Latest news with #AmeliaIsland
Car and Driver
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
Spohn DV-13 Convertible on Bring a Trailer: You're Not Likely To See Another
This coachbuilt custom car hails from Germany and is fitted with a Cadillac V-8. Would you believe, only a handful were built? It's the concours winner nobody was expecting. The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance features awards in several categories, including engineering excellence, historical significance, and special mentions. It also has an award for "most audacious exterior." The car pictured here is the 2013 award winner, and audacious doesn't even begin to cover it. This is a 1957 Spohn DV-13, and the customized roadster is up for auction on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). Bring a Trailer The Spohn is the offspring of a German coachbuilder with a long tradition of clothing the finest cars in the world in gorgeous design. Before WWII, Spohn bodywork was worn by Maybachs and Mercedes-Benzes. In the postwar period, it, uh, got a little more creative. Okay, let's stop beating around the bush: This car looks like what Powell Motors would have built as the sporty followup version of The Homer car from The Simpsons. It is an acquired taste, like sea urchin or accordion solos, and on first glance looks supremely goofy. Remember the part in The Fly when Jeff Goldblum gets his DNA crossed with a housefly while experimenting with teleportation? This is like that, except it's a 1949 Cadillac and a Daimler SP250 having a transporter malfunction. Bring a Trailer Bring a Trailer Bring a Trailer Brendan McAleer Contributing Editor Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. Read full bio
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Travel + Leisure
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Travel + Leisure
Yes, You Can Buy a Golf Cart at Amazon—and We Found an Electric, 4-seat Option for $8K
What says summer more than cruising around a beach town in a golf cart? If you frequent some of Florida's communities or islands like Amelia, Anna Maria, and Captiva, where open-air low-speed vehicles (LSVs) seem to outnumber actual cars, you know this freeing feeling. Golf carts are not just legal to drive in parts of the Sunshine State, but they're actually encouraged. The state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says as long as they stay off the highways, golf carts provide a 'great way to enjoy local communities and natural spaces.' Some other locales across the U.S. are adopting this laid-back mindset and welcoming these 'vehicles' on the streets: Highland, Utah; Monroe, Michigan; and Shelbyville, Indiana, are just a few places where golf carts are newly street-legal as of 2025. This summer, in addition to perfecting your beach packing list, why not get your own set of wheels? Cruise the neighborhood, take it to the campground, or bring it on your beach vacation (check the LSV laws, obviously)—we'll save you a trip to the dealership with this golf cart we found at Amazon. Adding to the list of strange and unexpected things you can buy at Amazon (including entire homes), this electric-powered golf cart comes from Dallas-headquartered off-road recreational vehicle seller Kandi America and is just over $8,000. That's on the lower end of the pricing spectrum, as new models can cost, on average, as much as $15,000 to $20,000. The cart seats four, thanks to the inclusion of a rear bench, and the hard-shell roof extends over the back to keep all passengers dry and shaded. It comes equipped with electric power steering and a backup camera that connects to the seven-inch LCD screen to make it easy to maneuver—you don't want to end up on one of those 'golf cart fail' compilations. The cart reaches a full charge in 6.5 hours, and it doesn't need any special plug-ins—it's compatible with a 120-volt outlet, which is the standard outlet in the U.S. Fully charged, the 5,000-watt motor should be good for about 28 miles. If you were to drive only at its top speed—20 mph—you'd be able to go for almost an hour and a half without needing to charge. Reviewers love how much quieter the electric motor is than gas-powered carts, which is an especially important feature in campgrounds. They're impressed with the suspension and that it sits higher off the ground than other models, claiming it 'rides like a Jeep' out on the trails. 'It's loaded up with incredible features, and the design is fantastic,' one wrote, deeming it a 'head-turner.' There's an even more jazzed-up version with a 28-inch soundbar and LED lighting system for an extra fee. In case you're wondering how your regular Amazon delivery driver will get this 1,500-pound package off the truck, the brand assures the cart will come to you via freight, and you can choose your own delivery time. In terms of brand reputation (because buying any vehicle on the internet raises questions), Kandi American is a well-known manufacturer you can find at Lowe's and other big-name dealers. Though it's one of the more affordable golf carts we've found at Amazon, it's surprisingly not the only option. We discovered alternatives ranging from a Kandi six-seater to a $14,000 solar-charging cart on sale for $11,000. Shop around for a fresh, new summer ride, below. For families and bigger groups, this six-seater version of the Kandi America golf cart might be more practical. It has most of the same features as the four-seater, but with an extra row of seats and a bit more range (37 miles on a single charge, the brand says). Despite the larger size, it still plugs into a normal electrical outlet. $14,000 $11,000 at Amazon Going for 56 miles on a charge, this is the cart with the highest range that we found at Amazon. The luxe cruiser has a slightly higher-powered 51.2-volt lithium battery and a 400-watt solar panel on the roof, which alone can charge the battery from zero percent to full in 48 hours. High-tech amenities include the 10-inch LCD screen, Bluetooth, and Apple AirPlay. At the time of publishing, the price started at $8,099. Love a great deal? Sign up for our T+L Recommends newsletter and we'll send you our favorite travel products each week.
Reuters
22-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Plan to beef up Fed forecasts hits hurdle among its regional presidents
AMELIA ISLAND, Florida, May 22 (Reuters) - A proposal for the U.S. Federal Reserve to release detailed economic forecasts after some of its meetings to anchor the discussion of monetary policy is drawing fire from the heads of its regional banks who worry it will be hard to agree on a common outlook and risks further confusing the public. Fed Chair Jerome Powell flagged the need for improved communications in remarks to a central bank strategy conference last week, and former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke presented a plan for staff-generated economic reports and forecasts that would be released after policy meetings four times a year. In his May 16 presentation, Bernanke said releasing a "transparent, complete and comprehensive macro forecast" would help people better understand Fed decisions and what was likely to follow, while highlighting alternative scenarios would give policymakers more flexibility to change course if the outlook changed - such as when inflation veered higher in 2021. It would also bring the Fed in line with what many of its peers are doing. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, in comments on Tuesday to reporters at a conference in Florida, called Bernanke's proposal "thoughtful and provocative," but questioned the added value of releasing a staff forecast in real time. Staff forecasts are presented internally at the Federal Open Market Committee's eight policy meetings each year, short descriptions are included in the minutes of each meeting released to the public three weeks later, and the full documentation is published five years later along with meeting transcripts. If the staff forecast is issued in real time, "would this be seen as ... the basis upon which the committee makes decisions? I struggle with that because I don't think it would," Bostic said. Among policymakers "there are 19 views, and if we add the staff report, that would be 20." "There's a hunger out there for something more. And the question I'm wrestling with my team is sort of, what's the way to satisfy that hunger? Is there a way to do it that would not lead to perhaps misleading inferences," Bostic said. Others weighed in at a joint appearance with the Atlanta Fed president and at Bernanke's presentation. "I'm always open to ideas about how we can be more transparent," Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said. "Practically, getting the committee to agree on one consensus forecast or even a couple of different scenarios is really challenging, and I do worry that just putting out lots more information might not actually guide the public in the right way ... It may actually leave them more confused." One aim of more detailed forecasts would be to deflect some attention from the quarterly "dot plot" chart of policymaker interest rate projections, a public communications tool that has become something of an annoyance for policymakers across the Fed system. A collection of individual submissions by up to 19 policymakers, the quarterly Summary of Economic Projections and rate projections are not aggregated into a shared outlook. Yet financial markets and the public, Fed officials say, still treat each quarterly release as a policy roadmap with undue weight placed on the median of an often wide distribution of numbers. Analysts complain it also leaves unclear what the Fed is reacting to when the rate outlook changes; whether higher rates, for example, stem from higher expected inflation, different perceptions of risk, or changes in more underlying economic forces. But Bernanke's proposal, so far, has largely just revived a battle he fought unsuccessfully when the Fed was revising its policy approach in 2012. A similar idea then was also criticized by regional Fed bank presidents who have their own technical staff, take varying approaches to modeling the economy, and would be cautious in signing off on any new product meant to shape public expectations. Limiting confusion about the Fed's plans - making clear the basis of rate decisions and the economic factors that cause them to change - is a central theme of policymaker discussions right now. Clear communications are considered important to making monetary policy effective by helping markets trade in more informed ways, decreasing volatility around policy decisions, and helping keep broader public expectations in line with the Fed's 2% inflation target. The existing approach to policy, adopted in 2020 when concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic and related high unemployment were dominant, is likely in for extensive revision driven by a common theme: Simpler is better. Changes made to the Fed's approach five years ago included a promise to use higher inflation to offset periods of lower inflation, to not use a low unemployment rate as a sign in itself of future rises in inflation, and a characterization of maximum employment as a "broad and inclusive" goal. The phrase was meant as a statement of fact about the benefits of maximum employment, and echoed the 1970s law that added a jobs "mandate" to the Fed's responsibilities, but was often construed publicly as the central bank delving into issues of economic equity that it could not really resolve. There's broad agreement inside and outside the Fed that the current approach is too complex and needs to be pared down. "A framework should be robust to a broad range of conditions," Powell said last week, warning, for example, that supply shocks and inflation spikes could become more frequent. "If the objective is to communicate to the public what the Fed is trying to do, what it's looking at, then it needs to be simpler," said Carl Walsh, an economics professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who dissected the Fed's 2020 framework in a paper that urged it to be clearer in its framework that maintaining stable inflation was one of the preconditions for achieving its employment goal. Officials continue to debate replacement language for the framework, which is likely to be announced in August at the central bank's annual Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming. The discussion of what additional material to provide around the Fed's policy meetings is a separate debate being carried out in parallel. Powell last week indicated he wants change, but may face a challenge building consensus over what to do. "A common observation is the need for clear communications as complex events unfold," Powell said. "Clear communication is an issue even in relatively placid times."
Reuters
20-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US economy may be on the brink of price-hike wave, Fed's Bostic says
AMELIA ISLAND, Florida, May 20 (Reuters) - U.S. businesses may have run out of strategies to delay changing prices or employment in response to higher import taxes, with the economy possibly on the brink of a wave of price increases, Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic said on Tuesday. "One thing that we've heard is that a lot of the tariff impact to date has actually not shown up in the numbers yet. There's been a lot of front-running, building inventories and all those sorts of things. And we are hearing from an increasing number of businesses that those strategies ... are starting to run their course," Bostic said on the sidelines of an Atlanta Fed conference in Florida. "If these pre-tariff strategies have run their course, we're about to see some changes in prices, and then we're going to learn how consumers are going to respond to that."
Fox News
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
'Celebrity figure' Bill Belichick 'great thing' for ACC despite distractions
Bill Belichick arrived fashionably late to the ACC's spring meetings, his first one as North Carolina's head coach. Still wheeling luggage around the beachside resort in Amelia Island, Belichick banged his carry-on into the door frame as he joined league athletic directors, faculty representatives and football and basketball coaches. It was a mildly awkward entrance for the ACC's newest and brightest star. But if the former New England Patriots coach and six-time Super Bowl champion caused a distraction, no one seemed to care. The ACC, at least publicly, welcomed Belichick, baggage and all. "I thought I was done being tortured by him," joked Stanford interim coach Frank Reich, who went 6-7 against Belichick, including a win in Super Bowl 52, during 18 seasons on NFL sidelines. Belichick, with a new public relations communications person by his side, declined most interview requests at the Ritz-Carlton. He did two football-only interviews with North Carolina reporters, sat alongside Clemson coach Dabo Swinney for an ESPN feature and did a brief segment on ESPN's SportsCenter, whose appearance at the meetings surely had more to do with the former NFL coach than anything the conference had going on during its three-day event. ESPN already had made UNC's home opener against TCU a prime-time event, with Labor Day night becoming a showcase for Belichick's college coaching debut. It could be a launching point for the league, which trails the Big Ten and the Southeastern conferences in brand recognition, television ratings and — most importantly — revenue. "I think they ran to us before we could even run to them, our partners at Disney," ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said. "Listen, it's a great thing for the league. It's a great thing for North Carolina. And we're all following just the massive coverage that Coach Belichick draws. "I don't know that he's got a private moment to himself at all from what I can see and read and what I follow. But I think it's good. I think it's good for our league. It's good for certainly North Carolina. It's good for college football people; it draws more interest. And it was enjoyable to have him here this week with our joint group in those meetings." Belichick, Reich and Boston College coach Bill O'Brien give the league three former NFL coaches, though none come with the titles and headaches — Spygate, Deflategate and more — of Belichick. Their experience and insight were widely regarded — no surprise considering many top programs are adapting NFL models as they navigate a changing landscape on the doorstep of paying players for use of their name, image and likeness. "I don't necessarily know where college football is going, but I have an idea," SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said. "We're not really a full pro model, but we're not an old-school, student-athlete-only model. We're kind of in the middle. "You start talking about salary caps and portal/free agency and rules of the game. I don't necessarily believe that just because the NFL does it, we should. But at the end of the day, we're grooming guys to go to the league, so as many things as we can do that line up with them makes sense. Having Bill Belichick, Bill O'Brien, Frank Reich, it definitely adds value to the room." With no TV cameras chasing his every move, the 73-year-old Belichick was somewhat removed from the spotlight during the ACC event. It may have been a welcome respite after the past few weeks, when he defended 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson for shutting down questions about their relationship, which has drawn outsized attention given their age gap and fed by frequent online glimpses into their relationship via social media. Earlier this month, UNC released a statement saying Hudson is "welcome" at Tar Heels football facilities to contradict a report that she had been banned. "I don't know that I concern myself with some of those things," Phillips said. "I think about the elements that affect the ACC. Some of those other things, I really don't even pay that much attention to." UNC hired Belichick last December, giving him a three-year, $30 million contract in hopes of reenergizing its football program. Belichick, whose 302 career coaching wins rank third in NFL history, has undoubtably created a stir. He limited access to practices and had players working out in numberless jerseys. "Bill's been great to work with," UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said. "He's a celebrity figure, and he's doing a great job for us." Added Clemson coach Dabo Swinney: "He's an amazing football coach. You don't get lucky and do what he did, especially in the NFL where the margin is so, so small. He's going to be great for our league." Reporting by The Associated Press. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
