Things To Do In SW Florida

The four crew of the Axiom Space Ax-3 mission that launched from Kennedy Space Center last month made a safe return to Earth with a splashdown off the coast of Daytona Beach on Friday but not before sending a sonic boom across Central Florida.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom that departed from the International Space Station on Wednesday morning landed at 8:30 a.m. off the Florida coast after a 47-hour trip home carrying the Ax-3 crew of Axiom chief astronaut and mission commander Michael López-Alegría along with Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey and European Space Agency project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden. The Dragon also brought back 550 pounds of science research and cargo from the ISS.

Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, @CommanderMLA, @WalterVilladei, @TURKastro, and @astro_marcus pic.twitter.com/9fF0hIT3gK

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 9, 2024

The path brought Dragon across Florida with a window-rattling sonic boom before its two drogue parachutes slowed the spacecraft down, followed by the successful deployment of its four main parachutes for an on-time landing amid calm seas. read more

When he first saw the 77 acres of vacant land in the heart of Orlando’s International Drive corridor, Brock Nicholas knew he had found a unicorn.

As president of Lennar’s Orlando Division, Nicholas had built and sold thousands of vacation homes in Osceola County, but he had never found a location suitable for a resort community so close to the Orange County Convention Center and Universal theme parks.

Everyone from Lennar, to Pulte to Park Square Homes, to Encore Homes, was building resort communities in Kissimmee or the Four Corners area.

“So everything you build out there has to be better than the last thing that got built, and so there’s a little bit of an arms race in the way those communities get developed,” he told GrowthSpotter. “So it just gets more and more expensive.”

Nicholas wanted to find a site that could be developed as a residential-style resort community in a commercial hub to serve groups and family travelers.

The property, at 5120 Del Verde Way just south of Dezerland Park, checked all the boxes. The city of Orlando approved the zoning to allow 70 of the same large-scale vacation homes being built at ChampionsGate, along with 200 attached four- and five-bedroom townhouse-style units and 256 apartment-style units with two and three bedrooms. A massive amenity lies in the middle that’s walkable from every unit. read more

TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers are pondering whether to cut a tax on commercial leases again this year as they scale back sales-tax holidays for consumers.

The House Ways & Means Committee on Thursday reviewed tax-cut concepts, including a possible reduction in the business lease tax, as the House and Senate prepare in the coming weeks to negotiate a tax package.

But committee Chairman Stan McClain, R-Ocala, agreed with Senate Appropriations Chairman Doug Broxson’s assessment that the final tax-cut package won’t reach a $1.3 billion total in the current fiscal year.

“It won’t be as robust,” McClain said after the committee meeting when asked a question using the same phrase.

McClain said his committee will roll out a proposal next week that could include shorter sales-tax holidays than last year, when the state offered two 14-day tax holidays for back-to-school items, two 14-day tax holidays for disaster-preparedness supplies, a three-month tax holiday for recreational items and activities and a seven-day tax holiday for such things as tools. read more

Frontier Airlines is offering an all-you-can-fly summer pass for $399 for a limited time, the Denver-based carrier said Wednesday.

The “Go Wild!” pass offers access to all of Frontier’s U.S. and international destinations from May 1 to Sept. 30.

The promotion applies to destinations across the continental U.S., Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Latin America, said James Fenner, Frontier Airlines’ vice president of pricing and revenue management. The pass is “a great fit” for people who can be flexible with their travel plans, he said.

Reservations can’t be made until the day before domestic flights and 10 days before international flights. For each flight, pass holders pay $0.01 in airfare plus applicable taxes, fees and charges at the time of booking.

Frontier said seats available to pass holders depend on capacity, are limited in quantity and are offered on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last. The passes are available at FlyFrontier.com. Add-ons such as bags and seat assignments can be bought when the flight is booked. read more

Anna Claire Vollers | Stateline.org (TNS)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Help at Home employed nearly 800 caregivers scattered across every county in Alabama, helping 1,100 older and disabled clients with activities such as bathing, housework and meal preparation.

And then suddenly, it was gone.

Alabama’s largest provider of home care services said it abruptly left the state last fall because the state’s “reimbursement and regulatory environment” made it difficult to recruit and retain enough workers, according to Kristen Trenaman, the company’s vice president of public relations. Its departure sent state agencies scrambling to find new caregivers for the people who relied on it.

Help at Home’s departure from Alabama “had a significant effect,” according to Debra Davis, deputy commissioner for the Alabama Department of Senior Services. Davis said her agency worked with former Help at Home clients to find replacements on the fly.

Help at Home, owned by private equity firms Centerbridge Partners and Vistria Group, continues to provide in-home and community-based care in a dozen other states, with 49,000 caregivers and 66,000 monthly clients. It’s been aggressively expanding outside Alabama, acquiring home care companies and posting thousands of job openings on its website. Neither firm responded to Stateline’s request for comment. read more