Things To Do In SW Florida

By Anna Helhoski | NerdWallet

When electioneering, the best pledges are catchy enough to get stuck in a voter’s head. During this election, “no tax on tips” seems to be the phrase fitting that bill.

Both presidential candidates are embracing the promise to exempt workers from paying taxes on their tips. But the problem with no-tax-on-tips proposals, experts say, is that they’re clearly a bid for votes rather than a substantive solution to address the fundamental needs of tipped workers.

“This wouldn’t help very many workers, and it could actually be very harmful to millions more, with the real benefits of this policy change going to employers and the wealthy at the expense of working people,” says David Cooper, researcher from EPI Action, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization.

How a no-tax-on-tips promise entered the election

On June 9, former President Donald Trump made a promise to end taxes on tips in front of service workers in Las Vegas. Last weekend, in Las Vegas, Vice President Kamala Harris made a similar pledge. It’s no coincidence that both candidates made the announcement in Las Vegas — leisure and hospitality is the dominant industry in the metro area, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. read more

In 1996, Staples ran a back-to-school advertisement, using the classic 1963 Christmas song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”  My children are now in their 20s and 30s, but I still smile when I hear that song.

As a parent, I am reminiscent of the time when summer was over, and the new school year was about to begin. I loved our time off, but I also looked forward to the end of summer. The days would fall back into a routine, filled with structure and planned activities.

In May 2024, Deloitte surveyed about 1,200 parents of school-aged children to learn about their back-to-school shopping plans. The parents surveyed estimated that on average, they will spend $586 per child on school supplies and clothing. Additionally, the same parents estimated they will spend another $582 on extracurricular activities per child.

As a financial planner, I used back-to-school shopping as a learning opportunity for our children.

During the summer, we would establish a budget, identify what needed to be purchased, and estimate the cost for each item. read more

During the summer of 1996, Scott Albert Johnson was covering the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in a highly unconventional manner for the era on his website, Publius ’96: A Virtual Walk Down the Campaign Trail.

The internet was just emerging as a political and media tool. The 26-year-old, who’d recently finished his journalism graduate degree at Columbia University, had no media credentials or steady funding. At night he often crashed on couches in the homes of friends.

Yet the site earned the acclaim of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal  and other major media outlets, mainly for its novel approach to political coverage, a phenomenon then dubbed “micro-journalism.” Most of Johnson’s interviews were with ordinary folks in bars, cafes and along the streets of Chicago outside the United Center, in stark contrast to the candidate-centered stories that filled traditional print newspapers and broadcast reports.

“You could argue it was one of the very first political blogs,” recalled Johnson, who now lives in Mississippi and works as a college admissions counselor and professional musician. “I was kind of a gadfly. I was kind of on the periphery of it all. It was a man-slash-woman on the street kind of thing.” read more

Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens has gone cuckoo. The Sanford attraction has added five female Guira cuckoos to its South American Bird Habitat.

They have joined two violaceous turacos and a red-footed tortoise named Pebble there.

The new birds are vocal, the zoo says, are excellent hunters and forage for insects on the ground. They are relatives of the greater roadrunner.

Among the other bird species living at the zoo are kookaburra, silvery-cheeked hornbill, black-throated magpie jay, macaw, yellow-crowned Amazon, bald eagle and American black vulture. The zoo has more than 350 animals overall.

Central Florida Zoo is offering free kids admission (age 12 and younger) with the purchase of an adult ticket. This deal is available through Aug. 31 and must be purchased in person.  General admission for adults is $23.95 on weekdays and $25.95 on weekends and holidays.

Friday’s Sunset at the Zoo event is tied to Native American and Alaska native heritage. The 5 p.m. event includes entertainment, food trucks, vendors, animal enrichment and feedings and kid-friendly games. Tickets are $8 ($6 when purchased in advance online). read more

Hyatt Hotels closed the sale of its 1,641-room Hyatt Regency Orlando for $1.07 billion and also announced a deal with the buyers to build a new Grand Hyatt luxury hotel right next door.

The deal is a bet on the expanding Orange County Convention Center and the 2025 opening of Universal’s Epic Universe, RIDA CEO Ira Mitzner told GrowthSpotter Friday in an exclusive interview. Houston-based RIDA Development and Los Angeles-based Ares Management are the buyers and development partners in the deal.

“As the convention center expands, as Epic expands, we think there is a potential need — not for tomorrow, but over the next several years — for adding new room capacity,” Mitzner said.

The Regency at 9801 International Dr. is one of four hotels connected by sky bridge to the Orange County Convention Center. The deal also included an undeveloped 45-acre lot at 9000 Universal Blvd., just north of the hotel. That parcel accounted for $50 million of the total sale on Friday and came with a deed restriction that only a Hyatt hotel could be built on the property. read more