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NoneNuclear sector pins hopes on 2026 for ‘low-carbon’ hydrogen labelPhillies add depth to bullpen with 1-year deal for reliever Joe RossBy CLAIRE RUSH PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Googly eyes have been appearing on sculptures around the central Oregon city of Bend, delighting many residents and sparking a viral sensation covered widely by news outlets and featured on a popular late-night talk show. On social media, the city shared photos of googly eyes on installations in the middle of roundabouts that make up its so-called “Roundabout Art Route.” One photo shows googly eyes placed on a sculpture of two deer, while another shows them attached to a sphere. It’s not yet known who has been putting them on the sculptures. “While the googly eyes placed on the various art pieces around town might give you a chuckle, it costs money to remove them with care to not damage the art,” the city said in its posts. The Facebook post received hundreds of comments, with many users saying they liked the googly eyes. “My daughter and I went past the flaming chicken today and shared the biggest laugh,” one user said, using a nickname for the “Phoenix Rising” sculpture. “We love the googly eyes. This town is getting to be so stuffy. Let’s have fun!” Another Facebook user wrote: “I think the googly eyes on the deer specifically are a great look, and they should stay that way.” Others said the city should focus on addressing more important issues, such as homelessness, instead of spending time and money on removing the googly eyes. Over the years, the city’s sculptures have been adorned with other seasonal decorations, including Santa hats, wreaths, leis. The city doesn’t remove those, and views the googly eyes differently because of the adhesive, Bend’s communications director, Rene Mitchell, told The Associated Press. “We really encourage our community to engage with the art and have fun. We just need to make sure that we can protect it and that it doesn’t get damaged,” she said. The post and its comments were covered by news outlets, and even made it on a segment of CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert .” The city regrets that its post was misunderstood, Mitchell said. “There was no intent to be heavy-handed, and we certainly understand maybe how that was taken,” she said. “We own this large collection of public art and really want to bring awareness to the community that applying adhesives does harm the art. So as stewards of the collection, we wanted to share that on social media.” The city has so far spent $1,500 on removing googly eyes from seven of the eight sculptures impacted, Mitchell said, and has started treating some of the art pieces, which are made of different types of metal such as bronze and steel. The “Phoenix Rising” sculpture might need to be repainted entirely, she said. For some, the googly eyes — like the other holiday objects — provide a welcome boost of seasonal cheer. “I look forward to seeing the creativity of whoever it is that decorates the roundabouts during the holidays,” one social media commenter said. “Brings a smile to everyone to see silliness.”
Apple iOS 18 Hearing Aids: Are AirPods Pro 2 Headsets Sufficient Alternatives?NEW YORK (AP) — What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors. U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates. The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big Tech, which got even bigger as their stock prices kept growing . But it wasn't just Apple, Nvidia and the like. Bitcoin , gold and other investments also drove higher. Here's a look at some of the numbers that defined the year. All are as of Dec. 20. Remember when President Bill Clinton got impeached or when baseball's Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run against the Montreal Expos? That was the last time the U.S. stock market closed out a second straight year with a leap of at least 20%, something the S&P 500 is on track to do again this year. The index has climbed 24.3% so far this year, not including dividends, following last year's spurt of 24.2%. The number of all-time highs the S&P 500 has set so far this year. The first came early, on Jan. 19, when the index capped a two-year comeback from the swoon caused by high inflation and worries that high interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve to combat it would create a recession. But the index was methodical through the rest of the year, setting a record in every month outside of April and August, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The latest came on Dec. 6. The number of times the Federal Reserve has cut its main interest rate this year from a two-decade high, offering some relief to the economy. Expectations for those cuts, along with hopes for more in 2025, were a big reason the U.S. stock market has been so successful this year. The 1 percentage point of cuts, though, is still short of the 1.5 percentage points that many traders were forecasting for 2024 at the start of the year. The Fed disappointed investors in December when it said it may cut rates just two more times in 2025, fewer than it had earlier expected. That’s how many points the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by the day after Election Day, as investors made bets on what Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mean for the economy and the world . The more widely followed S&P 500 soared 2.5% for its best day in nearly two years. Aside from bitcoin, stocks of banks and smaller winners were also perceived to be big winners. The bump has since diminished amid worries that Trump’s policies could also send inflation higher. The level that bitcoin topped to set a record above $108,000 this past month. It's been climbing as interest rates come down, and it got a particularly big boost following Trump's election. He's turned around and become a fan of crypto, and he's named a former regulator who’s seen as friendly to digital currencies as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing someone who critics said was overly aggressive in his oversight. Bitcoin was below $17,000 just two years ago following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Gold's rise for the year, as it also hit records and had as strong a run as U.S. stocks. Wars around the world have helped drive demand for investments seen as safe, such as gold. It's also benefited from the Fed's cut to interest rates. When bonds are paying less in interest, they pull away fewer potential buyers from gold, which pays investors nothing. It's a favorite number of Elon Musk, and it's also a threshold that Tesla's stock price passed in December as it set a record. The number has a long history among marijuana devotees, and Musk famously said in 2018 that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share . Tesla soared this year, up from less than $250 at the start, in part because of expectations that Musk's close relationship with Trump could benefit the company. That's how much revenue Nvidia made in the nine months through Oct. 27, showing how the artificial-intelligence frenzy is creating mountains of cash. Nvidia's chips are driving much of the move into AI, and its revenue through the last nine months catapulted from less than $39 billion the year before. Such growth has boosted Nvidia's worth to more than $3 trillion in total. GameStop’s gain on May 13 after Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” appeared online for the first time in three years to support the video game retailer’s stock, which he helped rocket to unimaginable heights during the “ meme stock craze ” in 2021. Several other meme stocks also jumped following his post in May on the social platform X, including AMC Entertainment. Gill later disclosed a sizeable stake in the online pet products retailer Chewy, but he sold all of his holdings by late October . That's how much the U.S. economy grew, at annualized seasonally adjusted rates, in each of the three first quarters of this year. Such growth blew past what many pessimists were expecting when inflation was topping 9% in the summer of 2022. The fear was that the medicine prescribed by the Fed to beat high inflation — high interest rates — would create a recession. Households at the lower end of the income spectrum in particular are feeling pain now, as they contend with still-high prices. But the overall economy has remained remarkably resilient. This is the vacancy rate for U.S. office buildings — an all-time high — through the first three quarters of 2024, according to data from Moody's. The fact the rate held steady for most of the year was something of a win for office building owners, given that it had marched up steadily from 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Demand for office space weakened as the pandemic led to the popularization of remote work. That's the total number of previously occupied homes sold nationally through the first 11 months of 2024. Sales would have to surge 20% year-over-year in December for 2024's home sales to match the 4.09 million existing homes sold in 2023, a nearly 30-year low. The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. A shortage of homes for sale and elevated mortgage rates have discouraged many would-be homebuyers.Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is not expected to announce a decision on his future over the holidays
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President-elect Trump wants to again rename North America’s tallest peakCaleb Williams has thrown 255 passes without being intercepted, the longest streak ever by a rookie quarterback. It’s not a streak worth preserving. Not when the Bears average 288.5 yards per game, the fewest in the NFL. They also average 182.7 passing yards per game, the third-fewest in the league. Not when the team is on a seven-game losing streak that has claimed Williams’ head coach, offensive coordinator and whatever sense of joy the Bears’ go-for-it season was supposed to provide. And not when Williams ranks 32 nd out of 41 qualifying quarterbacks in aggressiveness percentage, which NFL Next Gen Stats uses to measures how often a quarterback throws into tight coverage. Williams throws into tight coverage — defined as defenders being within one yard of receivers when the ball arrives — just 12.2 percent of the time. He doesn’t throw the ball downfield often, either. His 4.9 completed air yards, which measures the length of the throw on completions, is 31 st in the league. Williams going two months without throwing an interception isn’t a feature of the Bears offense, then. It’s a bug. This is the time for Williams to take risks and push the ball downfield. The Bears’ season is over — they figure to be eliminated from the playoffs this week — and the only thing remaining that matters is Williams’ development. If Williams gambles down the field and a safety jumps in front of a deep ball, so what? “I’m not one that, I tend to throw interceptions,” Williams said this week. “I know in the beginning of the season I threw a couple early on, a couple stupid ones. I think protecting the ball is the most important thing.” Williams has thrown five interceptions — none since Oct. 13 in London — and has fumbled the ball away three times, including Sunday in San Francisco when he tried to stop his throwing motion. The streak is commendable, but means little on a team that will spend the final four weeks thinking more about next season than this year. Williams will be better in 2025 if he spends the rest of this season figuring out what he can — and can’t — do. “I touch the ball the most on the football team, so being able to protect in those ways helps us win games ... I’m going to try and do that and keep doing that for the next four games,” he said. Chris Beatty, who is Williams’ third different offensive coordinator this season, said coaches never talk to Williams about avoiding interceptions. “It’s all about being calculated and, ‘Hey, we see a certain matchup that we like, let’s try to take advantage of it,’” he said. “There’s some things that we want to try to do a little bit more of. And then there’s some things that we might be missing because we’re seeing them for the first time in a game or full speed. So those are things we’re trying to get better at. .... “I don’t think it’s a lack of aggressiveness as much as, [Williams] has got to be calculated when he wants to do those things and then understand there are times to do it: ‘You know, we’re 1-on-1, we need to take some shots.’” Receiver DJ Moore said he didn’t want Williams trying to force things, though. “If he doesn’t have interceptions, we’re doing something right,” Moore said. “I don’t want him to start having interceptions. He’s doing what he’s doing at a high level.” Williams hasn’t been effective when he’s taken deep shots, though. Only four teams have fewer explosive passing plays — going for 20 yards or more — than the Bears. The team’s longest play this season has gone for 47 yards; only two other teams claim a shorter longest play. There are 41 quarterbacks who have tried at least 14 passes of at least 20 yards. Williams’ Pro Football Focus score ranks 40 th , ahead of only the Jaguars’ Mac Jones. Then there are the plays in which Williams doesn’t have enough time to look deep. He’s already the most-sacked quarterback in Bears history and is on pace to finish in the top three in NFL history. The same Vikings the Bears play Monday took advantage of Williams’ mistake on Nov. 24. Williams took a sack that lost 12 yards in overtime, leading to a punt and a 30-27 loss. That’s not the way Williams wants to play in pressure situations. “Taking a sack in OT — a stupid sack,” Williams said. “We’ve messed up in multiple situations, including me. Being able to learn from whatever it was — me taking a sack or mismanagement ... Being able to snap out of it right in that moment [and] make the right play at the right time is the next point.” Figuring out the deep ball is something Williams can improve the next four games, too, particularly against a gambling Vikings defense that will give the Bears a chance at big gains. “He’s not playing scared,” interim head coach Thomas Brown said. “He’s ripping some footballs into tight windows. I think it’s probably even more impressive. It’s not like he’s sitting back there not taking an opportunity. (He’s) taking chances down the field. “We always talk about trying to find ways to be aggressive, not reckless. There is a fine line between the two of them.”
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California quarterback Miller Moss is entering the transfer portal after losing the Trojans' starting job last month. Moss made his announcement on social media Monday. Moss started the Trojans ' bowl victory last season and their first nine games this season before coach Lincoln Riley replaced him with Jayden Maiava in early November. “Being a USC Trojan was a lifelong dream of mine,” Moss wrote. “Putting on the cardinal and gold and competing on behalf of my teammates and school is something I will forever take pride in. I poured everything I have into this — body, heart, mind and soul — and am humbled by and proud of what my teammates and I accomplished.” Moss, who was born in Los Angeles and went to high school in the San Fernando Valley, signed with USC before Riley arrived at the school. Moss also stayed with the Trojans after Caleb Williams transferred from Oklahoma to rejoin Riley, and he served as Williams’ backup for two seasons before getting his chance to play with six touchdown passes in last year's Holiday Bowl. Moss completed 64.4% of his passes this season for 2,555 yards with 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions. After a spectacular 378-yard performance to beat LSU in the Trojans' season opener, Moss didn't play poorly as a starter, but he also wasn't a difference-maker while USC stumbled to a 4-5 record. Moss threw seven interceptions in his final five starts before losing the job to Maiava. The Trojans went 1-4 in that stretch under Moss, who plays as a more traditional pocket passer while Maiava has the mobility usually favored for quarterbacks in Riley's spread offense. “Looking towards the future, I'm unwaveringly committed to becoming an even better quarterback and leader, and to achieving this at the next level,” Moss wrote. Moss has already graduated from USC, putting him in the portal as a graduate student. USC (6-6) is headed to a lower-tier bowl game again to finish this season, its third under Riley. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballLiverpool strengthen grip at top of EPL; Man Utd beaten again