Things To Do In SW Florida

By Tim Henderson, Stateline.org (TNS)

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, McLean County, Illinois, was known mostly as the home of State Farm Insurance in Bloomington and Illinois State University in Normal.

Now, the area illustrates a trend that’s bringing more factories to small cities with lower costs of living: It has thousands of new jobs manufacturing Rivian electric vehicles and a new candy factory that will produce Kinder Bueno and other Ferrero candies.

“Food and electric cars. This is not something we were known for before 2019,” said Patrick Hoban, president of Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council in McLean County.

“We’re primarily an insurance and university town that’s just now seeing a rise in manufacturing. Rivian has ramped up from 300 to 8,000 employees, and I don’t think anyone realized how fast that was going to happen,” Hoban said.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to rebuild American manufacturing, and he won handily in most areas hollowed out by the movement of factory jobs overseas. But the rebound Trump promises has already been underway in many places: McLean County is part of an unusually strong jump in manufacturing jobs between 2019 and 2023 — the first time manufacturing employment has recovered fully from a recession since the 1970s, according to a recent report from the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan public policy organization in Washington, D.C. read more

By KELVIN CHAN, AP Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — If you’re tired of memorizing passwords, then give passkeys a try.

You might have noticed that many online services are now offering the option of using passkeys, a digital authentication method touted as an easier and more secure way to log in. The passkey push started gaining major momentum after Google started accepting them about 18 months ago.

Passkeys are seen as eventual replacements for passwords, but if you’re still not sure what they’re all about, read on:

What are passkeys? And how do they work?

Forget about memorizing an optimized 14 character password consisting of letters, numbers and symbols. Passkeys do away with that because you never need to see them. Instead you are using existing biometrics like your face or fingerprints, digital patterns or PINs to access your accounts.

Passkeys are made up of two parts of a code that only makes sense when they’re combined, kind of like a digital key and padlock. You keep half of the encrypted code, typically stored either in the cloud with a compatible password manager or on a physical security dongle. The other half is stored on the participating apps, services or accounts you want to access. read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in Texas has blocked a new rule from the Biden administration that would have expanded access to overtime pay to millions more salaried workers across the U.S.

In a Friday ruling, U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan sided with the state of Texas and a group of business organizations that argued the Labor Department exceeded its authority when it finalized a rule earlier this year to significantly expand federal overtime eligibility for salaried workers.

Under the federal law, nearly all hourly workers in the U.S. are entitled to overtime pay after 40 hours a week. But many salaried workers are exempt from that requirement — unless they earn below a certain level.

The Labor Department’s now-scuttled rule would have marked the biggest increase to that cap in decades. Employers were required pay overtime to salaried workers who make less than $43,888 a year in certain executive, administrative and professional roles as of July 1 — and that was set to rise to $58,656 next year. read more

By LISA RATHKE

Ben & Jerry’s has sued its parent company Unilever accusing it of silencing the ice cream maker from making statements in support of Palestinians in the Gaza war.

The complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court in New York, says the multinational conglomerate has failed to adhere to its contractual obligations with Ben & Jerry’s by threatening to dismantle the company’s independent board, sue board members, intimidate personnel and censor the company “from publicly voicing support for peace and refugee rights,” the lawsuit states.

London-based Unilever said in a statement that it rejects the claims made by Ben & Jerry’s social mission board. “We will defend our case very strongly,” it said.

Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry’s, a longtime supporter of progressive social causes, in 2000 but distanced itself from the ice cream maker’s decision in 2021 to halt sales in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and contested east Jerusalem.

When Ben & Jerry’s was sold, the companies agreed that the ice cream maker’s independent board would be free to pursue its social mission, including longstanding support for liberal causes on such things as racial justice, climate action, LGBTQ rights and campaign finance reform. But Unilever would have the final word on financial and operational decisions. read more

TALLAHASSEE — Florida had a drop in private-sector employment in October in the wake of hurricanes Helene and Milton, but the state’s unemployment rate remained at 3.3 percent for a seventh consecutive month.

The state Department of Commerce on Friday estimated 369,000 Floridians qualified as out-of-work in October, up 1,000 from September, while private-sector employment fell by 38,200 jobs last month.

The labor force of 11.03 million people decreased by 9,000. Department of Commerce officials attributed the continued shrinking of the labor force — down 31,000 over the past year — to retirements among Baby Boomers and Gen Xers.

The 3.3 percent unemployment rate was up from 3.1 percent in October 2023 but lower than last month’s national rate of 4.1 percent.

Across Florida, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area had the lowest unemployment rate in October at 2.9 percent.

The Panama City and the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin areas were at 3.2 percent. Among other regions, the Jacksonville and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford areas were at 3.5 percent. Pensacola was at 3.6 percent. and the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area was at 3.8 percent. read more