Things To Do In SW Florida

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

The U.S. is taking a minority stake in an Oklahoma rare earth miner, the latest government investment in the sector as it seeks to minimize its reliance on imports of a material used prevalently in smartphones, robotics, electric vehicles and many other high tech products.

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China processes more than 90% of the world’s critical minerals and has used its dominance in the market to gain leverage in the trade war with Washington.

USA Rare Earth said Monday that the U.S. Commerce Department is investing $1.6 billion in the company to advance work on a mine in Texas and to build a magnet manufacturing facility in Oklahoma. read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are ticking higher Monday, while other markets make louder moves, including another record-breaking rush for the price of gold.

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  Spike in Florida gas prices last week have shifted back down, AAA says

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% in mixed trading to win back its losses from last week’s dip. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 170 points, or 0.3%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.

Baker Hughes helped lead the way and rose 3% after delivering a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The energy technology company said it’s benefiting from strong momentum in demand for liquefied natural gas, among other things. read more

SpaceX is set to launch its latest national security mission, yet another GPS satellite that was originally to have been launched by United Launch Alliance.

A Falcon 9 is set to lift off Monday night on the GPS III-9 mission to bring the satellite to medium-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting a 15-minute warning that opens at 11:46 p.m. A backup option falls to Tuesday night at 11:38 p.m.

Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron, though, only forecasts a 40% chance for good conditions at the launch site Monday as well as a moderate concern for poor weather in the booster recovery site. Those chances improve to 95% if delayed until Tuesday.

This will be the fifth trip to space for the first-stage booster, which will aim for a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

It’s the second national security mission of the year for SpaceX, which flew the NROL-105 mission from California earlier this month. read more

Gas prices in Florida rose to their highest level since December 20 in the last week, but have eased off in the last few days, according to AAA.

The state average had jumped 14 cents from a week ago to a high of $2.89 per gallon on Thursday, which was a spike not see since before Christmas, but prices have since slid back by 3 cents to $2.86 per gallon. It had dropped by Monday morning to $2.84 per gallon while the national average was at $2.88 per gallon.

“These fluctuations are part of a price‑cycling trend we’ve been seeing for more than a year now,” said AAA spokesperson Mark Jenkins  “Retail prices tend to rise sharply over a short period, then gradually drift lower. Even with small movements in the oil market, this cycle continues to drive most of the day-to-day volatility at the pump.”

The price of crude oil had finished the week at $61.07 per barrel, which is a a 3% increase from the previous week.

“Higher oil prices typically place upward pressure on pump prices, but Florida’s retail market continues to follow its own pattern,” AAA stated. read more

By KELVIN CHAN, Associated Press Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — The European Union opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Monday after his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok spewed nonconsensual sexualized deepfake images on the platform.

European regulators also widened a separate, ongoing investigation into X’s recommendation systems after the platform said it would switch to Grok’s AI system to choose which posts users see.

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The scrutiny from Brussels comes after Grok sparked a global backlash by allowing users through its AI image generation and editing capabilities to undress people, putting females in transparent bikinis or revealing clothing. Researchers said some images appeared to include children. Some governments banned the service or issued warnings. read more