Things To Do In SW Florida

Four Central Florida food establishments — two restaurants and two food trucks — shut down following health inspections the week of Sept. 22-28, according to data from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Orange

Tacolandia, a food truck at 1206 W. Robinson St., Vin # 4748 in Orlando shut down on Sept. 23. Inspectors found seven violations, two of which were a high priority for not having potable running water and roach activity. Inspectors conducted a second inspection on Sept. 24. They found two violations, but none was a high priority. The restaurant met inspection standards.

Antojitos Chapin, a food truck at 454 W. Main St., Vin # 6308 in Apopka shut down on Sept. 27. Inspectors found nine violations, three of which were a high priority. Those violations included an employee working with utensils without washing their hands, not having potable running water and food held at the wrong temperatures. A revisit on Sept. 30 found just one violation about employee training, and a followup visit is required, but inspectors let the food truck reopen. read more

MIAMI — Ten years ago, Howard and Sheila Konetz bought themselves a Florida dream: an 1,820-square-foot condo in a leafy gated community north of Miami, complete with access to a country club, tennis courts and swimming pools.

The $478,500 purchase would usher them into blissful semiretirement, they thought. With enough cash in the bank, the couple didn’t need a mortgage and downsized from their house in Miami Beach.

Seven years later, on June 24, 2021, the Champlain Towers South condo building in the nearby town of Surfside partially collapsed when its corroded concrete and steel supports buckled, killing 98 people. Florida lawmakers responded by requiring condominiums that are at least 30 years old to undergo inspections, make critical improvements and amass reserve funds for future repairs.

Suddenly, the Konetzes found themselves facing a $224,000 bill — their share of a special assessment to renovate and repair their 36-year-old building. Unable to secure a loan or sell the unit, the couple now fear bankruptcy. read more

By Sally French | NerdWallet

Most people spend their hard-earned hotel points on, well, hotels. Atlanta-based accountant Scott Krupa spent more than 2.4 million Marriott Bonvoy points at the Bellagio Las Vegas Hotel and Casino for a chance to choreograph his own Fountains of Bellagio performance, a water show with lights and music that takes place at the fountains outside of the iconic Las Vegas Strip hotel.

Set to the song “Beautiful Day” by U2, his choreography debuted in August 2024 and now joins a rotation of 40 possible fountain shows that run every 15 to 30 minutes every afternoon and evening.

How Krupa redeemed points for the Bellagio fountain show

Krupa exchanged his points through the Marriott Bonvoy Moments program, which allows members to redeem for experiences like concert and sporting event tickets. Some experiences sell at fixed prices, while others — like the fountain show experience — involve a bidding system.

Krupa said bidding for this experience was open for nearly two months. Five minutes before closing, it was going for just 1.3 million Bonvoys. But within the last few minutes, it went up by more than 1 million points. read more

Andrew Sheeler | The Sacramento Bee (TNS)

Mass deportation of undocumented immigrants on the scale advocated by former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to enact, and would only be possible with the creation of a massive detention camp system.

That’s the finding of a new study by the nonpartisan American Immigration Council.

The report comes as a majority (54%) of Americans have said they support mass deportation, according to a Scripps News/Ipsos poll taken in September.

The immigration council’s study uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey as well as publicly available data about the current costs of immigration enforcement to paint a grim picture of what mass deportation would look like.

Representatives from the Trump campaign did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment by deadline. The Bee also reached out to the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris for comment but received no response. read more

By Michelle Andrews | KFF Health News

Dave Lantz is no stranger to emergency department or doctor bills. With three kids in their teens and early 20s, “when someone gets sick or breaks an arm, all of a sudden you have thousand-dollar medical bills,” Lantz said.

The family’s health plan that he used to get as the assistant director of physical plant at Lycoming College, a small liberal arts school in central Pennsylvania, didn’t start to cover their costs until they had paid $5,600 in medical bills. The Lantzes were on the hook up to that annual threshold. The high-deductible plan wasn’t ideal for the family of five, but it was the only coverage option available to them.

Things are very different now. In mid-2022, the college ditched its group health plan and replaced it with a new type of plan — an individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement, or ICHRA.

Now Lantz gets a set amount from his employer every month that he puts toward a family plan on the individual insurance market. He opted for a zero-deductible plan with a richer level of coverage than the group plan. Though its $790 monthly premium is higher than the $411 he used to pay, he ends up saving money overall by not having to pay down that big deductible. Plus, he now has more control over his health spending. read more