Things To Do In SW Florida

By Ana Staples, Bankrate.com

Money is an uncomfortable topic for many, yet it’s an important ongoing conversation to have in a relationship. Financial secrets undermine trust. And for many, it may even feel like betrayal.

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More than 2 in 5 U.S. adults (43%) believe keeping financial secrets is at least as bad as physical infidelity. At the same time, almost half of Americans (45%) in committed relationships (defined in this survey as married, living together or in a civil partnership) admit they don’t know everything about their spouse’s or partner’s finances. read more

The first weekend of June again will feature red T-shirts and multiple festivities for the LGBTQ community despite the absence of the GayDays Orlando group, longtime event organizers say.

GayDays recently announced that plans for its parties are “on pause” for 2026. Some people may confuse GayDays Inc., an event promoter, with the more generic “gay days” terminology that casually and collectively refers to all planned activities for the weekend, including the traditional gathering at Magic Kingdom theme park. All those events are still planned for this year.

“We’ve been trying to communicate what’s going on for 20-plus years — that we are not the same party,” said Ethan Suarez, producer of One Magical Weekend. “We are a different party, and we’re a separate event. … I’m very used to the confusion all the time.”

His One Magical Weekend presents gatherings such as pool parties, DJ-driven dance parties, a drag brunch, a vendors expo and a nighttime outing to Typhoon Lagoon, a Walt Disney World water park. Last year, it drew about 10,000 participants, Suarez said, and ticket sales for the 2026 event are ahead of last year’s pace. read more

A jury awarded a Los Angeles man $25 million in a lawsuit against Chicago-based Conagra alleging its butter-flavored Pam cooking spray caused a rare chronic lung disease that will require a double lung transplant. 

The verdict last week in the Superior Court of Los Angeles found that Conagra did not adequately warn consumers about the potential dangers of inhaling fumes from Pam cooking spray containing diacetyl, a butter-flavored chemical linked to respiratory illness. 

During the trial, Conagra said it removed the ingredient from its Pam formulation in 2009. 

Roland Esparza, 58, who had used butter-flavored Pam regularly since the 1990s, filed the lawsuit in 2022, alleging the since-discontinued ingredient is responsible for his condition, according to his Chicago-based attorney. 

“He was a big health nut, bodybuilder, martial artist,” his attorney, Jacob Plattenberger, said Tuesday. “He was eating a lot of protein, eating a lot of eggs, and he cooked everything on his stove top. And so he was using it multiple times a day.” read more

By MARC LEVY

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — As outrage spreads over energy-hungry data centers, politicians from President Donald Trump to local lawmakers have found rare bipartisan agreement over insisting that tech companies — and not regular people — must foot the bill for the exorbitant amount of electricity required for artificial intelligence.

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But that might be where the agreement ends.

The price of powering data centers has become deeply intertwined with concerns over the cost of living, a dominant issue in the upcoming midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and governors’ offices. read more

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Business Writer

Wendy’s is closing several hundred U.S. restaurants and increasing its focus on value after a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter.

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The Dublin, Ohio-based company said Friday that its global same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 10% in the October-December period. That was worse than the 8.5% drop expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

U.S. same-store sales fell even further in the fourth quarter. Wendy’s said late last year that it planned to close underperforming U.S. restaurants, but it gave more details about those closures Friday. read more