Things To Do In SW Florida

By Kate Wood | NerdWallet

Last month, the Federal Reserve announced a 50-basis-point cut to the federal funds rate, while projecting a comparable reduction through the rest of the year. (A basis point is one one-hundredth of one percent.) That was roughly what markets had priced in. Mortgage lenders have also already baked that assumption into mortgage interest rates: Since peaking over 7% in spring, rates have fallen more than a full percentage point. If lower mortgage interest rates are finally here, what does that portend for potential home buyers, refinancers and sellers?

Buyers’ wait is over

Generally, when rates fall, buyer demand rises — but that didn’t happen as mortgage rates dropped this summer, according to Chen Zhao, head of economic research at Redfin. She speculates this Federal Reserve announcement will bring more buyers to the market. “They’re waiting to see the Fed take action, not realizing that this gets priced in early.”

According to a recent NerdWallet survey conducted by the Harris Poll, 15% of Americans say they plan to buy a house once rates decrease. If you’re in that 15%, now’s probably a good time to start looking. read more

Sea Life Florida Aquarium is taking shape in Winter Haven, where it will be part of the Legoland Florida Resort.

Beyond its walls and water, of course, will be the creatures calling the new attraction home. There will be at least 3,000 animals – representing about 150 species – in the exhibit, said curator Sarah McMahon.

“We have a responsibility to always ensure the preservation of species and promote healthy populations. So we get animals from different sources,” McMahon said.

“Some of our animals come from approved suppliers and we’ve vetted through a pretty extensive accreditation process,” she said. “We also receive animals through rescue and rehoming programs. And then we also receive animals through positive-change programs where we can support local communities on sustainable practices.”

Before the Winter Haven attraction opens to the public in spring of 2025, Sea Life will move in its sea life.

“They’re going to come via truck. They’re going to come by plane and specialized containers that will ensure that they’re safe on arrival,” McMahon said. read more

Bank of America’s mobile applications were apparently knocked offline Wednesday.

Many BofA account holders took to social media platforms to say they either couldn’t access their online accounts or saw zero balances when they did log in.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said in a statement that some clients “are experiencing an issue accessing their accounts and balance information today.”

“These issues are being addressed and have largely been resolved,” the statement continued. “We apologize for any inconvenience.”

One X user drolly posted that their money was gone, “but conveniently my debt is still there.” A screenshot of their mobile app showed zero balances for all BofA accounts except one Visa card.

DownDetector, an online tracker of technical outages, reported between 5,000 to 20,000 BofA users reported an outage starting at 9 a.m. and peaking by 11 a.m. The detector said online, mobile and ATM users were affected.

Jasmene Bowdry, a user on Meta’s social platform Threads, said all of her BofA accounts showed $0. read more

TALLAHASSEE — The state’s largest medical-marijuana company filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday accusing the state Republican Party of launching an “intentionally deceptive campaign” to mislead voters about a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow recreational use of marijuana.

With voting by mail already underway in the Nov. 5 election, the lawsuit filed by Trulieve, Inc. — which has spent nearly $93 million on the recreational-marijuana initiative — also accused the owners of two Fort Myers-based television stations of running a “demonstrably false” ad “trying to fool Florida voters” into voting against what will appear on the ballot as Amendment 3.

“The GOP knew that the claims in the deceptive mailer and ad were false, intentionally deceptive, and duplicitous but published them anyway in order to trick Florida voters into voting against a ballot initiative that would legalize the recreational use of cannabis in Florida,” the lawsuit said.

The TV ad features a gardener who sees a news broadcast saying that the amendment could “legalize recreational marijuana.” The gardener rushes to start planting but is confronted by a “Big Weed” character that says, “Actually, we wrote the amendment, so we’re the only ones that can grow it.” read more

By DIDI TANG

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it would ban the import of goods from a Chinese steel manufacturer and a Chinese maker of artificial sweetener, accusing both of being involved in the use of forced labor from China’s far-west region of Xinjiang.

The action broadens the scope of the U.S. effort to counter products from entering the country that the government says are tied to human rights abuses.

The additions to the entity list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act marks the first time a China-based steel company or aspartame sweetener business have been targeted by U.S. law enforcement, DHS said.

“Today’s actions reaffirm our commitment to eliminating forced labor from U.S. supply chains and upholding our values of human rights for all,” said Robert Silvers, undersecretary of Homeland Security for policy. “No sector is off-limits. We will continue to identify entities across industries and hold accountable those who seek to profit from exploitation and abuse.” read more