Things To Do In SW Florida

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

Brightline Florida is rolling forward with plans to extend its high-speed rail service from the Orlando International Airport to Tampa by seeking to borrow up to $400 million to help fund the first phase of the project.

Since September 2023, Brightline has run daily trains — with coach cars seating up to 60  — between Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando. Riders zip through undeveloped ranchland and preserved properties east of Orlando at speeds of up to 125 mph before slowing down to about 80 mph in South Florida on the way to downtown Miami.

A current end-to-end trip between Orlando and Miami on a Brightline train is about 3 hours and 30 minutes. Brightline spent $6 billion in private funds to lay or upgrade 233 miles of tracks between Orlando and Miami, along with building stations, and manufacturing 10 trains.

Brightline’s long-range goal is to expand to Tampa mostly along the Interstate 4 corridor, bringing the entire length of the route from South Florida to roughly 320 miles. read more

By Sara Rathner, NerdWallet

Being an authorized user on another person’s credit card can help you establish your credit history. Parents might add their children to help launch them into adulthood. Or spouses may share an account, with one spouse as the authorized user. But if the primary cardholder passes away, the authorized user is left with a card in limbo.

After my grandfather passed away earlier this year, my grandmother — a longtime authorized user on her husband’s cards — was left without any in her own name. What followed was a brief scramble to figure out whether she could qualify for a new card, given the credit history she’d established.

In her case, she was able to qualify for several cards, but it was a mixed bag in terms of how issuers responded. One immediately offered the same card, under a new account in her name. Another asked her to reapply, rejected her, and then later approved her after another attempt at applying.

If you’re an authorized user, having a plan in place in case the primary cardholder’s account is closed for any reason (including death, as difficult as that can be to talk about), is a smart move. read more

By SALLY HO

SEATTLE (AP) — Though natural disasters cycle across seasons and regions in the U.S., it’s often a shocking discovery for property owners how expansive and expensive flood and water damage can be when a major storm devastates their homes, businesses and communities.

That’s because oftentimes insurance doesn’t cover what the policyholder thinks it does — or thinks it should.

The disappointing surprise is that while the standard home insurance policy does cover fire and wind damage, even good property insurance typically doesn’t cover things like flooding and earthquakes, which usually require a special and separate policy for each.

Here are the things to know about flood insurance.

Who has flood insurance

Most people who have flood insurance are required to have it.

Although many property owners have the option of purchasing flood insurance, it is mandated for government-backed mortgages that sit in areas that the Federal Emergency Management Agency deems highest risk. Many banks require it in high-risk zones, too. read more

By GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA and MAURICIO SAVARESE

SAO PAULO (AP) — President Donald Trump’s threat to boost import taxes by 50% on Brazilian goods could drive up the cost of breakfast in the United States. The prices of coffee and orange juice — two staples of the American morning diet — could be severely impacted if there’s no agreement by Aug. 1.

Brazilian beef and regional airliners are also among the products that could be affected by Trump’s decision announced Wednesday, which Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised on Thursday to reciprocate.

Trump’s move this time is overtly political, targeting the Brazilian Supreme Court trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of his who was charged for his alleged role in trying to overturn his 2022 election loss. The court’s prosecution of U.S.-based social media companies failing to comply with local laws was also mentioned by Trump in a public letter as a reason to hike Brazil’s trade tariffs.

The U.S. Census Bureau said the country had a $6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year. read more