Things To Do In SW Florida

By ALEX VEIGA

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage eased this week, offering little relief for prospective homebuyers facing record-high home prices.

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The long-term rate slipped to 6.74% from 6.75% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.78%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also eased. The average rate dropped to 5.87% from 5.92% last week. A year ago, it was 6.07%, Freddie Mac said.

Elevated mortgage rates have been weighing on the U.S. housing market, which has been in a sales slump going back to 2022, when rates started to climb from the rock-bottom lows they reached during the pandemic. read more

A Ripley’s-themed miniature golf course is planned for Icon Park on Orlando’s International Drive.

The course — named Ripley’s Crazy Golf — will be an indoor, glow-in-the-dark experience with “surprising sights that make each hole feel like its own otherworldly adventure,” a Ripley news release says.

“We’ve taken everything people love about our attractions, imagination and oddities, and brought it to the putting green. It’s outrageous. It’s unpredictable. It’s crazy in the best way possible!” Jim Pattison Jr., president of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! World Entertainment, said in the release.

The mini-golf course will be located next door to the Museum of Illusions at Icon Park, and it’s expected to open in the winter of 2025.

There’s currently a Ripley’s Crazy Golf attraction operating in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Tickets cost $18.99 at that location, and there are bundled-ticket offers for nearby Ripley attractions.

Ripley already has two attractions open on I-Drive, a Believe It or Not Museum (the building that looks like it’s going into a sinkhole) and the neighboring Mirror Maze attraction.  They are less than a block from the future mini-golf course. Orlando is also home to the corporate headquarters of Ripley Entertainment, which has more than 100 attractions worldwide. read more

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

Pura Scents is recalling more than 850,000 diffusers because some magnets may detach and cause a possible ingestion hazard to children.

The company is recalling about 851,400 Pura 4 Smart Home Fragrance Diffusers with detachable covers. It said an additional 1,100 were sold in Canada.

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Pura Scents said that the magnets on the inside cover of the product can detach, posing an ingestion hazard to children. When high-powered magnets are swallowed, the ingested magnets can attract each other, or other metal objects, and become lodged in the digestive system. This can result in perforations, twisting or blockage of the intestines, infection, blood poisoning and death. read more

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google’s accelerating shift into artificial intelligence helped propel its corporate parent to another quarter of solid growth while a crackdown on its internet empire looms in the background.

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The results released Wednesday for the April-June period provided the latest sign that Google is deftly navigating the technological landscape’s tilt toward AI while still capitalizing on well-worn techniques that have made it the internet’s main gateway for the past quarter century. read more

By BERNARD CONDON

NEW YORK (AP) — The fallout from Elon Musk’s plunge into politics a year ago is still hammering his Tesla business as both sales and profits dropped sharply again in the latest quarter.

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The car company that has faced boycotts for months said Wednesday that revenue dropped 12% and profits slumped 16% in the three months through June as buyers continued to stay away.

“The perception of Elon Musk, its chief executive, has rubbed the sheen right out of what once was a darling and soaring automotive brand,” wrote Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee in an email. Tesla is “a toxic brand that is inseparable from its leader.” read more