Business

Florida Politics reports: Smart & Safe Florida, the campaign behind a recreational marijuana amendment, announced it has raised more than $15 million. While the campaign up until now has largely been backed by Trulieve, its financial support now comes from a number of cannabis businesses and investors across the country. Those include: Verano Holdings, Curaleaf Holdings, AYR Wellness, Cresco Labs, …

The Associated Press reports: More and more businesses are taking advantage of the total solar eclipse set to dim skies across North America on Monday. In the snacks department alone, Krispy Kreme is teaming up with Oreo to sell a limited doughnut-cookie creation. Sonic Drive-In is selling a “Blackout Slush Float.” And Frito-Lay’s SunChips has unveiled a new flavor that …

Axios reports: LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr has hired the founders of Athena, a 2-year-old fitness community app. Grindr aims to expand its app features into areas like travel and health, according to CEO George Arison. Grindr is known as a tool for finding nearby dates, but its users have been using it for other social connections, says Arison. Most of …

Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo writes for the Daily News: “They can’t even figure out how to fix a pothole!” That was my grandfather’s rant when as a kid I would be riding in his car and he hit a pothole. It was a metaphor for a general frustration with government’s incompetence: the inability to perform simple, obvious tasks. New …

The Associated Press reports: Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin loved pulling pranks, so much so they began rolling outlandish ideas every April Fool’s Day not long after starting their company more than a quarter century ago. The jokes were so consistently over-the-top that people learned to laugh them off as another example of Google mischief. And that’s why …

The Associated Press reports: Teams of engineers worked Saturday on the intricate process of cutting and lifting the first section of twisted steel from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, which crumpled into the Patapsco River this week after a massive cargo ship crashed into one of its supports. Crews were carefully measuring and cutting the steel from the broken …

TechCrunch reports: Phone giant AT&T has reset millions of customer account passcodes after a huge cache of data containing AT&T customer records was dumped online earlier this month, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The U.S. telco giant initiated the passcode mass-reset after TechCrunch informed AT&T on Monday that the leaked data contained encrypted passcodes that could be used to access AT&T …

The Daily Beast reports: Dali, the ship behind the fatal bridge collapse in Baltimore on Wednesday, had suffered from a “severe electrical problem” for days before it lost power during its ill-fated trip out of the Maryland harbor, a port worker told a CNN affiliate on Thursday. Julie Mitchell, co-administrator of Container Royalty, a company tracks the tonnage on container …

The Baltimore Sun reports: Maryland State Police Superintendent Roland Butler said Wednesday evening that divers found a red pickup truck Wednesday morning with two bodies inside. Butler identified the victims as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35 of Baltimore, and Dorlian Castillo of Dundalk. Fuentes was from Mexico, and Castillo was from Guatemala, state police said. “We have exhausted all efforts around …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: A Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed board and Disney settled lawsuits Wednesday over who controls the governing district of Disney World’s theme parks and resorts. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s board voted to accept the deal, which ends much of the litigation between Disney and Florida officials. The agreement says development agreements and covenants approved by a …

The Telegraph reports: “Dirty fuel” may have triggered power blackouts that sent a container ship careering into a harbour bridge in Baltimore, which then collapsed, investigators have said. The investigation into the crash, in which six people are presumed to have died, will look at the possibility that the fuel was contaminated, sources said. The Dali cargo ship was hit …

The Associated Press reports: A senior executive the company that employed the construction workers said six of the company’s workers are presumed to be dead and one worker was hospitalized. Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, said the crew was working in the middle of the bridge’s span when the crash happened and crumbled the bridge. The bodies …

The Associated Press reports: A container ship lost power and rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to snap and plunge into the river below. Several vehicles fell into the chilly waters, and rescuers searched for survivors. The operators of the ship issued a mayday call moments before the crash that took down the Francis Scott …

CNN reports: The container ship Dali, which had just left the Port of Baltimore and was en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka, was not being piloted by its own crew, but by local pilots who are used specifically to avoid accidents like the one that occurred early Tuesday morning. “Pilots move ships in and out of the Port of Baltimore,” …

Reuters reports: A U.S. lawmaker involved in health policy has asked the Food and Drug Administration why it did not inspect Elon Musk’s Neuralink before allowing the brain implant company to test its device in humans. Reuters reported last month that FDA inspectors found problems with record keeping and quality controls for animal experiments at Neuralink last June, less than …

The Associated Press reports: As Donald Trump’s social media company begins trading publicly Tuesday, would-be investors might ask themselves if the stock is too pricey and potentially too volatile. Trump Media debuts with a stock price near $50 and a market value of about $6.8 billion. Many of Digital World’s investors were small-time investors either trying to support Trump or …

Reuters reports: Chick-fil-A announced it is allowing certain antibiotics in its chicken, overturning a commitment it made in 2014. The company said in a recent statement posted on its website that the change will take effect in spring 2024, and is intended “to maintain supply of the high-quality chicken you expect from us.” The statement said the antibiotics that will …

The Florida Phoenix reports: As lawmakers were winding down in the Capitol, Florida lawmakers finally passed a contentious bill that has irked local governments over the past decade — a proposal to give the state more power to regulate short-term vacation rentals such as Airbnb and Vrbo platforms, which have changed the vacation landscape in a tourist-heavy state. But a …

CNBC reports: Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will step down at the end of 2024 in part of a broad management shakeup for the embattled aerospace giant. Chairman of the board Larry Kellner is also resigning and will leave the board at Boeing’s annual meeting in May. He has been replaced as chair by Steve Mollenkopf, who has been a Boeing …

The New York Times reports: Jeff Yass, the billionaire Wall Street financier and Republican megadonor who is a major investor in the parent company of TikTok, was also the biggest institutional shareholder of the shell company that recently merged with former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company. A December regulatory filing showed that Mr. Yass’s trading firm, Susquehanna International …