Things To Do In SW Florida

By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — As a child, Heidi Barley watched her family pay for groceries with food stamps. As a college student, she dropped out because she couldn’t afford tuition. In her twenties, already scraping by, she was forced to take a pay cut that shrunk her salary to just $34,000 a year.

But this summer, the 41-year-old hit a milestone that long felt out of reach: She became a millionaire.

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A surging number of everyday Americans now boast a seven-figure net worth once the domain of celebrities and CEOs. But as the ranks of millionaires grow fatter, the significance of the status is shifting alongside perceptions of what it takes to be truly rich. read more

By JOSH BOAK and PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump prepares to announce new tariff increases, the costs of his policies are starting to come into focus for a domestic manufacturing sector that depends on global supply chains, with a new analysis suggesting factory costs could increase by roughly 2% to 4.5%.

“There’s going to be a cash squeeze for a lot of these firms,” said Chris Bangert-Drowns, the researcher at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth who conducted the analysis. Those seemingly small changes at factories with slim profit margins, Bangert-Drowns said, “could lead to stagnation of wages, if not layoffs and closures of plants” if the costs are untenable.

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By YURI KAGEYAMA and MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writers

Wall Street chugged mostly higher in premarket trading Tuesday as Chinese and U.S. officials begin a second day of trade talks and the Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day meeting to make a decision on interest rate policy. The meetings come amid one of the busiest weeks of corporate earnings season and a flurry of economic data.

Futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.2%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher. Nasdaq futures rose 0.4% before the bell.

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By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is expected to leave its short-term interest rate unchanged on Wednesday for the fifth straight meeting, a move that will likely underscore the deep divide between how Chair Jerome Powell and his chief critic, President Donald Trump, see the economy.

The Fed itself, to be sure, is increasingly divided over its next steps, and many economists expect that two members of the Fed’s governing board — both appointed by Trump — could dissent on Wednesday in favor of cutting rates. If so, that would be the first time two governors vote against the chair since 1993.

Even so, the gap between the views of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee, chaired by Powell, and the White House is unusually large. In several areas, Trump’s views sharply contrast with that of the Fed’s leadership, setting up likely clashes for years to come, even after Powell’s term as chair ends in May 2026.

For example, Trump says that because the U.S. economy is doing well, the Fed should cut rates, as if the U.S. is a blue-chip company that should pay less to borrow than a risky start-up. read more

By JOSH FUNK

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific is seeking to buy Norfolk Southern in a $85 billion deal that would create the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S, and potentially trigger a final wave of rail mergers across the country.

The proposed merger, announced Tuesday, would marry Union Pacific’s rail network in the West with Norfolk’s rails that snake across Eastern states.

The nation was first linked by rail in 1869, when a golden railroad spike was driven in Utah to symbolize the connection of East and West Coasts. Yet no single entity has controlled that coast-to-coast passage that so many businesses rely on.

The railroads said the tie-up would streamline deliveries of raw materials and goods across the country by eliminating several days of delays when shipments are handed off between railroads. The AP first reported the merger talks earlier this month a week before the railroads confirmed the discussions last week.

Any deal would be closely scrutinized by antitrust regulators that have set a very high bar for railroad deals after previous consolidation in the industry led to massive backups and snarled traffic. read more