Things To Do In SW Florida

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

Their eyes were watching. Some knew something was wrong. Others were slow to realize. Soon everyone came to grief.

Forty years ago Space Shuttle Challenger climbed into the clear amid blue skies over Cape Canaveral. The nation’s youth watched on TVs across the nation and from school playgrounds across Central Florida.

Christa McAuliffe was to be the first teacher in space.

But the streak of the rocket’s plume did not look right.

“We definitely didn’t know what happened at the time, but you could feel the energy of the teachers,” said Elizabeth Wisner Stroz, now 51, then an 11-year-old in sixth grade at Brookshire Elementary in Winter Park on Jan. 28, 1986. “I remember them scurrying us in a classroom, and just the energy of the teachers was off.”

She was one of several students interviewed by the Orlando Sentinel on the day Challenger exploded, killing all seven of its crew 73 seconds after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center on the 25th mission of the Space Shuttle Program. The crew included commander Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnick and McAuliffe. read more

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

We are in the midst of the Great Wealth Transfer, experts say — a predicted titanic pass-down of assets from older generations to Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. According to financial research firm Cerulli Associates, $124 trillion will change generational hands through 2048.

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That said, not everyone is going to get a staggering amount of money — or any inheritance at all, frankly. (Much of this wealth is concentrated in a small pocket of the population.) read more