read more

An enormous master-planned community in Kissimmee is moving closer to construction after years of effort, driven by Puerto Rico’s largest mall developer in its entry to the Florida market.

The company, Empresas Fonalledas, has spent $70 million through its affiliate, Plaza Lakes LLC, over the last two decades assembling the nearly 900 acres along Simpson Road for the community known as Hilliard Isle. Pulte has been involved as the homebuilding partner for the project since 2022 and has secured zoning entitlements for the mixed-use development with a marina on East Lake Toho.

Craig Holland, the city’s development director, called Hilliard Isle the Kissimmee’s “last hurrah,” according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

“It’s our last big undeveloped piece of property,” he told Osceola Realtors last month. “We’re looking at 3,000 dwelling units, approximately. That includes single-family, townhouses, and multifamily, and about 125,000 square feet of commercial with a town center vibe. And this is located between BVL and East Lake Toho. This is the easternmost portion of the city. It has good access to pretty much everything.” read more