Things To Do In SW Florida

MSC Cruises plans to expand its footprint at Port Canaveral beginning next year and shift up capacity in 2027 by bringing in what will be its newest World Class ship when it debuts.

The port confirmed a commitment from the line to build on the already-announced debut later this year of MSC Grandiosa’s presence at the port. The ship had been tapped to do the winter season from 2025 into 2026 with seven-night Caribbean sailings. The line announced it would return Grandiosa to the port in late 2026 to begin year-round Caribbean sailings while continuing to sail the MSC Seashore on shorter three- and four-night Bahamas cruises.

That will give the cruise line two ships sailing year-round from the port.

MSC Grandiosa already will become the largest ship from the line to sail from the port when it debuts in December this year. The Meraviglia Plus-class vessel is among the top 20 largest cruise ships worldwide at 181,541 gross tons and a maximum passenger capacity of 6,334. It debuted in 2019 and features a water park, five pools, nine hot tubs, spa, the MSC Yacht Club exclusive area and a Lego partnership in its kids clubs. read more

By CLAIRE SAVAGE, Associated Press

FRESNO, Texas (AP) — The only moment TiAnna Yeldell has to herself is when she’s sleeping, and that doesn’t happen much.

The 44-year-old single mom of three works 80-hour weeks to provide for her children, ages 8, 14, and 18. During the day, she is a driver for Pizza Hut, where she earns $9.50 an hour before tips. At night, she cleans trains for Houston’s Metro system, where she earns about $17 an hour.

The times that she pulls both shifts, Yeldell sleeps for just two to three hours before getting her kids up and ready for school. Then she does it all over again.

Yeldell is among the millions of fast food workers across the U.S. scraping to get by. About two-thirds of them are women, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and many are supporting their families on minimum wages set at the federal government’s floor of $7.25 an hour. Fast food workers are disproportionately Hispanic, making up 24.6% of the industry’s workforce compared with 18.8% of the overall workforce. And more than half of all U.S. fast food workers are 20 or older, “contrary to the myth of it being a teenage job that they just do for pocket money,” said Tsedeye Gebreselassie, an attorney for nonprofit advocacy organization National Employment Law Project. read more

Elon Musk’s Neuralink has selected Miami as a clinical trial site for its brain-computer interface.

Musk’s Neuralink makes devices that link the human brain to computers, focusing on giving people with quadriplegia or paralysis the ability to control computers and devices with their thoughts. The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami will be the second U.S. site to participate in research known as the PRIME Study.

Neuralink is already conducting clinical trials at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Ariz. The company announced its first brain implant one year ago and announced earlier this month that a third person had received an implant. Patients who received the implants have been playing video games and online chess by simply thinking about steering left or right.

For the PRIME Study, Neuralink scientists and a multidisciplinary team of neurosurgeons, neuroscientists and biomedical engineers at The Miami Project and the Miller School of Medicine will implant the device in local participants. read more

Bob Snow, an entrepreneur who had a vision to revitalize a stretch of downtown Orlando in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 82.

Snow’s enterprises began with Church Street Station, an entertainment and dining complex that opened in summer 1974. It eventually drew millions of tourists annually — frequently by the busloads — with themed businesses named Rosie O’Grady’s Good Time Emporium, Cheyenne Saloon, Apple Annie’s Courtyard, Lili Marlene’s Aviator’s Pub and Phineas Phogg’s Balloon Works.

The vibe was pre-World World I with country-western and Dixieland music tossed in, too. And there were disco and rock and roll options.  It also was famed for Nickel Beer Night.

“It was singers and dancers and red-hot girls and jugglers and bagpipe players, and about 25 buses on a Saturday night,” Snow told the Orlando Sentinel in 2014.

Snow’s Church Street Exchange building was constructed in 1988.

His background included military service and gigs as a professional trumpet player. He had opened the Seville Quarter entertainment complex in Pensacola in the 1960s. read more

If you recently got a text from an unknown number warning you about unpaid SunPass tolls, officials want you to know it was probably a scam.

“Smishing,” or SMS phishing, is when fraudsters try to obtain your personal information through a text message. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the text might include a dollar amount for how much you supposedly owe, as well as a link.

Clicking the link will take you to a page to enter your bank account or credit card information.

“SunPass wants to remind customers to be careful of text messages or other communications that demand immediate payment for unpaid toll balances,“ the Florida Department of Transportation, which runs the electronic toll collection system, wrote in an advisory on its website. “These messages often pressure customers to make a quick payment to avoid late fees and include a link to a fake website to collect personal information.”

If you receive one of the messages, the transportation department says not to click the link. Instead, log in to your account on sunpass.com to check your balance. SunPass only contacts customers through customerservice@sunpass.com, noreply@sunpass.com or via text at 786727. read more