Things To Do In SW Florida

Quarters are usually worth 25 cents. But quarters featuring the Queen of Salsa? In Miami, those are priceless.

Longtime fans and local businesses have been racing to get their hands on new quarters embossed with a portrait Celia Cruz, the iconic late salsa singer. Cruz, the first Afro-Latina on U.S. currency, was one of five historic female figures selected for the U.S. Mint’s 2024 American Women Quarters Program.

The coins were designed by Mint artist Phebe Hemphill who said she wanted them to capture Cruz’s “greatness and vitality.”

Though the coins are now in circulation this month, you’d be hard pressed finding a Miamian willing to spend these quarters at a laundromat, ventanita or gumball machine.

“These are keepers,” said Elena Santayana at Santayana Jewelry, a family-owned Miami jewelry store that specializes in Cuban-themed charms and mounting silver Cuban coin pendants. “Everybody’s talking about it. It’s exciting for our town, exciting for our culture.”

Born Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso in Cuba in 1925, Cruz became one of the most celebrated Latin singers of the 20th century, known for her booming vocals, colorful wigs, beaming smile and signature catchphrase: “¡Azúcar!” read more

By ALEX VEIGA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes ended a four-month slide in July as easing mortgage rates and a pickup in properties on the market encouraged home shoppers.

Existing home sales rose 1.3% last month from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.95 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Sales fell 2.5% compared with July last year and are running below last year’s pace. The latest home sales came in slightly higher than the 3.92 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

Home prices increased on an annual basis for the 13th consecutive month. The national median sales price rose 4.2% from a year earlier to $422,600. While down slightly from the all-time high set in June, last month’s median sales price was the highest on record for the month of July.

“Despite the modest gain, home sales are still sluggish,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist. “But consumers are definitely seeing more choices, and affordability is improving due to lower interest rates.” read more

State regulators in Tallahassee approved an agreement Wednesday that will increase the base rates on nearly 2 million Floridians’ Duke Energy bills, though by much less than the company originally requested.

Governor-appointed members of the Florida Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, praised the 338-page settlement agreement as a fair compromise between the needs of the utility and the public.

After months of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations between Duke, groups representing residential customers, industrial plants, environmentalists and more, the final agreement did not draw opposition from any parties.

That was a rare show of unity — particularly after the case began, in the words of Office Public Counsel lawyer Charles Rehwinkel, as “highly controversial and at times bitterly contested.”

In its original request, Duke had sought an $820 million increase over three years, in addition to a rate of shareholder profit well above the national average. In the final agreement, it ended up with a $262 million increase, plus up to $141 million for a dozen new solar plants as they are completed. read more

Richard N. Velotta | Las Vegas Review-Journal (TNS)

LAS VEGAS — Harry Reid International Airport had the most flight delays of any major U.S. airport in the 2023 fiscal year, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a recent report.

The FAA, which uses data collected from air traffic controllers nationwide, said there were 29,763 flight delays at Reid that fiscal year — more than 9,500 more delays that the second-highest airport, New York’s LaGuardia International Airport. The Reid total also is more than twice the number recorded in the 2022 fiscal year and more than five times greater than the number averaged between fiscal years 2017-19.

A Reid representative said that many factors come into play for the numerous flight delays at Las Vegas’ airport, including a major runway renovation.

“It includes weather conditions, not just in Southern Nevada but across the nation that can create a domino effect with flights arriving and departing at LAS,” said Monika Bertaki, a spokeswoman for the Clark County Department of Aviation. read more

By Eliza Haverstock | NerdWallet

Students and families finally have an idea of what to expect from the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the form that unlocks federal students loans, grants, work-study and scholarships for millions of Americans each year.

The Education Department committed to fully launching the FAFSA by Dec. 1 — but select groups of students will be able to access and submit the form as early as Oct. 1. The early access is part of a beta testing process designed by the Education Department to identify and fix FAFSA issues before the form’s public debut. (In a typical FAFSA year, the form opens to all students on Oct. 1.)

Financial aid experts are optimistic that the phased rollout will prevent the technical glitches and delays that plagued the form’s 2024-25 rendition.

“Hopefully, a lot of the FAFSA completion bugs that applicants found when the 2024-25 FAFSA rolled out late in December last year will already have been caught and resolved before December 1,” says Karen McCarthy, vice president of public policy and federal relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. read more