Things To Do In SW Florida

By MATT BROWN and MATT O’BRIEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans surprised tech industry watchers and outraged state governments when they added a clause to Republicans’ signature “ big, beautiful ” tax bill that would ban states and localities from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade.

The brief but consequential provision, tucked into the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s sweeping markup, would be a major boon to the AI industry, which has lobbied for uniform and light touch regulation as tech firms develop a technology they promise will transform society.

However, while the clause would be far-reaching if enacted, it faces long odds in the U.S. Senate, where procedural rules may doom its inclusion in the GOP legislation.

“I don’t know whether it will pass the Byrd Rule,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, referring to a provision that requires that all parts of a budget reconciliation bill, like the GOP plan, focus mainly on the budgetary matters rather than general policy aims. read more

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The internet wouldn’t be the same without the Like button, the thumbs-up icon that Facebook and other online services turned into digital catnip.

Like it or not, the button has served as a creative catalyst, a dopamine delivery system and an emotional battering ram. It also became an international tourist attraction after Facebook plastered the symbol on a giant sign on that stood outside its Silicon Valley headquarters until the company rebranded itself as Meta Platforms in 2021.

A new book, “Like: The Button That Changed The World,” delves into the convoluted story behind a symbol that’s become both the manna and bane of a digitally driven society.

It’s a tale that traces back to gladiator battles for survival during the Roman empire before fast-forwarding to the early 21st century when technology trailblazers such as Yelp co-founder Russ Simmons, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, and Gmail inventor Paul Buchheit were experimenting with different ways using the currency of recognition to prod people to post compelling content online for free. read more

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s unemployment rate increased to 3.7% in April, the third time it has ticked up this year.

The Florida Department of Commerce on Friday released a report showing an estimated 410,000 people were out of work in April from a labor force of 11.203 million. The 3.7% rate was up from 3.6% in February and March.

The rate was 3.5% in January, an increase from 3.4% in December. It was 3.3 percent in April 2024.

The number of people qualified as unemployed increased by 7,000 in April and was 46,000 higher than in April 2024, the report showed. Meanwhile, the labor force increased by 5,000 people in April and was up by 57,000 from April 2024.

Across the state, the lowest unemployment rate in April remained in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area at 3 percent, down from 3.1 percent in March. Within that region, the rate in the Miami-Miami-Beach-Kendall area was at 2.7 percent.

The April rate was 3.3% in the Crestview-Fort-Walton Beach-Destin and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (down from 3.4% in March) metropolitan statistical areas, while it was 3.5% in the Jacksonville, Naples-Marco Island, Panama City-Panama City Beach, Tallahassee and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater regions. read more

It’s been more than 100 days since President Donald Trump took office. He vowed during the campaign to bring down food prices on day one, and while egg prices are finally falling, the cost of other consumer goods remains high.

Now $6 per pound, the average price of ground beef hit a record high for the third consecutive month, jumping 15 cents since March. The cost of electricity also remained at its peak in April, according to the latest data from the consumer price index.

Some good news? Egg prices are dropping from all-time highs. The average cost of eggs settled at $5.12 in April, declining roughly 18% from March.

Still, the cost of many goods and services has stayed much the same with the change of administrations. The price of milk, bread and chicken has moved very little since December.

Though many of these prices are not directly linked to the White House, they may soon be, with a burgeoning global trade war sure to affect average prices from the grocery store to the pump.

The Tribune is tracking 11 everyday costs for Americans — eggs, milk, bread, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, chicken, ground beef, gasoline, electricity and natural gas — and how they are changing (or not) under the second Trump administration. This tracker is updated monthly using CPI data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. read more

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN

Charter Communications has offered to acquire Cox Communications, a $34.5 billion merger that would combine two of the top three cable companies in the U.S.

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  Like it or not, the Like button has changed the world

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  Egg prices finally dropped, but the cost of beef hit a record high last month. Here’s how everyday prices are changing under Trump.

Cox is the third largest cable television company in the country, with more than 6.5 million digital cable, internet, telephone, and home security customers. It has a strong foothold in states spanning from California to Virginia. Charter Communications, known more widely as Spectrum, has more than 32 million customers in 41 states.

The cable industry has been under assault for years from streaming services like Disney, Netflix, Amazon and HBO Max, as well as internet plans offered by mobile phone companies. Comcast, which is of nearly equal size to Charter, spun off many of its cable television networks in November as as consumers increasingly swap out their cable TV subscriptions for streaming platforms. read more