Things To Do In SW Florida

A retry for the final launch ever of United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy, the last of the Delta family of rockets, remained up in the air over the weekend, but in the meantime, SpaceX sent up a pair of rockets from the Space Coast on Saturday.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/sxq3fRzjeo

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 30, 2024

First up from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A was the Eutelsat-36X mission flying a communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit lifting off at 5:52 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 12th time with landing on the Just Read the Instructions droneship downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.

Liftoff of Falcon 9, marking 260 reflights of Falcon boosters since our first one seven years ago today! pic.twitter.com/A12OqppvaU

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 31, 2024

Next up was a Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-45 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:30 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the 18th time and made another recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. read more

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines is relaxing part of its pet policy to let owners bring their companion and a full-size carry-on bag into the cabin.

Until this week, people who carried a pet into the cabin — which involves paying a $150 fee — could only have one other small item that fit under the seat.

Anything bigger, like a carry-on bag with wheels, needed to be checked — for a $35 fee. Or they could put the pet in the cargo hold.

Now American is letting passengers bring a pet in the cabin and also bring a regular carry-on bag or a personal item — just not both bags.

The old policy struck some pet owners as unfair, since they were already paying a pet fee.

Gary Leff, a travel blogger who first wrote about the change, recalled traveling years ago with a Yorkshire terrier.

“It was always frustrating that the dog counted as the carry-on even though I was paying the extra (pet) fee that was sometimes more than the ticket for me,” he said Friday.

Leff said he thinks American’s change will reduce the urge for travelers to falsely claim that their pet is a service animal that flies for free. read more

High interest rates, coupled with soaring insurance costs, have slowed home sales in Seminole over the past year, county officials said this week.

According to data released by the Seminole County Property Appraiser’s Office, the number of new and existing homes sold across the county in 2023 dropped nearly 20% from the previous year. In 2022, for example, a total of 10,942 homes sold for roughly $4 billion, compared to 8,757 last year for about $3.4 billion.

Explaining the decline during a presentation to county commissioners Tuesday, Property Appraiser David Johnson noted home sales are tied to three costs: property taxes, homeowners insurance and interest rates.

In recent years, interest and insurance rates have shot up, while Seminole’s overall property tax rate of nearly $4.88 per $1,000 of taxable value has remained the same for more than a decade.

As of Thursday, for example, a home mortgage at a 30-year fixed rate was 6.79% — compared to 3.17% at the same time in 2021 — a jump of more than 114%, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. more commonly known as Freddie Mac. read more

By PAUL WISEMAN (AP Economics Writer)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation that is closely tracked by the Federal Reserve slipped last month in a sign that price pressures continue to ease.

The government reported Friday that prices rose 0.3% from January to February, decelerating from a 0.4% increase the previous month in a potentially encouraging trend for President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Compared with 12 months earlier, though, prices rose 2.5% in February, up slightly from a 2.4% year-over-year gain in January.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, last month’s “core” prices suggested lower inflation pressures. These prices rose 0.3% from January to February, down from 0.5% the previous month. And core prices rose just 2.8% from 12 months earlier — the lowest such figure in nearly three years — down from 2.9% in January. Economists consider core prices to be a better gauge of the likely path of future inflation.

Friday’s report showed that a sizable jump in energy prices — up 2.3% — boosted the overall prices of goods by 0.5% in February. By contrast, inflation in services — a vast range of items ranging from hotel rooms and restaurant meals to healthcare and concert tickets — slowed to a 0.3% increase, from a 0.6% rise in January. read more

ICON Park, which has grown dramatically since beginning operations in 2015, could see more expansion in the coming years, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

An application filed with Orange County on Tuesday revealed plans for a 409-seat entertainment venue, two hotels, and three proposed retail locations totaling over 38,000 square feet.

The main component of that application is an entertainment venue.

The application doesn’t specify the use or layout of the venue, but a site plan indicates that it will be a one-story building built at the base of the Orlando Eye, formerly known as The Wheel at ICON Park.

On Monday, Merlin Entertainments purchased and renamed the Orlando Eye, which they previously operated from 2015 to 2018. The company also owns Madame Tussauds Orlando and the Sea Life Orlando aquarium, both located within ICON Park.

“We are continually exploring innovative new experiences to add to our 20-acre destination, and we look forward to sharing more exciting news with world-class partners in the coming months,” Chris Jaskiewicz, president and CEO of ICON Park, said in a statement. read more