Things To Do In SW Florida

By THOMAS PEIPERT, JEFF AMY and DAVE COLLINS

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Thousands of flights across the U.S. set to take off over the weekend were canceled as a monster storm started to wreak havoc Saturday across much of the country, knocking out power and snarling major roadways with dangerous ice.

Widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain threatened nearly 180 million people — more than half the U.S. population — in a path stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, the National Weather Service said Saturday night. It warned people to brace for a string of frigid days.

“The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts,” said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

President Donald Trump had approved emergency declarations for at least a dozen states by Saturday, with more expected to come. The Federal Emergency Management Agency pre-positioned commodities, staff and search and rescue teams in numerous states, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. read more

Meta is halting teens’ access to artificial intelligence characters, at least temporarily, the company said in a blog post Friday.

Meta Platforms Inc., which own Instagram and WhatsApp, said that starting in the “coming weeks,” teens will no longer be able to access AI characters “until the updated experience is ready”

This applies to anyone who gave Meta a birthday that makes them a minor, as well as “people who claim to be adults but who we suspect are teens based on our age prediction technology.”

The move comes the week before Meta — along with TikTok and Google’s YouTube — is scheduled to stand trial in Los Angeles over its apps’ harms to children.

Teens will still be able to access Meta’s AI assistant, just not the characters.

Other companies have also banned teens from AI chatbots amid growing concerns about the effects of artificial intelligence conversations on children. Character.AI announced its ban last fall. That company is facing several lawsuits over child safety, including by the mother of a teenager who says the company’s chatbots pushed her teenage son to kill himself. read more

If in 2025 you held a significant proportion of your investment portfolio in equities, gold or crypto, you probably had a great year. But now it’s time for you to review your holdings and consider whether you should be making any changes.

If you began 2025 with a diversified portfolio — say, with 60% invested in equities (in other words, common stocks) and 40% in bonds (including conservative investments such as money market funds, savings accounts and T-bills) — those proportions are likely different now. By the end of the year, the portfolio might have been 65% equities and only 35% bonds. If you are more comfortable with a 60/40 ratio, it’s time to rebalance.

Many financial experts believe that the stock market now is overvalued, and some warn that in 2026 popular indexes such as the S&P 500 may fall in value, or in any case not continue the growth of 2025. So, how do you find the right balance for the new year?

Planning in 2026

You need to decide now what the composition of your portfolio should be at the end of 2026. For example, do you want a 60/40 ratio of equities to bonds? Do you want to protect gains you made in 2025? What are your feelings about the direction of the stock and bond markets? read more

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — TikTok has at last finalized a deal to keep the popular video sharing platform operating in the U.S. after years of uncertainty, but questions remain about whether users’ experience will change and whether the changes actually address security concerns around the app.

Here’s what to know about the deal, which created a new TikTok U.S. joint venture after social video platform company signed agreements with major investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX.

Why was the deal needed?

After wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it did not find a new owner in the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go dark on the law’s January 2025 deadline. For several hours, it did. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration sought an agreement for the sale of the company. A string of orders continued to extend the deadline until this deal was reached. read more

By SETH BORENSTEIN and TAMMY WEBBER

Smartphone weather apps that summarize their forecasts with eye-popping numbers and bright icons may be handy during mild weather, but meteorologists say it’s better to listen to human expertise during multi-faceted, dangerous winter storms like the one blowing through the U.S.

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The multistate storm’s combination of heavy snow, treacherous ice and subzero temperatures shows why it’s best to seek out forecasters who can explain its nuances via local TV or radio newscasts, online livestreams or detailed websites, said meteorologists interviewed by The Associated Press. The data is changing rapidly before and during the storm, and the distance of a few miles can mean the difference between snow, sleet or dangerous freezing rain. read more