Things To Do In SW Florida

The launch of Epic Universe rocketed Orange County’s tourist-tax collections to the highest level ever for the month of May.

The tax brought in nearly $30 million for the month, about $1.6 million more than the previous best for May, set last year. The 5.7 percent, year-over-year revenue increase came even though the eye-popping new theme park opened May 22, just ten days from the end of the month.

“I’m excited to see what the June numbers are,” said Comptroller Phil Diamond, whose office tracks the revenues generated by the 6% surcharge on the cost of a hotel room and other short-term rental lodging. “That’s going to be the first full month of Epic,” he said.

Tourism figures tend to slide in May, a month sandwiched between Spring Break and peak summer travel periods.

The monthly TDT report lags about five weeks behind hotel-tax collections. June figures will be released in early August.

Epic Universe opens, and Harry Potter ride quickly draws a crowd (and a 300-minute wait)

Diamond has noted new theme parks have historically boosted TDT collections. read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Just over three months ago, President Donald Trump unveiled his most sweeping volley of tariffs yet — holding up large charts from the White House Rose Garden to outline new import taxes that the U.S. would soon slap on goods from nearly every country in the world.

Related Articles

• 
  Biden’s former doctor asks to delay testimony to House panel, citing patient privilege concerns

• 
  Migrants deported from US to Salvadoran prison remain under US control, Salvadoran officials tell UN

• 
  RFK Jr. promoted a food company he says will make Americans healthy. Their meals are ultraprocessed

• 
  Elon Musk says he’s formed a new political party. But it’s not clear if he actually has

• 
  Temporary status to be removed from roughly 80,000 Hondurans, Nicaraguans after 25 years in US

But in line with much of Trump’s on-again, off-again trade policy playbook, the bulk of those “Liberation Day” levies in April were postponed just hours after they took effect — in a 90-day suspension that arrived in an apparent effort to quell global market panic and facilitate country-by-country negotiations. At that time, the administration set a lofty goal of reaching 90 trade deals in 90 days. read more

While a Florida garbage company denies “intentional wrongdoing,” they’re shelling out $1.4 million to settle a lawsuit that alleges management allowed Black and Haitian-American workers to be hit with racist slurs and imagery from co-workers.

Waste Pro of Florida is based out of Longwood, but the accusations in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit involve what did or didn’t happen at Waste Pro’s Jacksonville office, 2940 Strickland St. Specifically, the lawsuit in Jacksonville federal court concerns what did and didn’t happen to welder Fednol Pierre after he transferred there in October 2021.

The $1.4 million will go to a group that includes Pierre, 25 co-workers named in the consent decree and any of Waste Pro’s Black and/or Haitian-American Jacksonville employees “who were subjected to a hostile work environment based on their race, color, or national origin, from February 2021 through Dec. 31, 2023.”

The consent decree also requires Waste Pro to hire a racial discrimination expert as a compliance officer to investigate race discrimination complaints and claims of retaliation for such complaints in Waste Pro’s Northeast region for the next 18 months and oversee those investigations throughout the company for the next three years. read more

By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday set a 25% tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea, as well as new tariff rates on Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos and Myanmar, all of which would go into effect on Aug. 1.

Trump provided notice by posting letters on Truth Social that were addressed to the leaders of the various countries. The letters warned them to not retaliate by increasing their own import taxes, or else the Trump administration would further increase tariffs.

“If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge,” Trump wrote in the letters to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.

The letters were not the final word from Trump on tariffs, so much as another episode in a global economic drama in which he has placed himself at the center. His moves have raised fears that economic growth would slow to a trickle, if not make the U.S. and other nations more vulnerable to a recession. But Trump is confident that tariffs are necessary to bring back domestic manufacturing and fund the tax cuts he signed into law last Friday. read more

The endless loop that is the soundtrack of “it’s a small world” is getting a new verse in the Magic Kingdom attraction.

The sounds of the finale of the gentle boat ride will change July 17 to add a verse written by Richard Sherman, who died in May 2024 at age 95. Richard Sherman and his brother Robert Sherman, who died in 2012, wrote the original lyrics along with several other Disney classics.

The new lines retain the global unity of the original “It’s a Small World (After All).”

Soon to be heard in the finale scene: “Mother Earth unites us in heart and mind / And the love we give makes us humankind / Through our vast wondrous land / When we stand hand in hand / It’s a small world after all.”

According to the official Disney Parks Blog, Gregg Sherman, son of Richard, said the new verse is meant to “celebrate that there’s more that unites us than divides us, and reinforce the message of that song.”

The verse was presented in November as part of “The Last Verse,” a three-minute Disney film now available on Disney+ streaming service and other online outlets. In February, the company announced that it would be incorporated in the Disneyland “small world” as part of the California park’s 70th anniversary. read more