Things To Do In SW Florida

Madame Tussauds Orlando is introducing a wax figure of Beyoncé sporting a “Cowboy Carter” look.

The ensemble includes a black hat, American flag-inspired boots and a Willie Nelson T-shirt.

“The figure celebrates Beyoncé’s extraordinary influence on music and culture, paying tribute to her lasting impact on the world,” Paul Gould, general manager of Madame Tussauds Orlando, said in a news release.

The singer released “Cowboy Carter,” inspired by musical genres she listened to while growing up in Texas, in March 2025. It won Grammy Awards for album of the year and best country album and was nominated in nine additional categories. She is currently on tour, which is scheduled to run through late July.

The figure, which will be seen in the attraction’s Music Room, is outfitted in a red, white and blue suede jacket with fringe over the vintage Willie Nelson T-shirt plus crystallized denim shorts, a silver cowboy belt buckle and a floor-length do-rag beneath the cowboy hat. Other performers represented in the Icon Park attraction have included Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, Dua Lipa, Rihanna and Harry Styles. read more

Eight Central Florida restaurants shut down the week of March 9-15, according to data from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Orange

Saffron Indian Cuisine at 7724 W. Sand Lake Road in Orlando shut down on March 11. Inspectors found 23 violations, five of which were high priorities. Those violations included roach activity, a stop-sale on food due to temperature abuse and raw food not separated from ready-to-eat food. A second inspection the same day found the restaurant didn’t comply with the emergency order.

On March 12, inspectors found 21 violations. The restaurant fixed the roach problem but received time extensions for other high-priority violations. The restaurant re-opened but required a follow-up inspection. On March 13, there were 16 violations with only one being a high priority for food held at the wrong temperatures. A final inspection occurred on March 14. There were 10 violations, but none was a high priority. The restaurant met inspection standards. read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are rising Wednesday as Wall Street waits to hear what the Federal Reserve will say in the afternoon about where interest rates may be heading.

TALLAHASSEE — As Florida’s insurance crisis was unfolding in 2020, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis moved to shield some detailed information about failed insurers from the public.

Legislation he pushed that year made information on executives’ compensation, corporate governance and risk assessments exempt from public records requests when the companies went out of business and were taken over by state regulators.

Now lawmakers are looking to put that information back in the sunshine.

In a rare move, a House committee on Tuesday advanced a bill that would repeal some of those public records exemptions. The results could shed more light on why and how companies go out of business.

Insurers’ own risk and solvency assessments — mandatory reports created after the 2008 financial crisis that insurers use to determine their financial weaknesses — would be available for public inspection.

So would their underwriting files, along with the names, benefits and compensation of executive officers. read more

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as the economy undergoes what may be wrenching changes, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday is expected to signal it could cut its key interest rate twice this year — the same forecast it issued in December.

Yet the reasons for those cuts may change dramatically, depending on how the economy fares.

What were once seen as “good news” rate reductions in response to a steady decline in inflation back to the Fed’s target of 2%, now could become “bad news” cuts that would be implemented to offset an economy struggling in the wake of widespread tariffs, rapid cuts in government spending, and a spike in economic uncertainty.

At the end of last year, the Fed reduced its key interest rate three times to about 4.3% from 5.3%. The Fed had rapidly raised its rate to combat inflation, and as price growth headed lower, that allowed the central bank to reverse some of those rate hikes. In September, inflation dropped to a 3 1/2 year low of 2.4%. read more