Things To Do In SW Florida

Two brothers, including a Mexican citizen vacationing in Orlando, are being detained in Alligator Alcatraz after a traffic stop in the city earlier this month, their father said Wednesday.

The brothers’ detention has become an international incident, with the Mexican Consulate issuing a warning to its citizens about visiting Orlando and Mexico’s president demanding they be returned home “immediately.”

In an interview at the consulate, Martin Gonzalez said in Spanish he was “desperate to come and help” his sons. “I’m scared to be here, but I have to be here because I have to do something.”

On July 7, Carlos Martin Gonzalez, 26, was driving at the intersection of Hughey Avenue and Robinson Street in Orlando when he was pulled over by the Florida Highway Patrol for having tinted windows and a Mexican license plate, according to an arrest affidavit.

A trooper ran the license plate and found the car had no valid registration in the U.S. or Mexico, the report said. Carlos told the trooper his older brother, 31-year-old Oscar Alejandro Gonzalez, had the registration documents. read more

By Tommy Tindall, NerdWallet

My wife and I hate our washer and dryer. Both appliances still operate, but the washer leaves behind what looks like little specs of mildew every load. The dryer takes three times on high to get a load dry.

All the trade war talk has us wondering if we should nab a deal now while it doesn’t seem so bad.

A lot of people are worried about tariffs, according to the Consumer Confidence Board’s June Consumer Confidence Index. The report said purchasing plans for appliances were slightly up in June, car-buying plans were steady and electronic-buying plans were down.

The affluent — and I’m not saying that’s me — may be leading the charge.

Back in May, 26% of consumers making $125,000 or more indicated that they’d made purchases ahead of potential tariffs. Expected price rises haven’t fully landed, but economists say they are coming.

“Consumers are seeing their way through the uncertainty with trade policies,” National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said in a June prepared statement. “But I expect the inflation associated with tariffs to be felt later this year.” read more

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press Business Writer

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has announced trade deals with Japan and a handful of other Asian countries that will relieve some pressure on companies and consumers from sharply higher tariffs on their exports to the United States.

A deal with China is under negotiation, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying an Aug. 12 deadline might be postponed again to allow more time for talks.

Steep tariffs on U.S. imports of steel and aluminum remain, however, and many other countries, including South Korea and Thailand, have yet to clinch agreements. Overall, economists say the tariffs inevitably will dent growth in Asia and the world.

The deals reached so far, ahead of Trump’s Aug. 1 deadline

Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced a deal Wednesday that will impose 15% tariffs on U.S. imports from Japan, down from Trump’s proposed 25% “reciprocal” tariffs.

It was a huge relief for automakers like Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda, whose shares jumped by double digits in Tokyo. Trump also announced trade deals with the Philippines and Indonesia. After meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., Trump said the import tax on products from his country would be subject to a 19% tariff, down just 1% from the earlier threat of a 20% tariff. read more

Once upon a time, five historic homes made up Honeymoon Row on Lake Cherokee.

Most are gone but one of the remaining homes is listed for sale at $3.75 million, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

“It’s a Queen Anne Victorian and is completely as it was in the front,” says listing agent Tom Buitenhuis with Olde Town Brokers, who owns the house with his husband. “It’s an amazing, beautiful home and the historic part of it is just amazing.”

They bought the place in 2022 and have done a lot of work to bring the five-bedroom, four-bathroom house back to its original 1880s glory.

“I would say most of the original woodwork and everything we left, and we added here and there some modern touches like lighting fixtures and those kinds of things,” he said. “But we still tried to be as honest to the original builder, trying to somehow bring it a little bit to the modern times, but really keeping that original antique feel inside of the house.”

The 6,261-square-foot house has most of the original 19th-century millwork, pocket doors, floors, clawfoot tubs, and more. read more

As SpaceX prepares to send up its 19th Dragon spacecraft with humans on board, the Boeing Starliner — which has only completed half of a crewed mission to date — remains in fix-it mode.

Its next launch is scheduled for no earlier than 2026, and then maybe not even one with crew, according to NASA.

In a press conference for the SpaceX Crew-11 launch earlier this month, NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich updated progress on getting Starliner back up and running as the second of NASA’s two commercial launch providers that are supposed to share duties of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

“We really are working toward a flight as soon as early next year for Starliner,” he said. “And then ultimately, our goal is to get into crew rotation flights with Starliner, and those would start no earlier than the second rotation slot at the end of next year.”

At issue was that when Starliner launched on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) on June 5, 2024 from Cape Canaveral, it developed several helium leaks and thruster failures in the propulsion system before docking with the space station the following day. What was supposed to be an eight-day stay on board stretched into the summer with NASA ultimately electing to fly Starliner home without crew in September. read more