Things To Do In SW Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Retiree MaryAnn Kaesberg went to her library in Seminole County recently to research stocks and mutual funds like she usually does, only to find the popular Morningstar Sustainalytics research website was blocked.

A librarian told her it was because the state had added Morningstar to a list of companies prohibited from doing business with Florida because of policies that boycott Israel or list companies doing business in the West Bank as high-risk.

“Morningstar cannot continue its service with our library as they have been placed on Florida’s ‘Scrutinized Companies that boycott Israel’ list by the state of Florida,” library officials told Kaesberg in an email.

Library officials confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel that Morningstar told them it made the decision to cancel the district’s $10,400 a year subscription when it was up for renewal in January because of the decision to place it on the “scrutinized companies” list.

“I have never heard of this list. We cannot imagine why the publication is being scrutinized. Are they censoring adults as well as children in Florida?” Kaesberg told the Sentinel. “I am not sure if their other products are causing them to be scrutinized. This is an expensive publication, which has been offered for years by the library. I miss having access to it.” read more

The Delta family of rockets have been responsible for launching Mars rovers, space telescopes, solar probes, weather satellites and more during a 63-year-run that began when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.

It has one more to go as United Launch Alliance aims to send up the final Delta IV Heavy rocket on the NROL-70 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37, but a Thursday attempt was scrubbed with just under four minutes to go before liftoff because of an issue with the gaseous nitrogen pipeline that provides pneumatic pressure to the vehicle.

Late Thursday, ULA said fixes to the system were not to a confidence level for a Friday launch attempt, and a new launch date would be decided in the future.

“It’s a bittersweet moment for us. This is such an amazing piece of technology,” said ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno. “It’s the most metal of rockets setting itself on fire before it goes to space.”

The way the propellant flows ahead of liftoff gives a massive fireball on the launch pad. read more

Q: I am buying a house and have been warned about the various scams, especially those involving wires. I spoke with the closing agent, and they will not accept a check to buy my new home. How can I protect myself when sending a wire? — Nick

A: Whenever large sums of money are involved, scammers seem to come out of the woodwork. Throughout my career, there seems to be a never-ending variety of scams to watch out for.

Despite the dangers, bank wires remain the preferred, and often only, method of closing escrow on your real estate transaction. This is partly because checks, even certified or bank checks, can be stopped or easily counterfeited.

“Hard” funds, such as those sent by wire transfer, are required at closing so the escrow agent can pay the seller, lender, and other parties without delay.

Due to the large sums involved, criminals are constantly developing methods to trick people into redirecting the wire transfer to their accounts rather than the escrow agent. A persistent scam involves the fraudster hacking into one of the participants’ unsecured email accounts. read more