Things To Do In SW Florida

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed slightly lower on Friday in a quiet day of trading as investors returned from the Christmas holiday.

The S&P 500 index fell 2.11 points, less than 0.1%, to close at 6,929.94, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20.19 points, also less than 0.1%, to 48,710.97 and the Nasdaq composite fell 20.21 points, or 0.1%, to 23,593.10.

Institutional investors are largely closed out of their positions for the year, so trading was extremely light. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange was roughly half of an average day.

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For young people in debt, bankruptcy seems like a get out of jail free card. Is it? read more

By Katie Kelton, CCC, Bankrate.com

When Whitney Catalano filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2022, she was self-employed, living in an apartment she couldn’t afford and carrying $60,000 in credit card and personal loan debt. For her, bankruptcy looked like freedom.

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“I felt very overwhelmed by money,” she says. “I wanted to clear myself of this chapter and really restart from a clean slate.”

Catalano is one voice in a chorus of TikTok accounts lauding bankruptcy. It goes something like this: People in their 20s and 30s film their stories of filing for bankruptcy, calling it the best decision they ever made. Or in modern meme talk: “‘You look happier.’ Thanks, I filed for bankruptcy.” read more

Q: I live in a homeowners’ association, and I decorated my house and yard for the holidays. They made me take it down under threat of a fine. Are they allowed to do this? – Gunther

A: Living in a community association means following a set of rules and regulations you agreed to when you purchased your home. These rules often govern how you decorate your home and yard, even during the holidays.

While it is frustrating to be told to take down your holiday decorations, your association likely has the authority to enforce such rules, depending on your community’s governing documents.

Your first step is to review your association’s governing documents, which typically include the Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions, bylaws, and any rules or guidelines. These documents outline what is and is not allowed in your neighborhood, including rules on holiday decorations.

Some HOAs have specific restrictions on the type, size, or timing of decorations, while others may prohibit certain displays altogether. read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and PAUL WISEMAN

Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has overturned decades of U.S. trade policy — building a wall of tariffs around what used to be a wide open economy.

His double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country have disrupted global commerce and strained the budgets of consumers and businesses worldwide. They have also raised tens of billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury.

Trump has argued that his steep new import taxes are necessary to bring back wealth that was “stolen” from the U.S. He says they will narrow America’s decades-old trade deficit and bring manufacturing back to the country. But upending the global supply chain has proven costly for households facing rising prices. And the erratic way the president rolled out his tariffs — announcing them, then suspending or altering them before conjuring up new ones — made 2025 one of the most turbulent economic years in recent memory.

Here’s a look at the impact of Trump’s tariffs over the last year, in four charts. read more

By MATIAS DELACROIX and REGINA GARCIA CANO

MARACAY, Venezuela (AP) — This was not the Christmas that Mariela Gómez would have imagined a year ago. Or the one that thousands of other Venezuelan immigrants would have thought. But Donald Trump returned to the White House in January and quickly ended their American dream.

So Gómez found herself spending the holiday in northern Venezuela for the first time in eight years. She dressed up, cooked, got her son a scooter and smiled for her in-laws. Hard as she tried, though, she could not ignore the main challenges faced by returning migrants: unemployment and poverty.

“We had a modest dinner, not quite what we’d hoped for, but at least we had food on the table,” Gómez said of the lasagna-like dish she shared with her partner and in-laws instead of the traditional Christmas dish of stuffed corn dough hallacas. “Making hallacas here is a bit expensive, and since we’re unemployed, we couldn’t afford to make them.”

Gómez, her two sons and her partner returned to the city of Maracay on Oct. 27 after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to Texas, where they were quickly swept up by U.S. Border Patrol amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. They were deported to Mexico, from where they began the dangerous journey back to Venezuela. read more