Things To Do In SW Florida

By FATIMA HUSSEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The budget bill championed by President Donald Trump could complicate next year’s tax filing season after the IRS lost one-quarter of its employees through staffing cuts, an independent watchdog reported Wednesday.

The IRS workforce has fallen from 102,113 workers to 75,702 over the past year, according to the latest National Taxpayer Advocate report to Congress. The report Wednesday offered the first official numbers on the IRS job losses associated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Most of the employees took the “fork in the road” resignation offer from DOGE rather than waiting to get laid off.

Some of the findings from the report:

Taxpayers will likely see effects of staffing reductions

The Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy led to a mass exodus of probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protections and were offered buyouts through a “deferred resignation program.” More than 17,500 IRS workers took that route. The biggest cuts were in taxpayer services, the small business/self-employed office and information technology. read more

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging near their all-time high on Wednesday as financial markets catch a breath following two big days bolstered by hopes that the Israel-Iran war will not disrupt the global flow of crude oil.

Related Articles

• 
  Trump gets ‘golden share’ power in US Steel buyout. US agencies will get it under future presidents

• 
  Judge dismisses authors’ copyright lawsuit against Meta over AI training

• 
  Nestle says it will remove artificial dyes from US foods by 2026

• 
  Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac ordered to consider crypto as an asset when buying mortgages

• 
  Asked on Reddit: Should I repair or replace my broken appliance?

The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in midday trading and sitting just 0.7% below its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 52 points, or 0.1%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher.

In the oil market, which has been the center of much of this week’s action, crude prices stabilized after plunging by roughly $10 per barrel in the last two days. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.4% to $65.26 per barrel, though it still remains below where it was before the fighting between Israel and Iran broke out nearly two weeks ago. read more

By BERNARD CONDON

Federal traffic safety regulators are looking into suspected problems with Elon Musk’s test run of self-driving “robotaxis” in Texas after videos surfaced showing them braking suddenly or going straight through an intersection from a turning lane and driving down the wrong side of the road.

Related Articles

• 
  Anthropic wins ruling on AI training in copyright lawsuit but must face trial on pirated books

• 
  No more McDoughnuts: McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme end partnership

• 
  Should the U.S. ban drug advertising to consumers?

• 
  How to take care of yourself and your finances when you’ve experienced a layoff

• 
  With SLS rocket future uncertain, L3Harris still cranking out engines

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday that it has asked Tesla for information about the apparent errors. Though many other videos show robotaxis driving perfectly, if regulators find any major issues, that would likely raise questions about Musk’s repeated statements that the robotaxis are safe and his claim that Tesla will dominate a future in which nearly all cars on road will have no one behind the wheel — or even need a steering wheel at all. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN

In a test case for the artificial intelligence industry, a federal judge has ruled that AI company Anthropic didn’t break the law by training its chatbot Claude on millions of copyrighted books.

Related Articles

• 
  Musk’s ‘robotaxis’ draw regulatory scrutiny after video shows one driving in an opposing lane

• 
  No more McDoughnuts: McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme end partnership

• 
  Should the U.S. ban drug advertising to consumers?

• 
  How to take care of yourself and your finances when you’ve experienced a layoff

• 
  With SLS rocket future uncertain, L3Harris still cranking out engines

But the company is still on the hook and must now go to trial over how it acquired those books by downloading them from online “shadow libraries” of pirated copies.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco said in a ruling filed late Monday that the AI system’s distilling from thousands of written works to be able to produce its own passages of text qualified as “fair use” under U.S. copyright law because it was “quintessentially transformative.” read more

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

There will soon be a doughnut-sized hole in McDonald’s U.S. menu.

McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme said Tuesday that they’re ending their partnership on July 2, a little more than a year after it was announced. Krispy Kreme said demand for its doughnuts at McDonald’s wasn’t strong enough to recoup its costs.

Related Articles

• 
  Musk’s ‘robotaxis’ draw regulatory scrutiny after video shows one driving in an opposing lane

• 
  Cargo ship carrying new vehicles to Mexico sinks in the North Pacific weeks after catching fire

• 
  California dog trainer charged with animal cruelty, evidence destruction in deaths of 11 dogs

• 
  Anthropic wins ruling on AI training in copyright lawsuit but must face trial on pirated books

• 
  Temperature in New York City reaches 100 degrees as eastern US swelters under extreme heat wave

Chicago-based McDonald’s announced in March 2024 that it would begin selling three types of Krispy Kreme doughnuts at participating locations after a successful pilot in Kentucky. The doughnuts were sold individually or in boxes of six. read more