Things To Do In SW Florida

Residents in rural east Orange County celebrated Wednesday the dramatic early morning defeat of the latest mega-development proposing to build hundreds of homes on a former cattle ranch in the environmentally sensitive Econ River basin.

Many, wearing their red “Stop Urban Sprawl” t-shirts from previous fights, endured a marathon Orange County commission meeting Tuesday to cheer the 4-3 vote against requesting a land-use change from state authorities. But some were convinced they haven’t seen the last such proposal for the area.

Developers were asking the board for “transmittal” of their plan, a mandatory step in Florida’s process to make large-scale land-use changes and, in this case, to turn the ranchlands into Sustanee, as the developer had dubbed the project of nearly 1,800 homes.

Commissioner Emily Bonilla, whose east Orange district includes the former Rybolt ranch on which Sustanee would sit as well as the rural homesteads opposed to the project, spent more than an hour of a debate that lasted until 1 a.m. citing land-use rules and her legal basis for voting no. read more

LAKE BUENA VISTA — Bridget Ziegler attended her first meeting Wednesday of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Disney World oversight board in person since a sex scandal involving her and her husband made national headlines, costing him his job as Florida’s GOP chairman.

Asked after the meeting about speculation she would resign from the Disney board, Ziegler said, “I’m here.”

Ziegler, a Sarasota resident, is one of five Republicans DeSantis named to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s Board of Supervisors in February as part of his feud with Disney. A co-founder of the conservative education group Moms for Liberty, she also serves on the Sarasota County School Board.

Ziegler’s husband, Christian Ziegler, was ousted earlier this month as chairman of the Florida Republican Party amid a police investigation into rape allegations.

Florida GOP dumps chairman Ziegler amid sexual assault investigation

Sarasota police have since cleared Ziegler of rape, concluding that a cellphone video showed the Oct. 2 sexual encounter was “likely consensual.” But police recommended prosecutors charge Ziegler with illegally video recording the sexual encounter with his accuser. The woman told police Ziegler recorded her without her knowledge. read more

Erin McCarthy | (TNS) The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — When Imani Porter received the quote for her car insurance renewal in December, she was flabbergasted.

Geico, which had insured her and her fiancé’s Honda CR-V for the past year and a half, was going to charge the couple about $1,000 for the next six-month period.

“I did the math from a year prior and I noticed it went up by 35%,” said Porter, a 27-year-old project manager in the finance industry. “No reasoning. We didn’t have any accidents or tickets. We never even called them. The only communication we had with them was to pay our bills.”

Porter said she assumed the jump was due to the city’s surge in car thefts and reports of tires being stolen off Hondas in her Northern Liberties neighborhood.

When she called Geico, a customer service representative could only cite inflation.

Car insurance rates have actually outpaced inflation. Premiums increased nearly 20% over the past year, far higher than the broader rate of 3%, according to the latest federal data. U.S. consumers pay on average $2,542 a year for auto insurance, Bankrate found in its January report, with drivers shelling out anywhere from $62 to $212 per month depending on their level of coverage. read more

The James Beard Foundation announced its 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards semifinalists today, and the Orlando culinary community has several horses in this year’s race to the June ceremony in Chicago.

Chefs Jennifer Bañagale and Mark Berdin of Kadence and chef Henry Moso of Kabooki Sushi were nominated in the category of Best Chef: South and Kaya, led by co-owners general manager Jamilyn Salonga Bailey and chef Lordfer Lalicon, is in the running for Best New Restaurant.

Filipino spaghetti is a sweet and savory comfort-food staple

Bailey, whose exhilaration may have reversed the effects of the acupuncture session she was in when her silenced phone began blowing up, was as emotional as her partner upon learning of the nod.

“I’m excited. Thankful. Humbled. Proud of our team,” she said. “You work so hard to open a restaurant … so this is a real reminder that we’re taking the right steps, that we’re on the right path, and we’re just going to keep pushing forward.”

It’s no less thrilling for Moso, the veteran among this year’s crop of nominees. read more

By Alex Rosenberg | NerdWallet

About 41% of Original Medicare beneficiaries had Medicare Supplement Insurance, or Medigap, in 2021, according to a February 2023 report summarizing enrollment data from AHIP, a national health insurance trade association. For the other 59%, Medicare has some “gaps” that could be costly.

“There are many gaps in Medicare that a beneficiary has to pay if they don’t have a Medigap,” Kelli Jo Greiner, Minnesota State Health Insurance Assistance Program director, said in an email. “This can add up to be thousands of dollars per year.”

While it’s not mandatory, you might want to purchase a Medigap policy to fill some of the gaps in Medicare Part A and/or Part B. (Medigap doesn’t work with Medicare Advantage policies.)

Deductibles

Medicare Part A has a deductible of $1,632 in 2024, which you owe before Medicare starts to pay for inpatient hospital care.

“Just one hospital stay, you’re going to be paying that $1,632 deductible — so, really fast, your costs can add up,” says Joanne Giardini-Russell, CEO of Giardini Medicare, an independent insurance agency. read more