Things To Do In SW Florida

The world’s largest cruise ship welcomed the man that many would say is the world’s best soccer player to officially christen the vessel in Miami with just days left before its first voyage with paying customers.

Lionel Messi took the role of godfather for Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas during a ceremony Tuesday within its marquee new feature called the AquaDome, a massive steel-and-glass structure at the top of the massive ship.

Speaking in Spanish, he gave the ship the traditional christening blessing as a massive champagne bottle was slung and shattered against the hull of the 20-deck, 250,800-gross-ton, 1,198-foot-long cruise ship.

Messi, who now stars on Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami squad, brought his talents to South Florida last year after years starring for Spanish club Barcelona, French club Paris Saint-Germain and leading his home country of Argentina to a World Cup title in 2022. He has been awarded the Ballon d’Or as the year’s best soccer player a record eight times. read more

Orange County leaders signed off Tuesday on a much-debated spending plan for the county’s lucrative tourist tax, pledging over $600 million to upgrade Camping World Stadium and the Kia Center while handing a reprieve to the Visit Orlando marketing agency, which had been threatened with deep cuts.

“I believe we have ended up in a good place,” said County Mayor Jerry Demings, whose spending preferences were detailed in an eleventh-hour memo to Orange County commissioners and adopted mostly intact by the 6-1 vote.

Commissioner Emily Bonilla cast the lone no.

She had favored chopping Visit Orlando’s 30% share of Tourist Development Tax revenue by five percentage points. That approach would have foisted cuts on the not-for-profit marketing organization that would grow even deeper if tourist numbers jump as expected in the coming years when Universal Orlando opens its newest and largest theme park, Epic Universe.

Bonilla’s favored approach appeared for weeks to have the consensus support of her fellow commissioners, but Demings had a different idea. read more

The state appears headed toward a purchase of the 1,314-acre Yarborough ranch near the Econlockhatchee River in east Seminole, county leaders said Tuesday, part of a move to protect it permanently from development under the Florida Forever conservation program.

“All indications are that we will be approved,” County Manager Darren Gray said in updating commissioners regarding the county’s application for the estimated $35 million purchase price. The ranch is considered a key missing piece of a wildlife corridor running the length of the state.

With that news in hand, commissioners dropped a proposal to give the Yarborough family $3.4 million to stave off a sale to developers of the property east of Snow Hill Road and south of Old Mims Road. The money would have been a sort-of down payment for Seminole County to purchase the land itself if the state opted out.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet are expected in March to consider Florida Forever’s recommended list of land purchases for conservation, which includes the Yarborough Ranch property. read more

Anna Claire Vollers | (TNS) Stateline.org

Peggy Malone walks the quiet halls of Crozer-Chester Medical Center, the Pennsylvania hospital where she’s worked as a registered nurse for the past 35 years, with the feeling she’s drifting through a ghost town.

The sprawling hospital serves the diverse and densely packed Philadelphia suburb of Upland, and a large proportion of its patients earn low incomes. Malone remembers a time when the hospital, once the largest in the county with nearly 500 licensed beds, was such a hub that neighbors would come to the cafeteria just to have dinner.

Now many of the units sit empty. Gone are the pediatric unit, the transplant program, the surgical residency and the detox program where Malone used to work. Staff has been reduced and supplies are scarce.

Patients’ rooms in the main building haven’t had television since the cable was disconnected last month, she said.

Malone has grown accustomed to telling this story over and over to reporters, to researchers, even to Congress in recent years. Her community — her hospital — is a cautionary tale for what can happen when private equity comes to town. read more

By Kimberly Palmer | NerdWallet

For Ambus Hunter, what started as a fun trip to Las Vegas when he was 25 soon turned into a gambling addiction. “I got consumed with the vibes,” he says, recalling how he loved the feeling of winning at first. He began gambling back home in the Midwest and on business trips, playing roulette whenever possible. He burned through thousands of dollars of savings before realizing he needed to find a way to stop.

Now fully financially recovered at 37, Hunter works as an accredited financial counselor in Baltimore, helping other people recover their finances that have been damaged by problematic gambling. “I learned a lot about myself and my relationship with money,” he says, lessons he helps others apply to their own lives and budgets.

Gambling is a growing problem among young adults, according to experts, largely because sports betting and other forms of online wagering are so easily accessible. “More and more youth are becoming vulnerable to gambling and problem gambling. It’s a social contagion,” says Dorothy Nuckols, who teaches personal finance for the University of Maryland Extension in Central Maryland. read more