Things To Do In SW Florida

Perhaps the Space Coast will get a new big rocket player this year after all, as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has rolled its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station where it went vertical for the first time.

The rocket on the pad is the next step for the company’s years-long efforts to get to its first launch, which could be as early as September, according to the Space Force launch manifest.

Standing at more than 320 feet, the company upended the rocket late Wednesday after migrating from its hangar at Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36.

“This milestone represents the first view of the advanced heavy-lift vehicle, which will support a multitude of customer missions and Blue Origin programs, including returning to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program,” according to a company news release.

Mammoth rocket stage for Blue Origin New Glenn goes for sideways ride on Space Coast

The new rocket, being referred to as a “pathfinder vehicle,” is real New Glenn hardware, the company stated. In January, it made its way from Blue Origin’s Merritt Island factory to the pad rolling through and stopping traffic at nearby Kennedy Space Center. read more

Today’s column focuses on two time-critical updates on recent columns. The first is for younger families who are seeking financial aid for college through the FAFSA form. The second is for seniors who want to rethink their Medicare Advantage programs. Time is running out for both.

Millions of students and their parents are still caught up in the FAFSA debacle over applications for financial aid. To “simplify” this required filing using a new formula and an online format, the Department of Education has created an incredible logjam that threatens the entire college acceptance process this spring.

First, the new program got off to a much-delayed start, opening in January instead of this past September. As a result, as of Feb. 1, only 4 million of the 18 million applications expected to be submitted had been completed.

Since colleges determine aid packages based on FAFSA (even for many non-federal grants), the government delay has stalled the entire process, which is traditionally completed by March 1. That’s impossible now. And it means that student decisions on attendance, which are due by May 1, will also be impacted. read more

Proposed changes to a state grant program that provides up to $10,000 for home-hardening improvements would delay, for 60 days after the program resumes taking applications on July 1, consideration of grants for thousands of homeowners already in the system.

The My Safe Florida Home program has been an unexpected boon for 30,809 homeowners previously approved for funding to help them replace their roofs or harden exterior windows and doors with impact-resistant materials.

The program’s matching grant was particularly generous, offering $2 for every $1 spent up to $10,000.

As of Monday, 8,112 grant applicants from 2023 were still awaiting word that they are approved and can commence with their upgrades, according to Devin Galetta, spokesman for the Department of Financial Services, which oversees the program.

By the first week of March, those applicants should receive grant approval notifications, Galetta said this week.

Meanwhile, 59,547 homeowners have had required windstorm mitigation inspections completed but did not or could not submit a grant application before the program stopped accepting them last September, Galetta said. read more

“A dream has to start somewhere,” Donna Fang wrote in response to a Google review.

For Fang, that dream starts in a gas station.

Her small operation, Lan’s Kitchen, opened in a small stall at a Marathon in September and is the hospitality veteran’s entrepreneurial debut.

Fang has spent her life working in the family businesses, food-centric all: From her Korean-born father’s dumpling and noodle shop in her mother’s native Taiwan to her brother’s operation, Yumi Asian, a popular spot in adjacent Avalon Park, where she has been working since it opened in 2019.

“We stayed there through COVID,” she tells me. “We stuck it out and had a lot of amazing supporters in the neighborhood. He’s doing very well. His family is growing. At first, I had just one nephew. Now, I have two, plus a baby niece. One day, they will be working there,” she laughs. “And so I began thinking I am almost 40 and I have not built anything for myself.”

Similarly, Franceella Martin needed something to do after retiring in 2019 from a 33-year career as a civilian employee of the military. After waiting out the pandemic, she worked as a substitute teacher for a year before going full-time with the catering business she’d been offering to friends and family. read more

By JONEL ALECCIA (AP Health Writer)

Smartwatches and rings that claim to measure blood sugar levels for medical purposes without piercing the skin could be dangerous and should be avoided, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Wednesday.

The caution applies to any watch or ring, regardless of brand, that claims to measure blood glucose levels in a noninvasive way, the agency said. The FDA said it has not authorized any such device.

The agency’s notice doesn’t apply to smartwatch apps linked to sensors, such as continuous glucose monitoring systems that measure blood sugar directly.

Roughly 37 million Americans have diabetes. People with the disease aren’t able to effectively regulate their blood sugar because their bodies either don’t make enough of the hormone insulin or they have become resistant to insulin.

To manage the condition, they must regularly check their blood sugar levels with a finger prick blood test or with a sensor that places needles just under the skin to monitor glucose levels continuously. read more