Things To Do In SW Florida

By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homeowners eager to sell may have to wait a while before a buyer comes along.

As of April, the U.S. housing market had nearly 34% more sellers than buyers shopping for a home, according to an analysis by Redfin.

Aside from April 2020, when the pandemic brought the economy and home sales activity to a standstill, there haven’t been this few buyers in the market for a home before, based on records that date back to 2013.

The trend is good news for home shoppers — if they can afford to buy at current mortgage rates and prices, which are still rising nationally, albeit more slowly.

Fewer buyers means less competition for home listings and more pressure on sellers to dial back their asking price and make other concessions to help get a deal done. That’s a stark reversal from just a few years ago, when it wasn’t uncommon for homeowners to receive offers well above their asking price from multiple home shoppers.

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By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Business Writer

Snack food maker Mondelez International is suing the Aldi supermarket chain, alleging the packaging for Aldi’s store-brand cookies and crackers “blatantly copies” Mondelez products like Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins and Oreos.

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Illinois, Chicago-based Mondelez said Aldi’s packaging was “likely to deceive and confuse customers” and threatened to irreparably harm Mondelez and its brands. The company is seeking monetary damages and a court order that would stop Aldi from selling products that infringe on its trademarks.

Aldi didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. The U.S. branch of Aldi, which is based in Batavia, Illinois, was named in the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Mondelez displayed side-by-side photos of multiple products. Aldi’s Thin Wheat crackers, for example, come in a gold box very similar to Mondelez’s Wheat Thins. Aldi’s chocolate sandwich cookies and Oreos both have blue packaging. The supermarket’s Golden Round crackers and Mondelez’s Ritz crackers are packaged in red boxes. read more

TALLAHASSEE — Federal immigration agents descended on a construction site for new apartment buildings near Florida State University on Thursday morning, rounding up dozens of workers as distraught family members, friends and colleagues watched them be questioned and detained by authorities.

At least 30 people were arrested, zip-tied and held inside a white bus with barred windows, waiting to be transported to an unknown facility. Some of the detained workers spoke to reporters through the grated windows, identifying themselves as Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Mexicans and Hondurans. One of the detainees said he had permanent residency in the United States.

“They treat us like criminals,” a detained worker from Mexico who identified himself as Geronimo told a Miami Herald reporter in Spanish. “Ni modo,” he said lamenting that the work they do in the U.S. is not appreciated. “We are now going to go put that energy back into our country.”

The immigration operation — led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the help of Florida Highway Patrol — is the latest example of how the Trump administration and the state are partnering to accelerate deportations in Florida. Since President Donald Trump took office, Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed local and state law enforcement agencies to join the president’s immigration crackdown, and helped in a statewide sweep that led to hundreds of arrests. read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street closed its winning week and month with a quiet Friday following a mixed set of profit reports from Gap, Ulta Beauty and other companies navigating the challenges created by President Donald Trump’s on-and-off tariffs.

The S&P 500 finished the day nearly unchanged after edging down by less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 54 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%.

Gap weighed on the market even though the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

The company behind Banana Republic and Old Navy fell 20.2% after saying tariffs on imports from China and other countries could add up to $300 million to its costs this fiscal year. It has strategies set to mitigate up to half of that before it hits its profits.

This week and month on Wall Street have been dominated by questions about what will happen with Trump’s tariffs, which investors worry could grind the economy into a recession, slash companies’ profits and layer even more challenges on households already sick of inflation. read more

TALLAHASSEE — As Florida leaders call for moving the nation’s space-agency headquarters to Brevard County, Space Florida is launching a study about how NASA and U.S. Space Force operations could be merged at Cape Canaveral.

Space Florida President and CEO Robert Long on Wednesday told board members of the state aerospace agency that a “unified model” would support the ongoing growth of commercial space operations and ensure government missions can be more efficient and sustainable.

“We think that it’s time that we ask ourselves as a nation, what is the optimal model to carry the world’s most active and capable spaceport into the future and enable America to continue to lead in space,” Long said.

How that looks will be up to a “new Cape Canaveral Spaceport master plan,” which Long said will include participation from NASA and the Space Force.

Under Acting Administrator Janet Petro, NASA is looking to consolidate or relocate operations to streamline the organization.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has supported moving NASA’s headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Florida, with backers saying it would put leaders closer to the agency’s operations. The idea has drawn support from most members of Florida’s congressional delegation, including through proposed legislation, the Consolidating Aerospace Programs Efficiently at Canaveral (CAPE Canaveral) Act, which calls for placing the headquarters in Brevard County. read more