Things To Do In SW Florida

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market added to its record as Wall Street closed out a second straight winning month. The S&P 500 rose 0.5% Monday in its first trading after completing a stunning rebound from its springtime sell-off of roughly 20%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.5%. Oracle helped lead the way after saying it’s off to a strong start in its fiscal year. Banks were also solid in their first trading after the Federal Reserve said they’re financially strong enough to survive a downturn in the economy. Treasury yields eased in the bond market.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are adding to their records on Monday as Wall Street nears the finish of a second straight winning month.

The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in its first trading after completing a stunning rebound from its springtime sell-off of roughly 20%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 218 points, or 0.5%, as of 11:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher. read more

Two more property insurers have been approved to serve Florida’s beleaguered homeowner market, the state Office of Insurance Regulation announced.

The office on Friday identified the two new companies in a news release as Incline National Insurance Company, headquartered in Texas, and Florida Insurance and Reinsurance Company, a Florida-domiciled company that Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky said will primarily offer coverage for condominiums and condo associations.

More companies will be announced in the “near future,” Yaworsky was quoted in the release as saying.

Related Articles

• 
  National Signing Day: Orlando area football players secure spots with college teams

The two new carriers are the 13th and 14th to enter Florida’s market since lawmakers enacted reforms in 2022 and 2023 that have decreased financial incentives for policyholders, repair contractors, roofing companies and plaintiffs attorneys to file what insurers contend are “frivolous lawsuits.”

The others are Apex Star Reciprocal Exchange, Mangrove Property Insurance Company, ASI Select Insurance Corp., Trident Reciprocal Exchange, Ovation Home Insurance Exchange, Manatee Insurance Exchange, Condo Owners Reciprocal Exchange, Orange Insurance Exchange, Orion180 Select Insurance Company, Orion180 Insurance Company, Mainsail Insurance Company, and Tailrow Insurance Exchange read more

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, Staff Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Jeremy Didier had taken her son to a psychologist for a possible ADHD evaluation when she spotted an article about women with the condition. As she read it in the waiting room, she thought to herself: They’re describing me.

“Lots of risk-taking, lots of very impulsive behavior growing up,” Didier said. As the magazine described, she’d excelled in school but gotten in trouble for talking too much. She’d amassed too many speeding tickets as an adult. She turned to her husband and said, “I think I might have ADHD.”

Didier is now the board president of Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a nonprofit advocacy and support organization. Her realization mirrors the experiences of other adults who wonder if they have ADHD after a child’s diagnosis.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by inattention, hyperactivity or a combination of the two. Common symptoms such as trouble concentrating or sitting still can create challenges at work. read more

Enzian Theater, which marked its 40th anniversary in February, has hired a new executive director — its first in more than five years.

The nonprofit arts organization in Maitland will announce today that Wade Neal will take up the post on July 10.

Neal previously served as assistant executive director at The Grand Cinema and Tacoma Film
Festival in Washington state. Here, he also will lead the Florida Film Festival, which the Enzian produces each year.

“I’m just completely honored to join this organization,” said Neal in a phone interview from his Tacoma home, where he was packing for the move to Central Florida with his wife Kathlyn and their two dogs.

His interest in the organization was piqued by its unusual name; Neal had seen the word “Enzian” on the nametag of the theater’s programming director, Matthew Curtis, as the men crossed paths over the years while scouting movies at the annual Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

“What is the Enzian? I must find out,” Neal recalled thinking. “It didn’t take long to find out it had world-class programming and was so important to its community.” read more

Lake County commissioners called the first-ever Agricultural Lands Workshop to help provide solutions for preserving the county’s rich farming history. But instead they got an earful from growers and farmers about the challenges that have forced dozens of families to sell their land for development.

“Labor is the biggest challenge for us because we’re very specialized and labor-intensive in our farming,” Austin Spivey, production manager at Cherrylake Farm in Groveland, said. “I think it takes one person per five acres for a whole year to perform all the different tasks. We have 720 acres, so that’s like 143 people we have to employ just to produce the crop, and that doesn’t get it to market, doesn’t get it to the loading dock, doesn’t sell it.”

Spivey said Cherrylake has been innovative in looking to automate and mechanize production, but is struggling with securing domestic labor for the farm.

Groveland’s Cherrylake Tree Farm has relied on migrant workers with temporary H2-A visas during the farm’s busy season. Tom Frost of TG Frost Land and Cattle said there are plenty of hands willing to work his cattle ranch, but a lack of affordable land is putting a major strain on the business. read more