The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday designated two forever chemicals that have been used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances, an action intended to ensure quicker cleanup of the toxic compounds and require industries and others responsible for contamination to pay for its removal. Designation as a hazardous substance under the Superfund law doesn’t ban the chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS. But it requires that releases of the chemicals into soil or water be reported to federal, state or tribal officials if they meet or exceed certain levels. The EPA t ..read more

Jury selection in the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump is set to resume Friday following a frenetic day Thursday that eventually saw all 12 jurors and one alternate sworn in after two previously seated jurors were dismissed earlier in the day. One of those jurors was excused Thursday after expressing doubt about her ability to be fair and impartial after aspects of her identity were disclosed and a second seated juror was removed following concerns over the accuracy of his answers to questions about whether he had ever been accused or convicted of a crime. Lawyers are now focu ..read more

Have you ever heard of the term “claiming an intersection?” If you have, then I would encourage you to watch today’s stream. We are going to talk about some thing that I am sure we have all seen or you may have conducted yourself. I’m talking about when a driver is attempting to make a left turn in an intersection and then waits within that intersection. Is it safe? Is it legal? Join me live at the top of this story at 8:30 a.m. Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily ..read more

A healthy helping of Orlando-area restaurants just joined the ranks of Central Florida’s Michelin-starred eateries. At the 2024 Michelin Guide Ceremony in Tampa on Thursday, four Orlando-area restaurants were awarded a Michelin star, making O-town home to seven stars total. The annually-awarded recognition is given to restaurants that offer outstanding cooking and satisfy universal criteria including the quality of ingredients, mastery of techniques and “the personality of the chef as expressed through their cuisine,” according to the Guide. Michelin stars were awarded Thursday to Camille in B ..read more

Another arrest was made Thursday in a February shootout in an Orlando neighborhood in which a 21-year-old man was killed and six others were injured, according to the police department. The Orlando Police Department said 20-year-old Daiquan Noah Robinson was arrested and faces charges of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, shooting into an occupied vehicle and carrying a concealed weapon. It comes after the arrest of Wayne Grant Jr., who was arrested in February and faced charges of aggravated battery with a firearm, and the arrest earlier this week of Shamika Stubbs-Peterson, who fa ..read more

The American envoy to the United Nations called Friday for countries armed with atomic weapons to pursue nuclear disarmament as she visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, Japan. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who became the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Nagasaki, stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy amid a growing nuclear threat in the region. “We must continue to work together to create an environment for nuclear disarmament. We must continue to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in every corner of the world,” she said after a tour of the atomic bomb museum. “For those of ..read more

An overturned truck has prompted the closure of State Road 417 in Orange County, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The crash happened Friday morning on southbound S.R. 417 south of Lee Vista Boulevard, northeast of Orlando International Airport. All southbound lanes of S.R. 417 are blocked in the area and traffic is being diverted onto Lee Vista Boulevard. Orange County Fire Rescue said a dump truck spilled about 12 gallons of muriatic acid and three people were taken to hospitals, but no other details have been released. The FHP initially described the vehicle as a semitrailer. Check back for ..read more

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will go before voters Tuesday in Pennsylvania’s presidential primaries, a prelude to the November general election, when the commonwealth is expected to once again play a critical role in the race for the White House. Further down the ballot, voters will also select nominees in competitive primaries for Congress, the state legislature and three statewide offices. Biden clinched the Democratic nomination and Trump clinched the Republican nomination on March 12, and neither faces serious opposition on the primary ballot. Nonetheless, both pre ..read more

The United States told the Group of Seven foreign ministers on Friday that it received “last minute” information from Israel about a drone action in Iran, Italy’s foreign minister said. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who chaired the meeting of ministers of industrialized countries, said the United States provided the information at a Friday morning session that was changed at the last minute to address the suspected attack. Tajani said the U.S. informed the G7 ministers that it had been “informed at the last minute” by Israel about the drones. “But there was no sharing of the attack ..read more

Sometime in the next few days or even hours, the “miners” who chisel bitcoins out of complex mathematics are going to take a 50% pay cut — effectively slicing new production of the world’s largest cryptocurrency in half. That could have a lot of implications, from the price of the asset to the bitcoin miners themselves. And, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict. Here’s what you need to know. WHAT IS BITCOIN HALVING AND WHY DOES IT MATTER? Bitcoin “halving,” a preprogrammed event that occurs roughly every four years, impacts the production of bitcoin. Mi ..read more