Things To Do In SW Florida

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ongoing tariff threats from Washington and potentially sweeping government job cuts have darkened consumers’ mood and may be weighing on an otherwise mostly healthy economy.

Data released Friday showed that consumers slashed their spending by the most since February 2021, even as their incomes rose. On a positive note, inflation cooled, but President Donald Trump’s threats to impose large import taxes on Canada, Mexico, and China — the United States’ top trading partners — will likely push prices higher, economists say. Some companies are already planning to raise prices in response.

Americans cut their spending by 0.2% in January from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Friday, likely in part because of unseasonably cold weather. Yet the retreat may be hinting at more caution by consumers amid rising economic uncertainty.

“The roller coaster of news headlines emanating from Washington D.C. is likely going to push businesses to the sidelines for a time and even appears to be impacting consumers,” said Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist at Santander, in an email. read more

Blue Origin has lined up what would be the first all-female crew to launch to space since a Soviet woman’s solo launch in 1963, and that one had a lot less Grammy winners on board.

Pop singer Katy Perry and CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King are among the six woman announced as crew on the NS-31 mission for the suborbital New Shepard rocket set to launch this spring.

Others slated to fly include Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez.

Sánchez, who is engaged to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, is a former entertainment TV journalist. She organized the crew. Bowe is a former NASA rocket scientist, Nguyen a bioastronautics research scientist and Flynn built a career in fashion and then produced films including “This Changes Everything.”

New Shepard flights launch passengers from Blue Origin’s West Texas facilities on short 10- to 12-minute rides that travel above the Karman line, about 62 miles high, the internationally recognized altitude of having reached space. read more

By MEG KINNARD and KEVIN S. VINEYS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Civilian federal jobs are being cut by the thousands, as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency continues to shrink the government workforce at the behest of President Donald Trump.

That’s brought a lot of churn and uncertainty in the nation’s capital, where 20% of the country’s more than 2 million civilian — or nonmilitary — federal workers are located.

It’s also affecting workers and communities outside the Washington, D.C. area, where about 80% of that workforce is based. Those cuts mean that members of Congress are now facing potential angst among the out-of-work federal employees in their districts across the country.

The precise locations of all of the thousands of federal employees now out of work isn’t yet known, but a look at the areas with the highest concentrations of civilian U.S. government jobs gives a glimpse at some places that could be most affected.

Here’s a breakdown of federal government jobs across the country by the numbers, surveying data from a Congressional Research Service analysis of Census Bureau estimates, as of 2023: read more

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO and HALELUYA HADERO

NEW YORK (AP) — A grassroots organization is encouraging U.S. residents not to spend any money Friday as an act of “economic resistance” to protest what the group’s founder sees as the malign influence of billionaires, big corporations and both major political parties on the lives of working Americans.

The People’s Union USA calls the 24 hours of spending abstinence set to start at midnight an “economic blackout,” a term that has since been shared and debated on social media. The activist movement said it also plans to promote weeklong consumer boycotts of particular companies, including Walmart and Amazon.

Other activists, faith-based leaders and consumers already are organizing boycotts to protest companies that have scaled back their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and to oppose President Donald Trump’s moves to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies. Some faith leaders are encouraging their congregations to refrain from shopping at Target, one of the companies backing off DEI efforts, during the 40 days of Lent that begin Wednesday. read more

If you’re anything like me, your social media feeds were full of people doing low-buy or no-buy challenges at the beginning of the year. They were sick of overconsuming, so they set rules for themselves to spend much less — or nothing at all — on nonessential expenses.