Things To Do In SW Florida

PATRICK SPACE FORCE BASE — The Space Force presence on the Space Coast is beginning to swell as one of its major units, STARCOM, had its first change-of-command ceremony since its headquarters moved from Colorado to Florida.

Major Gen. James Smith on Friday became the third-ever commander of STARCOM, which stands for Space Training and Readiness Command, one of only three command units under Space Force. He takes over for Maj. Gen. Timothy Sejba, who oversaw the command’s initial steps as it began to take shape in Brevard County.

“As I assume command, how fitting that I do so on the Space Coast, the home of the Eastern launch range and now home of STARCOM headquarters,” Smith said while addressing Sejba during a ceremony at Patrick SFB. “You’ve created the foundation. You ensured the command is fueled and ready to be the liftoff point for our guardians. Like a launch, we now must accelerate the command, moving beyond the solid foundation of the path to a higher and ever more mission ready state.” read more

WASHINGTON — Congress approved a White House request to claw back $9 billion for foreign aid and public broadcasting, after Republicans bowed to President Donald Trump in an unusual surrender of congressional spending power.

For Central Florida news station WUCF, that means millions of dollars devoted to giving community members free access to news will be lost. Radio stations 90.7 FM Orlando and 89.5 FM Ocala also stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The House’s 216-213 vote early Friday sent the package to Trump for his signature. Two Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Michael Turner of Ohio, opposed the measure.

The Senate approved the package in a predawn 51-48 vote the day before, overcoming the objections of two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who argued that their party was ceding Congress’ constitutional control over federal funding.

The bulk of the funds targeted — about $8 billion — was for foreign assistance programs. The remaining $1.1 billion was for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which finances NPR and PBS. read more

By MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is granting two years of regulatory relief to coal-fired power plants, chemical manufacturers and other polluting industries as he seeks to reverse Biden-era regulations he considers overly burdensome.

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Trump issued a series of proclamations late Thursday exempting a range of industries that he calls vital to national security.

The proclamations cover coal-fired power plants, taconite iron ore processing facilities used to make steel, and chemical manufacturers that help produce semiconductors and medical device sterilizers. read more

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s unemployment rate remained at 3.7% in June, while private-sector jobs were down 21,000 from May, according to a report released Friday by the state Department of Commerce.

The state estimated 415,000 Floridians qualified as unemployed in June, up 1,000 from May. Meanwhile, the workforce of 11.193 million shrank by 7,000 in the same time. The unemployment rate also was 3.7% in April and May, after inching up earlier in the year.

The lowest unemployment rate in June remained in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area at 3.2%, up from 3.1% in May. Within that region, the rate in the Miami-Miami-Beach-Kendall area was at 2.4%.

Jimmy Heckman, the Department of Commerce’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research, said it’s “too soon to tell” the reason for the first decline in jobs since October, when Florida was coming off back-to-back hits from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

“It is important to keep in mind that this is one month coming off the heels of some really strong job reports for a few months before this,” Heckman told reporters in a conference call. “And for most of the sectors that lost jobs this month, it was the first month that we had seen those sectors lose jobs in quite a while.” read more

By Stephanie Armour, KFF Health News

On his way to an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stopped by the home of podcaster Gary Brecka. The two spent time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and tried some intravenous nutrition drips that Brecka, a self-avowed longevity and wellness maven, sells and promotes on his show, “The Ultimate Human.”

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Then the podcast taping started, and Kennedy — who was also on the mic — took aim at Big Pharma’s influence on federal health policy. read more