Things To Do In SW Florida

By Kimberly Palmer | NerdWallet

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Giving money to teenage children might sound simple, but it can quickly become complicated. Parents often want to set limits on how much their teens can spend, teach them about money management and protect them from fraud, all at the same time.

“It’s about knowing your kids and tailoring the approach a little bit to the child,” says Amy Spalding, a certified financial planner at District Capital Management, a Washington, D.C.-based firm. Some kids need more active help to stay organized and learn how to stay within a budget, while others need to be encouraged to practice spending in the real world.

Here are some strategies to consider when providing money to your teenager:

Start with cash

When children are using money on their own for the first time, sticking with cash can be the easiest way for them to learn how to manage it, says Dan Tobias, a CFP and founder of Passport Wealth Management in Cornelius, North Carolina. “First, get them to understand and appreciate money with paper. Then, when you need to, you can switch to electronic methods,” he says. read more

After months of dozens of restaurant closings and headlines about “endless shrimp” woes, Red Lobster is poised to soon exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved the casual seafood chain’s reorganization plan and sale to a lender group led by asset manager Fortress. Fortress, joined by co-investors TCW Private Credit and Blue Torch, created RL Investor Holdings LLC to acquire Red Lobster through bankruptcy court.

Damola Adamolekun, who stepped down as P.F. Chang’s CEO in 2023, is poised to become CEO of Red Lobster with the judge’s ruling.

The judge’s ruling comes just four months after Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy protection as it pursued a sale, following years of mounting losses and dwindling customers while it struggled to keep up with competitors.

At the time of filing in May, Red Lobster’s leadership shared plans to “simplify the business” through a reduction of locations. The Orlando-based chain shuttered a number of its North American restaurants in recent months — both leading up to and during the bankruptcy process. That includes more than 50 locations whose equipment was put up for auction just days before the Chapter 11 petition, followed by dozens of additional closures throughout the bankruptcy process. read more

Jessie Hellmann | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON — Programs that feed older, homebound adults are instituting waiting lists amid budget crunches, rising costs of food, growing demand for their services and funding cuts from the government.

Combined with the end of COVID-19 era aid, local groups are finding that they can no longer serve the same number of people, resulting in difficult decisions about next steps.

“This is a huge challenge for our network,” said Josh Protas, chief advocacy and policy officer at Meals on Wheels America, a national organization that supports local organizations delivering meals to homebound individuals, mainly older adults.

Meals on Wheels is among the groups pushing for funding increases through the appropriations process for programs funded under the Older Americans Act, a decades-old law first signed by President Lyndon Johnson to support adults as they age in their communities.

One in three Meals on Wheels programs has a wait list, with an average wait time of three months. read more

Tourist-tax revenues in July were down from June and flat compared to July 2023, but collections for the year to date remain nearly on par with the historically high levels from a year ago.

July receipts totaled $26.6 million, down $3.9 million from June and about $600,000 less than July 2023.

Revenues for fiscal year 2023-24 are about $1 million behind the pace of fiscal year 2022-23, which pulled in a record $359 million, said Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond, whose office tracks collection and spending of Tourist Development Tax (TDT) funds. That should give the county some additional money to funnel toward construction projects, since Diamond had forecast a down year and revenues are ahead of his projected pace by about $35 million.

Fiscal year 2023-24 ends Sept. 30.

TDT is a 6% surcharge on the cost of a hotel room, an Airbnb or other short-term lodging rental.

The tax, first assessed in 1986, has generated more than $5.2 billion over the decades with more than half the total proceeds going to build, expand, update and operate the Orange County Convention Center. The tourist tax also provides most of the funding to operate Visit Orlando, which promotes Central Florida’s attractions to the U.S. and the world. By contract, Visit Orlando gets 30 cents of every dollar collected. read more

Erik Wasson and Enda Curran | (TNS) Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON — Republican nominee Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance are campaigning on a grab bag of tax cut proposals that could collectively cost as much as $10.5 trillion over a decade, a massive sum that would exceed the combined budgets of every domestic federal agency.

Even if Congress were to eliminate every dollar of nondefense discretionary spending — projected to be $9.8 trillion over the next 10 years — it still wouldn’t offset the estimated expense of the wide-ranging tax cuts Trump and Vance have floated in recent weeks.

The price tag is based on rough, initial estimates from tax and budget specialists because the Trump campaign hasn’t released detailed policy plans for its tax promises.

The Trump campaign said in a statement the former president will cut wasteful spending and increase energy production to pay for the tax cuts and lower the national debt. The campaign didn’t offer more detail.

Though Democrat Kamala Harris also has proposed a few large tax cuts — she would exempt tips from taxation and expand the child tax credit — the impact on the nation’s finances pales in comparison. She calls for offsetting the lost income, which one think tank estimates at roughly $2 trillion, with tax increases on corporations and wealthy individuals. read more