Things To Do In SW Florida

Behold, the insurance secrets that surface when you look at publicly available data a different way, by ranking companies by what they charge per $1,000 of insured value:

— Collectively, Florida-based property insurers charge significantly higher rates per $1,000 than companies headquartered outside the state charge.

— Owners of condominium units in Florida pay twice as much per $1,000 to insure their contents than homeowners pay to cover their entire structures and contents.

— And if you are covered by one of the 17 companies that have helped to depopulate state-owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp., you are paying significantly more per $1,000 of insured value than customers of non-participating insurers.

These findings stem from an analysis by the South Florida Sun Sentinel of data that insurers have been required to make available to the public since the second quarter of 2022.

The newspaper dug into quarterly Residential Market Share Reports released by the Office of Insurance Regulation and calculated what insurance customers pay per $1,000 of coverage value, figures that are not included on the spreadsheets. read more

A leak in space and a leak on Earth have been taken care of, clearing the way for the next human spaceflight from the Space Coast.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with a new Crew Dragon spacecraft looks to bring the four private astronauts on the Axiom Space Ax-4 mission on a trip to the International Space Station as early as Thursday morning from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A during a launch window that runs from 4:45-5:05 a.m.

The crew faced a series of delays already last week. A planned Monday launch was called off by weather and a Tuesday attempt was delayed so SpaceX could fix a liquid oxygen leak found in the rocket’s first-stage booster. While SpaceX retested its booster Thursday with no leak detected, NASA announced it would have to delay the launch because of recent repairs to a years-old leak on the Russian side of the space station that needed to be monitored.

“Following the most-recent repair, pressure in the transfer tunnel has been stable,” reads an update from NASA released Saturday. “Previously, pressure in this area would have dropped. This could indicate the small leaks have been sealed.” read more

From Florida to the Bahamas to various Caribbean islands, travelers stranded by the shutdown of Silver Airways started the process of seeking refunds for flights not taken, while blind-sided employees whose livelihoods were suddenly cut off asked a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to help them.

The moment the Hollywood-based regional carrier concluded its final flight at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport late last Tuesday, airline officials quickly let it be known that travelers booked to fly in the future can obtain refunds through their credit card companies.

Nick Ewen, senior editorial director of the online travel site The Points Guy, acknowledged that’s the case. But for those customers who ended up stranded somewhere, there’s an incalculable number of people who have faced considerable complications arranging extended stays and alternate flights.

Vivian Premock, a Fort Lauderdale resident visiting Harbor Island in the Bahamas, said Friday that she, her husband and their two children flew Silver to their vacation destination on June 5. But on Wednesday morning, Silver notified the family their return flight was canceled read more

Unfortunately, there is a great deal of misinformation regarding the repeal of the Government Pension Offset, known as GPO, that was signed into law at the end of 2024. There is confusion regarding who has been affected by the change and whether retroactive Social Security benefits are due to them.

Before GPO was repealed, individuals who received a pension from work done outside of Social Security — that is, jobs for which FICA taxes were not paid — were not eligible for spousal or survivor benefits, or these benefits were reduced because of the GPO offset.

Prior to the repeal of GPO, those receiving a pension from work done outside Social Security had their spousal benefits and survivor benefits reduced by two-thirds of the amount of their pension. In many cases, the offset reduced the spousal or survivor benefit completely.

For example, assume an individual was receiving a monthly pension payment of $450. Assume further that, without the offset, the monthly spousal Social Security benefit would have been $250. The GPO offset of $300 (2/3 x $450) completely eliminated the spousal benefit. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN

Meta is making a $14.3 billion investment in artificial intelligence company Scale and recruiting its CEO Alexandr Wang to join a team developing “superintelligence” at the tech giant.

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The deal announced Thursday reflects a push by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to revive AI efforts at the parent company of Facebook and Instagram as it faces tough competition from rivals such as Google and OpenAI.

Meta announced what it called a “strategic partnership and investment” with Scale late Thursday. Scale said the $14.3 billion investment puts its market value at over $29 billion.

Scale said it will remain an independent company but the agreement will “substantially expand Scale and Meta’s commercial relationship.” Meta will hold a 49% stake in the startup. read more