Things To Do In SW Florida

Jenny Gold | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Parents are bombarded with a dizzying list of orders when it comes to screen time and young children: No screens for babies under 18 months. Limit screens to one hour for children under 5. Only “high-quality” programming. No fast-paced apps. Don’t use screens to calm a fussy child. “Co-view” with your kid to interact while watching.

The stakes are high. Every few months it seems, a distressing study comes out linking screen time with a growing list of concerns for young children: Obesity. Behavioral problems. Sleep issues. Speech and developmental delays.

Maya Valree, the mother of a 3-year-old girl in Los Angeles, understands the risks and constantly worries about them. But limiting her daughter’s screen time to one hour feels impossible as she juggles life as a working parent, she said.

Over the past few years, her child’s screen time has ranged up to 2-3 hours a day, more than double the limit recommended by pediatricians. Valree puts on educational programming whenever possible, but it doesn’t capture her child’s attention as well as her favorites, Meekah and “The Powerpuff Girls.” read more

Holly D. Johnson | (TNS) Bankrate

Travel credit cards make it easy to earn rewards — usually offered in the form of points or miles — for certain types of purchases. You can typically redeem your travel rewards for the big expenses associated with your next trip such as flights, hotels, car rentals and vacation packages. Some issuers also let you redeem travel rewards for statement credits and other non-travel options.

Some travel credit cards are associated with a specific airline or hotel loyalty program, whereas others let you earn rewards within a credit card’s rewards program. At the end of the day, you’ll want to understand the type of travel rewards your card offers, as well as available redemption options before you sign up.

Regardless of which type of card you choose, becoming a savvy travel rewards credit card holder can help offset travel costs and enhance your overall travel experience.

Types of travel credit cards

No matter your spending habits and rewards preferences, there’s likely a travel credit card that fits. Top travel credit cards include flexible rewards cards and those that are co-branded with another program, such as hotel credit cards and airline credit cards. read more

By Anna Helhoski | NerdWallet

Gas prices could be about to get cheaper, just in time for summer road travel, as about 42 million gallons of gasoline makes its way into the fuel market.

In May, the Biden administration announced that the one million barrels of gasoline in the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve were up for sale. Contracts were awarded to five companies, and barrels were sold at an average of $2.34 per gallon. The gasoline was released to the contracted companies as of June 30.

Amos Hochstein, deputy assistant to the president and senior advisor for energy and investment, says the release of gas should soon help drive down costs at the pump or, at least, prevent the price from increasing.

“It’s not even oil — it’s a million barrels of gasoline directly into the gas market,” says Hochstein, who is the leading expert and advisor to President Joe Biden on gasoline. By contrast, when oil reserves are released it still takes time to refine into gasoline. This action will move gas into the U.S. supply faster, but it’s one that can’t be done very often, says Hochstein. read more

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials at their most recent meeting welcomed recent signs that inflation is slowing and highlighted data suggesting that the job market and the broader economy could be cooling.

Both trends, if they continued, could lead the Fed to cut its benchmark interest rate in the coming months from its 23-year peak.

The minutes of the Fed’s June 11-12 meeting, released Wednesday, showed that the policymakers saw several factors that could further ease inflation in the coming months. These factors included the slower growth of wages, which reduces pressure on companies to raise prices to cover their labor costs.

The policymakers also pointed to anecdotal cases of retail chains and other businesses lowering prices and offering discounts, a sign that customers are increasingly resisting higher prices.

And in a noticeable shift from previous minutes, the officials cited concerns that a further cooling in the job market would likely lead to layoffs. So far, slowing demand for workers has mostly appeared in the form of fewer job postings. read more