Things To Do In SW Florida

For Florida-oriented rail enthusiasts with Midwestern ties, Amtrak is forming a new route that will offer leisurely trips between Orlando and Chicago that last just under two days.

The new daily “Floridian” service, which is scheduled to kick off Nov. 10, will give passengers a single seat ride through 10 states, with trains traveling from Miami to Orlando and Tampa and then up the Atlantic seaboard to Washington, D.C., moving through southwest Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, and hooking westward through Ohio, Indiana and into Chicago Union Station.

All told, 45 stations will be served, and passengers will be able to bypass the crowded metropolitan areas of New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

The route essentially combines two existing interstate segments — the Silver Star between Miami and New York, and the Capitol Limited between Chicago and Washington. It’s being offered as Amtrak diverts equipment away from a protracted tunnel rehabilitation project in New York. The Floridian will continue for as long as the project lasts, railroad officials said. read more

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: I’m an American Airlines frequent flier, and I recently booked an award ticket with Japan Airlines, an American partner. The flight was from New Delhi to Haneda Airport, then on to San Francisco.

A couple of days before my flight, I called American Airlines to upgrade the Japan-to-United-States leg of my trip to business class. Unfortunately, the agent canceled my entire ticket without telling me. I got off the phone thinking that my ticket was still valid.

When I contacted Japan Airlines the day before my flight to check on my vegetarian meal, a representative told me that there was no reservation for me. I called American Airlines and spoke with a supervisor, who reviewed the notes of my call. She said the agent had written that I had canceled my flight. This, of course, was not true.

The supervisor tried to find me a ticket, but the only one available was a full-fare business class ticket for $3,548. I booked the ticket, but I would like American Airlines to refund it, since this was their mistake. A few months ago, American Airlines promised to review my request, but it hasn’t gotten back to me and no longer responds to my emails. Can you help? read more

For more than a year, the nearly pristine red brick and metal roof of College Park’s Incarnation Catholic Church on Edgewater Drive has camouflaged the charred remains of the sanctuary, which was burned by an arsonist last summer and now must be torn down and rebuilt.

When Father William Holiday arrived at work the morning of June 25, 2023 to prepare for mass, he didn’t notice the damage at first. He had missed the call the night before from the Orlando Fire Department. Even when he saw the caution tape across the front door, his only concern was that parishioners would have to use the side entrance.

“Well, then I went inside, and it was, like wow. I had absolutely no clue,” he told GrowthSpotter. Investigators determined that the arsonist piled cushions on the altar and doused them with an accelerant before setting them on fire. They started a second fire on the second-floor choir balcony, leaving the speakers in pieces and the organ a molten mess.

Eight fire engines responded to the emergency call, busting through the stained glass windows and punching a hole in the roof to douse the flames. Holiday said the structural damage from the intense heat, smoke and water was too extensive to make the building worth repairing. read more

The current exemption on the federal (lifetime) gift tax and estate tax are set to sunset at the end of 2025.

Unless Congress acts to forestall the sunset, the exemption will revert to regulations as they stood in 2019.

The exemption, which is $13.61 million per person in 2024, will reset to $5 million plus adjustment for inflation

For many families, that change will have a significant tax impact unless changes are made to their estate plans. If the size of your estate is significant, you should discuss with your estate attorney whether you should consider alternatives such as annual gifts to members of your family, or establishing trusts that will minimize the estate tax or eliminate the tax completely.

Under the current regulations, you are allowed to gift up to $18,000 per year to an unlimited number of individuals without incurring any gift tax. The current yearly limit is expected to be approximately $19,000 in 2025.The individual you select for the gift does not have to be your relative. Your spouse may also make a gift to the same individual, meaning that a married couple can make gifts each year up to $36,000 per year to a given recipient without triggering the gift tax. read more