Things To Do In SW Florida

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN

Pharmaceutical giant Merck is buying Verona Pharma, a company that focuses on respiratory diseases, in an approximately $10 billion deal.

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The deal gives Merck access to Verona Pharma’s new chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medication Ohtuvayre. U.S. regulators approved the inhaled medication more than a year ago to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, in adults.

“Ohtuvayre complements and expands our pipeline and portfolio of treatments for cardiopulmonary diseases while delivering near- and long-term growth as well as value for shareholders,” Merck & Co. Inc. Chairman and CEO Robert Davis said in a statement. read more

Living in Florida has long been enticing for Canadians, but a new analysis shows fewer of them are considering it as a destination.

The number of Canadians seeking a home in Miami and Orlando dropped by about 30% in each region year over year in May, with Fort Lauderdale seeing a 21% dip, according to data compiled by Redfin, which provides real estate services and data.

And “fewer Canadians are searching for homes in the United States than they were at the start of 2025, before the U.S. instituted steep tariffs on Canada and relations between the two countries started suffering,” Redfin said.

The number of Canadians searching for homes in the U.S. started to drop significantly in February, shortly after the Trump administration implemented 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. Some real estate experts believe the overall suffering relationship between Canada and the U.S. also may be contributing to the decrease.

President Donald Trump has, for example, commented about making Canada the 51st state, saying that Canada is “not viable as a country” without U.S. trade. The prospect of dissolving the border between the two countries is highly unpopular among many Canadians, though. read more

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The first day of Amazon’s Prime Day event and competing retail sales that kicked off on Tuesday drove solid online spending compared to a year earlier, according to two data sources.

Adobe Digital Insights, which tracks visits to e-commerce sites, reported that U.S. consumers spent $7.9 billion at online stores on Tuesday, a 9.9% increase from the comparable day last year.

Retailers offered discounts in the range of 9% to 23%, on par with July 2024 sales events, Adobe said.

Shoppers appeared especially eager to take advantage of deals on appliances, electronics and home improvement products, the data company said. Online sales of appliances were 135% higher than last month’s daily average, according to Adobe’s data.

Back-to-school items also were popular. Spending increased threefold on school supplies like backpacks, lunchboxes and stationery, and was two times higher for college dorm fixtures like mattresses, mini refrigerators and microwave over, Adobe said. read more

By Bernadette Joy, Bankrate.com

“Renting is throwing money away.” Has anyone ever told you this? Well, I’m here to say: It’s bad financial advice.

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  Universal’s Woodbury set for IAAPA Expo session

My husband and I have owned four different homes in three cities since 2010. If I wanted to, I could buy a house in cash today. But for the last three years, I’ve chosen to rent instead — and my net worth has grown by leaps and bounds because of that choice, not in spite of it.

This is always a hot topic, especially because renting challenges the traditional rhetoric that homeownership is the ultimate path to wealth. And I get it — owning a home is part of the “American Dream.” But if it doesn’t lead to financial freedom, homeownership may be more like a nightmare. read more

Mark Woodbury, chairman and CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences, will be the speaker at IAAPA Expo’s leadership breakfast in November.

Among Woodbury’s recent achievements is the opening of Epic Universe, the first theme park to debut in the Orlando area in more than 25 years.  He has worked for the company for more than 30 years, becoming CEO in 2021.  His purview extends to Universal attractions worldwide, including parks in California, Japan and Beijing.  Universal Destinations & Experiences also is developing Universal Horror Unleashed, a year-round horror attraction that’s set to open in August; Universal Kids, a small-scale theme park for families with young children that’s going up near Dallas; and a Universal park in England.

Universal Horror Unleashed picks Chicago for 2nd site

“It’s just a transformational moment for us,” Woodbury said in an interview on CNBC on the day before Epic opened to the public in May.

“It’s an exciting process, a fascinating journey, from a blank piece of paper when you start imagining what you could create,” he said. read more