Things To Do In SW Florida

By MATT O’BRIEN

Microsoft said it is “slowing or pausing” some of its data center construction, including a $1 billion project in Ohio, the latest sign that the demand for artificial intelligence technology that drove a massive infrastructure expansion might not need quite as many powerful computers as expected.

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The tech giant confirmed this week that it is halting early-stage projects on rural land it owns in central Ohio’s Licking County, outside of Columbus, and will reserve two of the three sites for farmland.

“In recent years, demand for our cloud and AI services grew more than we could have ever anticipated and to meet this opportunity, we began executing the largest and most ambitious infrastructure scaling project in our history,” said Noelle Walsh, the president of Microsoft’s cloud operations, in a post on LinkedIn. read more

By MATT OTT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Oil prices swung wildly on Wednesday, sinking to a four-year low in anticipation of slowing economic growth due to a burgeoning trade war, before jumping 2% after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on most of his tariffs.

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U.S. benchmark crude followed U.S. markets higher in the afternoon rising 2%, or $1.20, to $60.79 per barrel after the latest reversal by the Trump administration.

That’s after it declined 4.3% to $56.98 per barrel as late as midday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had fallen further earlier in the day to levels not seen since February 2021, the depth of the COVID-19 pandemic. read more

By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a global market meltdown, President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly backed down on his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, but raised the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.

It was seemingly an attempt to narrow what had been an unprecedented trade war between the U.S. and most of the world to a showdown between the U.S. and China. The S&P 500 stock index jumped nearly 7% after the announcement, but the precise details of Trump’s plans to ease tariffs on non-China trade partners were not immediately clear.

Trump posted on Truth Social that because “more than 75 Countries” had reached out to the U.S. government for trade talks and have not retaliated in meaningful way “I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.”

The 10% tariff was the baseline rate for most nations that went into effect on Saturday. It’s meaningfully lower than the 20% tariff that Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea. Still, 10% would represent an increase in the tariffs previously charged by the U.S. government. read more

Orlando Science Center has a tripleheader offering coinciding with its $15 Day on Sunday. The museum will hold Great Outdoors Weekend, mark the first anniversary of its “Life” exhibit and play host to author Jessica Jane Robinson.

Robinson will be featured — along with her eco-superhero named Resilience — in special StoryTime segments at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in KidsTown. The focus will be on sustainability, waste management, ocean conservation and climate literacy.

Robinson also will host a 16-minute documentary titled “Story of the Cup,” which tracks the life cycle of disposable cups, at 2 p.m. Afterward, she will have a book signing in the science center’s main lobby.

Great Outdoors Weekend activities will include a terrarium workshop, an outdoor scavenger hunt, a session on sustainable gardening and the Tiny Green Home Tour.

The “Life” exhibit, which opened last year, features three distinct environments with sloths, Tamarin monkeys, songbirds, squirrels, fish and other members of the natural world. read more

Two-time space traveler and billionaire Jared Isaacman, president Trump’s nominee to be the next NASA administrator, will appear at his nomination hearing Wednesday in the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation.

The hearing is set to open at 10 a.m.

Isaacman flew twice on privately funded missions with SpaceX, most recently last fall on the Polaris Dawn mission on which he performed the first commercial space walk. His first trip to space was the Inspiration4 mission in 2021 when he led a crew of four on the first all-private human spaceflight.

Trump formally nominated him Jan. 20 to succeed Bill Nelson who led NASA during the Biden administration. Janet Petro, the director of Kennedy Space Center, stepped into the role of acting administrator after Nelson stepped down.

Below is the text of Isaacman’s prepared remarks before he will take questions from the committee members.

Thank you Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Cantwell, and distinguished members of the committee. I am honored and very grateful to be here before you today as President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. read more