Things To Do In SW Florida

Over two decades ago Jack Facente moved to his rural home on five acres in St. Cloud because he needed space and privacy for his milking business. Look at members of this herd and you’ll see why — they’ve got fangs.

In a corner of his backyard in 2008 he created a state-of-the-art facility for 140 serpents, mostly coral snakes, housing them in grey plastic cubbies stacked nine high. Facente, 75, extracts their poison, then sells it to create antivenom to treat snake-bite victims.

“Who wants hundreds of venomous snakes next door to them?” Facente asked. “That’s the biggest reason I came out here in the middle of nowhere so I wouldn’t have to deal with all that.”

But two planned road projects threaten to upend his business and the lifestyles of many of his neighbors — underscoring the price of progress in a fast-growing county where many longtime residents nevertheless cling to the way they’ve lived for decades.

The projects — one a 15- to 20-mile tolled highway by the Central Florida Expressway Authority known as the Northeast Connector and the other a roughly six-mile road by Osceola County called the Sunbridge Parkway Extension — seek to connect critical thoroughfares in an area repeatedly named Florida’s fastest-growing by state officials and census data. read more

An American company became the first to perform a perfect moon landing early Sunday when Firefly Aerospace sent its Blue Ghost lander down to the surface.

“You all stuck the landing. We’re on the moon,” came the callout from Firefly chief engineer Will Coogan followed by whoops and claps among the company’s mission control at its Cedar Park, Texas headquarters during a live stream of the mission.

The lander touched down at 3:34 a.m. after running through a powered descent 12 minutes out bringing the lander into a vertical position and slowing down from 3,800 mph to about 90 mph. The main engine then shut down and the vehicle’s reaction control thrusters slow it for its final controlled descent.

The mission control callouts immediately reported sensors were reading “lunar gravity and it is stable” followed by the declaration of success.

“They’re just fired up right now in the mission control room,” said Firefly CEO Jason Kim minutes after landing. “They were just pent up, holding it all in, because they were calm and collected and cool the whole time. Every single thing was clockwork, even when we landed, and then after we saw everything was stable and upright, they were fired up. We got some moon dust on our boots.” read more

By Michelle Clardie, Bankrate.com

Despite attempts at financial equality, gender continues to impact nearly every aspect of personal finance, including earning, spending, investing and consumer debt.

Men on average earn more than women, allowing them to spend, save, borrow and invest more. Women tend to be more cautious with money, which makes sense since they have less of it. Data is not as robust for transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals, but emerging research shows a pattern of even greater financial strain for this marginalized group as they work to overcome prejudices and early setbacks caused by a lack of financial support that cisgender peers typically receive from family.

Whatever your gender, being aware of the role gender plays in personal finance can help you better understand your financial hurdles and those others are facing.

General differences in the finances by gender

Statistics only tell a small part of the story regarding finances by gender. Chromosomes, sex and gender expression do not affect someone’s ability to manage money, build good credit, use debt responsibly or invest for the future. However, external factors and societal pressure assigned to gender roles do have a financial impact. read more

The journey to building a larger Oviedo police headquarters has involved years of delays, discourse, voter approval of millions of dollars for construction then rejection of city requests for millions more in back-to-back referendums.

But earlier this week city leaders took a major step toward expanding the long-cramped police station.

Council members Monday approved building a 10,000-square-foot annex next to police headquarters off Alexandria Boulevard for an estimated $9.7 million.

“It’s nice to see something come to fruition,” said Chief Dale Coleman, who has long complained space is tight in the current 11,000-square-foot public safety building for the fast-growing Seminole County city.

Oviedo’s Police Department has 82 employees, including 73 sworn officers — nearly double when the headquarters was built in 1990. As a result, officers and detectives often must share cubicles. There’s also no storage space for evidence and or an area for K-9 police dog units.

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TALLAHASSEE — A 2024 Florida law aimed at keeping children off of social-media platforms came under scrutiny Friday, as lawyers for the state told a federal judge the measure is addressing a “mental-health crisis” and attorneys for industry groups argued the restrictions violate First Amendment rights.

The law, in part, seeks to prevent children under age 16 from opening social-media accounts on certain platforms — though it would allow parents to give consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to have accounts. Children under 14 would be prohibited from having accounts.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice, whose members include tech giants such as Google and Meta Platforms, filed a lawsuit in October, contending the law — spearheaded by then-House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast — violates speech rights and that parents should make decisions about children’s social-media use.

Lawyers for the state argue that, among other things, the industry groups do not have legal standing to challenge the law and that its restrictions regulate commercial activity — not speech. read more