Things To Do In SW Florida

By NADIA LATHAN,  Associated Press/Report for America

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Juneteenth celebrations have been scaled back this year due to funding shortfalls as companies and municipalities across the country reconsider their support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Canceled federal grants and businesses moving away from so-called brand activism have hit the bottom line of parades and other events heading into Thursday’s federal holiday, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. The shrinking financial support coincides with many companies severing ties with LGBTQ celebrations for Pride this year and President Donald Trump’s efforts to squash DEI programs throughout the federal government.

In Denver, for example, more than a dozen companies backed out of supporting the Juneteenth Music Festival, which is one of the city’s biggest celebrations of the holiday, according to Norman Harris, executive director of JMF Corporation, which puts on the event.

“There were quite a few sponsors who pulled back their investments or let us know they couldn’t or wouldn’t be in a position to support this year,” said Harris, who has overseen the event for more than a decade. read more

The IAAPA Expo plans to expand its footprint at Orange County Convention Center, a move that is said to reflect the health of the tourism industry and the boom in related economic activity.

The annual trade show will move into the convention center’s West Concourse for the first time in 2026. Previously it has been staged only in the North and South concourses.

“The industry is growing. We see that with the projects like Epic Universe, but we also see it with all the smaller attractions, which happen everywhere now — if it’s a Ripley’s Mirror Maze or if it’s a Puttshack or if it’s a PopStroke — all those little attractions are actually contributing to the success of the attraction industry,” said Jakob Wahl, president of the Orlando-based International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, a k a IAAPA.

The expo is known for its vast, teeming trade floor that includes vendors of all manner of manufacturers and creative types, presenting everything from water-slide equipment to major roller coasters to plush animals for carnival games to theme park announcements. The assortment of participants has been diversifying, Wahl said. read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Calm returned to Wall Street on Monday, and U.S. stocks rose, while oil prices gave back some of their initial spurts following Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear and military targets at the end of last week.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.9% to reclaim most of its drop from Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 317 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.5%. They joined a worldwide climb for stock prices, stretching from Asia to Europe.

Israel and Iran are continuing to attack each other, and a fear remains that a wider war could constrict the flow of Iran’s oil to its customers. That in turn could raise gasoline prices worldwide and keep them high.

But past conflicts in the region have seen spikes for crude prices last only briefly. They’ve receded after the fighting showed that it would not disrupt the flow of oil, either Iran’s or other countries’ through the narrow Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s coast.

Hopes that the fighting could remain similarly contained this time around helped send oil prices back toward $71 per barrel on Monday. read more

TALLAHASSEE — Florida would hold a sales-tax “holiday” each August for back-to-school items, while sales taxes would be eliminated on commercial leases and such things as hurricane supplies and sunscreen, under a tax package that House and Senate leaders released Friday evening.

The House and Senate will vote on the tax package early this week along with a state budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. The tax package is projected to reduce state and local government revenue by about $1.3 billion next fiscal year.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper, R-Trinity, told reporters Friday nobody will “get rich and go have a European vacation” on the tax cuts.

“Will you save a ton of money because of what we do? Probably not,” he said. “But you will save some.”

House and Senate leaders had earlier said they planned to eliminate the 2 percent sales tax on commercial leases, a cut long sought by business lobbyists. The lease-tax elimination makes up an estimated $904.8 million of the projected cuts in the package. read more

Behold, the insurance secrets that surface when you look at publicly available data a different way, by ranking companies by what they charge per $1,000 of insured value:

— Collectively, Florida-based property insurers charge significantly higher rates per $1,000 than companies headquartered outside the state charge.

— Owners of condominium units in Florida pay twice as much per $1,000 to insure their contents than homeowners pay to cover their entire structures and contents.

— And if you are covered by one of the 17 companies that have helped to depopulate state-owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp., you are paying significantly more per $1,000 of insured value than customers of non-participating insurers.

These findings stem from an analysis by the South Florida Sun Sentinel of data that insurers have been required to make available to the public since the second quarter of 2022.

The newspaper dug into quarterly Residential Market Share Reports released by the Office of Insurance Regulation and calculated what insurance customers pay per $1,000 of coverage value, figures that are not included on the spreadsheets. read more