Things To Do In SW Florida

It’s that sentimental time of year when folks drag out their tattered stockings, beloved ornaments and other remembrances of holidays seasons past.

Theme park fans have annual favorites too, like Candlelight Processional at Epcot, “O Wondrous Night” stage show at SeaWorld Orlando and the appearance of Max the dog during “Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular” at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

But Central Florida attractions have rolled out new activities for our holiday inspection. After all, old faves have to start somewhere. Here’s a sampler of fresh fare, right out of the oven.

Ball game

The Epcot International Festival of the Holidays has expanded to include an 8-foot-tall gingerbread Spaceship Earth. And it twinkles. It took 240 pounds of honey dough to make the sphere, Disney says, and there are six different sizes of triangles involved.

The structure is set up inside CommuniCore Hall, another new Epcot hotspot, where visitors also can buy a SSE-inspired triangular piece of gingerbread at the Experimental Prototype Cookies of Tomorrow counter. They go for $10. read more

Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ new CEO Frank Santos vowed Tuesday to sustain the vision of the company’s late founder, ruling out a sale of the business and pledging to continue its much-lauded commitment to charitable giving.

Santos, a longtime associate of founder Harris Rosen, will take the leadership reins. His promotion comes about a week after Rosen’s death.

“He left me with pretty clear directions of what the future would look like,” said Santos, who worked with Rosen for nearly four decades. “We have no intention, and definitely not under my watch would any of our properties be sold.”

Rosen’s charitable foundations will also be fully supported, Santos announced.

Rosen died Nov. 25 at the age of 85. The hospitality titan opened his first hotel in 1974, purchasing a 256-room Quality Inn on International Drive. Over the decades, Rosen’s empire grew to become Florida’s largest independent hotel chain with seven properties and more than 6,300 rooms. The company employs more than 4,000 people. read more

Linda Bell | (TNS) Bankrate.com

Remember that classic image of a smiling couple with two kids, a dog, and a house surrounded by a white picket fence? It symbolized homeownership — a desirable and highly attainable aspect of the American Dream. But today, that picture-perfect vision has become a badly faded photograph.

“I don’t mean to be overly dramatic, but this housing crisis has shattered the American Dream for a lot of middle- and low-income families,” says Sarah Dickerson, assistant research professor and research economist at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. “Middle-class households can afford a much smaller share of available homes on the market than they could have prior to the pandemic.”

Is Dickerson being overly dramatic? I don’t think so. Not only is the number of first-time homebuyers at a record low, but home affordability is also the worst it’s been since the 1980s. And the long-term consequences can be grave. Homeownership is about more than having a place where people can rest their heads. When middle-class families can’t afford to buy a home, they miss out on a chance to build wealth and stability for themselves and future generations. read more

By MARC LEVY and JOSH BOAK

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is underscoring his intention to block the purchase of U.S. Steel by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp., and he’s pledging to use tax incentives and tariffs to strengthen the iconic American steelmaker.

Trump had vowed early in the presidential campaign that he would “instantaneously” block the deal, and he reiterated that sentiment in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday night.

“I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company” and will use tax incentives and tariffs to make U.S. Steel “Strong and Great Again, and it will happen FAST!” he wrote.

“As President,” he continued, “I will block this deal from happening. Buyer Beware!!!”

President Joe Biden, like Trump, also opposes Nippon Steel’s purchase of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel. Biden’s White House in September said that it had yet to see a report from the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which was reviewing the transaction for national security concerns. The committee, which is chaired by the treasury secretary and includes other Cabinet members, can recommend that the president block a transaction, and federal law gives the president that power. read more

By MAE ANDERSON, AP Business Writer

Small businesses are bracing for stiff tariffs that President-elect Donald Trump has proposed as one of his first actions when he takes office.

Trump has proposed importers pay a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, as one of his first executive orders. He previously floated a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the United States imports.

This means small businesses may end up paying more for goods and services. Small business owners say they’re waiting to see what final form the tariffs take, but are bracing for higher costs that they may in turn need to pass on to consumers.

Laurel Orley, cofounder and CEO of Nashville-based sprouted nut snack company Daily Crunch, said at first she didn’t think the tariffs would affect her business, because she doesn’t import very much. But she realized the tariffs will have a ripple effect. For example, she had planned on sourcing bags from China to save 5 cents a bag. But with the tariffs, she might need to scuttle that plan. read more