By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve is likely to keep its key interest rate unchanged in the coming months as it waits for widespread “uncertainty” stemming from President Donald Trump’s policies to resolve, Chair Jerome Powell said in written remarks to be delivered Friday in New York.
By STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rose on Friday, but only after careening through another wild day. It was a fitting ending to a brutal week of scary swings dominated by worries about the U.S. economy and uncertainty about what President Donald Trump will do with tariffs.
By ALAN SUDERMAN, Associated Press Business Writer
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday establishing a government reserve of bitcoin, a key marker in the cryptocurrency’s journey towards possible mainstream acceptance.
Under Trump’s new order, the U.S. government will retain the estimated 200,000 bitcoin it’s already seized in criminal and civil proceedings, according to Trump’s “crypto czar” David Sacks.
“The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called ‘digital gold,’” Sacks said on social media.
The executive order calls for a “full accounting” of the government’s bitcoin holdings, which Sacks said have never been fully audited. He added that the U.S. government has previously sold off about 195,000 bitcoin over the last decade for $366 million. He said those bitcoins would be worth about $17 billion if the government hadn’t sold them.
Which theme park is witch? That’s one burning question that “Wicked” fans have as speculation grows that the film, spawned from a Broadway musical, might be turned into a real-life attraction.
A possible connection with a Universal park somewhere is strong because the film was released by Universal Pictures, which is under the Comcast corporate umbrella with Universal theme parks, including Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure and the upcoming Epic Universe.
The pot was stirred further after a published report with comments about the movie by Mark Woodbury, chairman and CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences.
“When I saw it, my first reaction was, ‘This is a theme park waiting to happen,’” he told the New York Times last month.
That’s far short of an official announcement, but Dennis Speigel, founder of International Theme Park Services, had a similar reaction to the film and its park potential.
“I think it’d be phenomenal, off the chart, but I would say that’s probably five years away maybe,” he said. “It would not surprise me if they already have a design underway.”
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is scoping out a location in rural northeast Lake County for a satellite campus where it could train drone pilots and test autonomous flying vehicles.
The new facility would be about 50 miles from the main college campus in Daytona Beach, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.
Kim Schmale, the owner of Deep Woods Ranch in Paisley, has applied to the county to rezone 119 acres north of County Road 42 to allow the development. The property currently has a private, unpaved airstrip, but the college would upgrade it to a paved facility that meets Federal Aviation Standards for the new campus.
The plan includes the construction of a 10,000-square-foot auxiliary hanger plus two additional maintenance hangers. It also features a 2,500-square-foot classroom building with a breakroom and vending area. The site would also include a training facility for drone pilots and a separate autonomous vehicle and AI testing facility, according to the application.
In the project documents, attorney Tara Tedrow described the campus as a low-intensity use that complies with the existing Comprehensive Plan and future land use.