Things To Do In SW Florida

By DAVE COLLINS, Associated Press

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ‘ Infowars media platform and its assets will be sold off piece by piece in auctions this fall to help pay the more than $1 billion he owes relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, under an order expected to be approved by a federal judge.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said during a court hearing Tuesday that he will approve the auctions that start in November. But he said he first must change a previous order to make it clear that the trustee overseeing Jones’ personal bankruptcy case controls all the assets of Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems, which is owned 100% by Jones.

Despite the pending loss of his company, Jones vows to continue his talk shows through other means, possibly including a new website and his personal social media accounts. He also has suggested that Infowars’ assets could be bought by his supporters, allowing him to continue hosting his show as an employee under the Infowars brand in their home city of Austin, Texas. read more

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried ’s fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after she apologized to everyone hurt by a fraud that stole billions of dollars from investors, lenders and customers.

Ellison, 29, could have faced a much tougher sentence, but both the judge and prosecutors said she deserved credit for talking extensively with federal investigators, pleading guilty and ultimately testifying against Bankman-Fried for three days at his trial last November.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said Ellison’s cooperation was “very, very substantial” and “remarkable.”

But he said a prison sentence was necessary because she had participated in what might be the “greatest financial fraud ever perpetrated in this country and probably anywhere else” or at least close to it.

Ellison was ordered to report to prison Nov. 7.

FTX was one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, known for its Superbowl TV ad and its extensive lobbying campaign in Washington, before it collapsed in 2022. read more

NASA and SpaceX won’t be launching its next crew to the International Space Station as planned this week because of the threat from what is forecast to become Hurricane Helene.

NASA announced Tuesday that the planned launch that could have occurred Thursday will now be pushed to at least Saturday as the brewing storm aims to head up into the Gulf of Mexico and strike the Florida coast.

The wind field for the storm, though, is expected to be 250 miles wide as it grows into a strong Category 3 major hurricane by Thursday ahead of landfall.

Tropical Storm Helene forms, forecast to hit Florida as major hurricane

“Although Tropical Storm Helene is moving through the Gulf of Mexico and expected to impact the Florida panhandle, the storm system is large enough that high winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions on Florida’s east coast,” reads a post on NASA’s website.

Now SpaceX is aiming for a Falcon 9 topped with the Crew Dragon Freedom to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 no earlier than 1:17 p.m. Saturday with backups available Sunday-Tuesday. read more

By MAE ANDERSON

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars.

The complaint filed Tuesday says Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist. Visa earns an incremental fee from every transaction processed on its network.

According to the DOJ’s complaint, 60% of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s debit network, allowing it to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions.

“We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing – but the price of nearly everything.” read more

Sea Life Orlando Aquarium will host a short-time pop-up exhibit named “Voyage of Europa Clipper: Exploring an Alien Ocean” on Saturday and Sunday.

The displays aim to connect the deeps of our oceans with the frozen surface of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. It’s tied to the launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper space probe on Oct. 10.  Clipper’s mission will include exploring the uncharted oceans of Europa.

The exhibit includes an inflatable model of Europa, interactive experiments and Europa Clipper models. Dr. Morgan Cable, a research science with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will give talks about the mission on both days at 1 p.m. She has also worked on the Cassini, Dragonfly and Mars Perseverance missions.

“Hosting this exhibit allows visitors to explore both the depths of our planet’s oceans and the vast possibilities of ocean worlds beyond,” Michelle Daniels, head of marketing at Sea Life Orlando, said in a news release.

“Voyage of Europa Clipper” is included with regular admission to Sea Life, which operates at Icon Park complex on International Drive. A one-day admission to Sea Life is $34.99, although the attraction offers several combo deals and online discounts. read more