Things To Do In SW Florida

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s 10-year outlook projects worsening long-term federal deficits and rising debt, driven largely by increased spending, notably on Social Security, Medicare, and debt service payments.

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Compared with the CBO’s analysis this time last year, the fiscal outlook has deteriorated modestly.

Major developments over the last year are factored into the latest report, released Wednesday, including Republicans’ tax and spending measure known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” higher tariffs, and the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, which includes deporting millions of immigrants from mainland U.S. read more

By Sara Rathner, NerdWallet

Last year was kind of a lot. Once-secure federal government jobs were slashed, and that was before the longest government shutdown in history. The labor market cooled. Economically speaking, 2025 was a tough year for many.

And though interest rates were reduced three times, credit card interest rates remained high, hovering around an average of 22% all year.

Let’s briefly look back at some of the other big credit card headlines from 2025:

• A major consumer watchdog was neutered. Beginning in February, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s power — and staff — was cut way back. Some of its actions from the end of the Biden administration got reversed, including a planned cap on credit card late fees and the removal of medical debt from credit reports. A massive merger was completed. Capital One officially acquired Discover in May, making it the largest credit card issuer in the U.S. While a change of this magnitude will continue to roll out slowly, so far Capital One has moved its debit cards to the Discover payment network. Credit cards upped fees and embraced “coupon book” rewards. Last year saw the trend really take off, beginning in March with Chase’s co-branded United Airlines cards. Then, in June, Chase unveiled major changes and a big annual fee bump to its highest-end Sapphire card. American Express soon followed with changes to its Platinum card. Triple-digit annual fees were once rare, but now even some “midtier” options charge $150, while many premium cards are around $500 and up.

  We’re a few weeks into 2026, and it’s not looking any less dramatic compared to 2025. Here’s what we may see coming up in the world of credit cards. read more

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk told employees at xAI, his artificial intelligence company, on Tuesday evening that the company needed a factory on the moon to build AI satellites and a massive catapult to launch them into space.

Inspired by the billionaire’s love of science fiction, the space catapult would be called a mass driver, and would be part of an imagined lunar facility that manufactured satellites to provide the computing power for the company’s AI.

“You have to go to the moon,” Musk said during an all-hands meeting, which was heard by The New York Times. The move would help xAI harness more power than other companies to build its AI, he said.

“It’s difficult to imagine what an intelligence of that scale would think about, but it’s going to be incredibly exciting to see it happen,” he added.

Last week, Musk said he was merging xAI with his rocket business, SpaceX, to facilitate his plans to create AI data centers in outer space. Now that vision has expanded to include the lunar facility, though he did not say in his hourlong talk, which also featured remarks from other executives, how it could be built. read more

By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs last month, but government revisions cut 2024-2025 U.S. payrolls by hundreds of thousands.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

The report included major revisions that reduced the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000, a third the previously reported 584,000 and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.

The job market has been sluggish for months even though the economy is registering solid growth.

But the January numbers were much stronger than the 75,000 economists had expected. Healthcare accounted for nearly 82,000, or more than 60%, of last month’s new jobs. Factories added 5,000, snapping a streak of 13 straight months of job losses. The federal government shed 34,000 jobs.

Average hourly wages rose a solid 0.4% from December to January.

The unemployment rate fell from 4.4% in December as the number of employed Americans rose and the number of unemployed fell. read more

Mardi Gras season has returned to Universal Orlando, and the event continues to highlight a festive New Orleans-inspired atmosphere with its bead-bearing parade, concerts and international foods.

Fresh additions to the event — its formal full name is Universal Mardi Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval — are playing into that vibe, including new menu items, floats and the introduction of reptile royalty.

Prince Gator, a gold and green, big-bead-wearing, crowned character, is now available for visitor interactions. He is stationed near the park’s Pantages Theater (home of the Horror Make-Up Show), beneath a curved structure that Universal refers to as the Hollywood Wave.

“A couple of years ago, he was designed and brought in as a popcorn bucket. Then he was made into a plush, and then we said, Why not add to our animated family?” said Kelly Malik, show director, entertainment development. “We got to bring another party animal to a mix for Mardi Gras.”

Like Earl the Squirrel, Universal Orlando’s home-grown holiday character, Prince, poses for photos and signs autographs, Malik said. And he has some backstory. read more