Things To Do In SW Florida

State-owned Citizens Insurance has sharply increased the number of cases it sends to a special alternative dispute court, but plaintiffs attorneys say it’s unfair because it deprives policyholders of the right to have their cases heard by a jury.

A South Florida Sun Sentinel review of cases handled since early 2024 found that Citizens policyholders are likely to lose if their dispute is sent to this special court, which is run by the state Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH).

And policyholders who need Citizens to insure their homes have no way of avoiding the unique policy terms that allow their cases to be transferred to DOAH.

Records show that Citizens won 47 of 51 DOAH cases that advanced to a final hearing prior to July 10.

Citizens’ board of governors has approved paying $19.3 million to fund the program through 2027 and the company is increasingly relying on DOAH to settle claims disputes. Through July 10, Citizens has sent more than 1,000 cases to the court, compared to about 350 cases sent during all of 2024. read more

MERRITT ISLAND — The nation’s spaceports can now take advantage of tax-free bonds for the first time after Trump signed the “Big, Beautiful Bill” last week, and the Space Coast looks to benefit.

U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody on Friday detailed what it means for Florida from the headquarters of Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance and development authority,

“This will apply to all spaceports, but we know that this one is the busiest and the most important,” she said of the nearby Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. “After we got this passed, we have already heard from private business entities that want to get in, that want to help, that want to be a part of the growth right here at space on the Space Coast.”

The state officially has three designated spaceports. KSC and CCSFS make up one known as Cape Canaveral Spaceport, while in nearby Titusville is the Space Coast Regional Airport and Spaceport and in Jacksonville is the Cecil Spaceport. The state also has potential future spaceports from the Panhandle to the Keys. read more

After naming the future performing arts center in NeoCity as a top priority, Osceola Commissioners are moving to issue $125 million in bonds backed by the county’s Tourist Development Tax to make the project a reality.

But County Manager Don Fisher said the county will have to embark on a capital campaign to finance the project, which will be the centerpiece of the long-awaited NeoCity city center.

“We estimate that it’s about a $225 million project,” Fisher told GrowthSpotter. “That includes the promenade and surface parking, but it does not include parking garages. We’ve got some cash reserves as well, but there needs to be a (capital) campaign — bringing in partners to see who wants to work with us.”

The county will seek a naming rights deal and seek contributions from donors and philanthropic organizations following last month’s vote on the bonds. Fisher said Kathy Ramsberger, CEO of the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts, has “been helping us along the way.” read more

Mia Gindis

(Bloomberg) — While US President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff strategy has disrupted the oil market for months, his renewed attacks on trading partners this week have solidified consensus on at least one matter: The outlook for crude demand is set to worsen.

Investors in oil had largely overlooked trade news for weeks as the conflict in the Middle East commanded price action, but Trump’s recent barrage of tariff letters — containing some of the highest tax rates yet — is reviving concerns that a global trade war will reduce crude consumption.

The prospect of waning demand is dealing another blow to a market already suffering from widespread expectations of a glut later this year. In addition to the trade war, a dour economic outlook for top crude importer China is fueling concerns that the market will struggle to absorb extra supply in the second half of the year.

“All the focus is on demand and tariffs,” said Joe DeLaura, global energy strategist at Rabobank.

The rapidly weakening outlook triggered the sharpest drop in hedge fund sentiment on oil since February. Money managers slashed their bullish position in US crude by 29,994 lots to 148,106 lots in the week ended July 8, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Short-only bets rose to a five-week high, the figures show. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN

The latest version of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok is echoing the views of its billionaire creator, so much so that it will sometimes search online for Musk’s stance on an issue before offering up an opinion.

The unusual behavior of Grok 4, the AI model that Musk’s company xAI released late Wednesday, has surprised some experts.

Built using huge amounts of computing power at a Tennessee data center, Grok is Musk’s attempt to outdo rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini in building an AI assistant that shows its reasoning before answering a question.

Musk’s deliberate efforts to mold Grok into a challenger of what he considers the tech industry’s “woke” orthodoxy on race, gender and politics has repeatedly got the chatbot into trouble, most recently when it spouted antisemitic tropes, praised Adolf Hitler and made other hateful commentary to users of Musk’s X social media platform just days before Grok 4’s launch.

But its tendency to consult with Musk’s opinions appears to be a different problem. read more