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slot bet ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orlando citizen’s advisory board is headed toward preserving a portion of the defunct Pulse nightclub — but not the whole structure — to memorialize the 2016 mass killing there. The future of the nightclub building, a safe space for Orlando’s LGBTQ+ community until the massacre, long has sparked disagreement among victims’ families and survivors of the mass shooting that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others. “A significant majority” of family members and survivors who joined the advisory board or shared their opinions want the building to be torn down, though a few want to preserve it, said Larry Schooler, who serves as a facilitator for the advisory group’s discussions. “To me, it’s a sacred place,” said committee member Mayra Alvear Benabel, whose daughter Amanda died at Pulse. Demolishing it would be akin to erasing her daughter, she said. But its presence on South Orange Avenue creates trauma for others. Both feelings are true, said Schooler, who urged the group to strive to understand rather than persuade. The discussion came as three memorial designs were unveiled this week for the Pulse Advisory Committee, which met Wednesday and Thursday to discuss ideas, their preferences and their concerns for a permanent tribute to those killed in the massacre, their lives and those who survived. The group has been taking input and shaping concepts since earlier this year. Schooler said memorial designers will likely return to the group in December with a refined concept that preserves parts of the former nightclub, “but does not assume the building will stay there fully intact as part of the memorial.” He said those in favor of demolition wanted the Pulse sign, a chandelier and other features saved — and they wanted a final walk-through the nightclub. Of the three designs, the first option shows a U-shaped covered walkway, held up by stone pillars with each victim’s name on them. The interior of the property has benches, shrubs, trees and a fountain dedicated to the 49 killed in the center. This option closely resembles a design originally produced for the now-defunct onePulse foundation, which led the memorial efforts before going belly up last year. The second concept is highlighted by a pavilion in the shape of the nightclub building, with a water wall feature dedicated to the victims and a tribute to survivors. It has lawn space and greenery, as well as seating for reflecting. The third is mostly open space with a reflecting pool and fountain, as well as a vertical beacon. Like the others, it has a lawn and trees. Members of the public can weigh in at engage.orlando.gov . Schooler, who worked on mass-shooting memorial efforts in Virginia Beach and San Leandro, Calif., plans to discuss the concepts with families and survivors for the next few weeks until the board meets again Dec. 12. At that meeting, the committee is expected to see refined drawings. It could choose a final design in January. The city took over the memorial effort last year when it purchased the nightclub property for $2 million from the Poma family, who owned the nightclub and founded onePulse. The cost of the memorial remains unclear, though Mayor Buddy Dyer has said he expects it will take a public contribution to construct it. Wayne Dunkelberger, chief creative officer of design for Baker Barrios, said the goal should be to create an homage to the community that made Pulse thrive. He suggested it would be difficult to save the aging nightclub building on South Orange Avenue as a whole, but would be more practical to retain pieces of the structure. The firm’s work includes the HostDime Data Center which is visible from I-4 north of the Lee Road exit; the Kia Center and the Electronic Arts Sports headquarters in Creative Village near the University of Central Florida’s downtown campus. ©2024 Orlando Sentinel. Visit at orlandosentinel.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.RCM Technologies' division president Michael Saks sells $235,006 in stock

Stock market today: Wall Street climbs as bitcoin bursts above $99,000

LPGA, USGA to require players to be assigned female at birth or transition before pubertyNEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted lower Tuesday in the runup to the highlight of the week for the market, the latest update on inflation that’s coming on Wednesday. The S&P 500 dipped 0.3%, a day after pulling back from its latest all-time high . They’re the first back-to-back losses for the index in nearly a month, as momentum slows following a big rally that has it on track for one of its best years of the millennium . The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 154 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%. Tech titan Oracle dragged on the market and sank 6.7% after reporting growth for the latest quarter that fell just short of analysts’ expectations. It was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500, even though CEO Safra Catz said the company saw record demand related to artificial-intelligence technology for its cloud infrastructure business, which trains generative AI models. AI has been a big source of growth that’s helped many companies’ stock prices skyrocket. Oracle’s stock had already leaped more than 80% for the year coming into Tuesday, which raised the bar of expectations for its profit report. In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher ahead of Wednesday’s report on the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling. Economists expect it to show similar increases as the month before. Wednesday’s update and a report on Thursday about inflation at the wholesale level will be the final big pieces of data the Federal Reserve will get before its meeting next week, where many investors expect the year’s third cut to interest rates . The Fed has been easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high since September to take pressure off the slowing jobs market, after bringing inflation nearly down to its 2% target. Lower rates would help give support to the economy, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation. Expectations for a series of cuts through next year have been a big reason the S&P 500 has set so many records this year. Trading in the options market suggests traders aren’t expecting a very big move for U.S. stocks following Wednesday’s report, according to strategists at Barclays. But a reading far off expectations in either direction could quickly change that. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.22% from 4.20% late Monday. Even though the Fed has been cutting its main interest rate, mortgage rates have been more stubborn to stay high and have been volatile since the autumn. That has hampered the housing industry, and homebuilder Toll Brothers’ stock fell 6.9% even though it delivered profit and revenue for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. CEO Douglas Yearley Jr. said the luxury builder has been seeing strong demand since the start of its fiscal year six weeks ago, an encouraging signal as it approaches the beginning of the spring selling season in mid-January. Elsewhere on Wall Street, Alaska Air Group soared 13.2% after raising its forecast for profit in the current quarter. The airline said demand for flying around the holidays has been stronger than expected. It also approved a plan to buy back up to $1 billion of its stock, along with new service from Seattle to Tokyo and Seoul . Boeing climbed 4.5% after saying it’s resuming production of its bestselling plane , the 737 Max, for the first time since 33,000 workers began a seven-week strike that ended in early November. Vail Resorts rose 2.5% after the ski resort operator reported a smaller first-quarter loss than analysts expected in what is traditionally its worst quarter. All told, the S&P 500 fell 17.94 points to 6,034.91. The Dow dipped 154.10 to 44,247.83, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 49.45 to 19,687.24. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in China after the world’s second-largest economy said its exports rose by less than expected in November. Stocks rose 0.6% in Shanghai but fell 0.5% in Hong Kong. Indexes fell across much of Europe ahead of a meeting this week by the European Central Bank, where the widespread expectation is for another cut in interest rates. AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Iran-Russia defense, security ties to expand under pending strategic pact

President-elect Donald Trump’s border enforcer Tom Homan is heading to Texas to prepare for his crackdown on illegal crossings. Lone Star State Gov. Greg Abbott said Homan will inspect the Texas-Mexico border with him during a visit later this week. He praised Homan as “the right guy in charge” to secure the border and deport illegal migrants. “There’s a tall task for President Trump to find, to locate these people and then to deport them or to jail them,” Abbott said Sunday on the “Cats Roundtable” 770 “WABC radio. “We’ve got the right guy in charge of it. His name is Tom Homan. He’s going to be the border czar. I’ve already begun to work with him. He’s going to be joining me in Texas this coming week.” Abbott, who has clashed with the outgoing Biden administration over its dangerously lax border policies and refusal to cooperate with Texas on a crackdown, said he is thrilled to now have a willing partner to jointly address the crisis. “We’ve had people who were antagonistic to Texas securing the border. Now we have allies. It’s going to be Texas working collaboratively with the Trump administration,” Abbott said. “For one, we’re going to secure the border. For another, we’re going to have to remove from our country all these dangerous criminals to restore peace and safety in our communities.” The governor said that arresting and deporting members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua will be a top priority for both the Trump administration and Texas. “You’ve seen these outbreaks of the Tren de Aragua gang members here in New York. We have the Tren de Aragua members in Texas also. ... We have to stop the murders by the people who Biden allowed into the country illegally,” Abbott said. Texas has declared Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization. Homan has said that deporting the gang members is part of his mission. He got choked up during a recent interview discussing the murder of Laken Riley by illegal migrant and Tren member Jose Ibarra and said he should have never set foot in the country. “We’re using law enforcement at the federal, state and local level to go after them more than any other state in America,” Abbott said Sunday. “We’ve made hundreds of arrests already. If you’re a member of Tren de Aragua in Texas, you’re going to be arrested. You’re going to be jailed.” Texas, a border state, has been ground zero for grappling with illegal crossings for decades. But when the crossings spiraled out of control two years ago, Abbott began putting thousands of migrants on buses to New York City and other urban centers in blue states to spread the burden of dealing with the crisis. It turned out to be a brilliant political strategy despite the criticism, forcing Democratic mayors including the Big Apple’s Eric Adams to publicly pressure and criticize Biden over the problem. Texas authorities last week added more buoy barriers across sections of the Rio Grande to try to thwart illegal crossings after the Biden administration unsuccessfully sued the state over the floating barricades. Abbott said Sunday that even more buoys, fencing and walls will be used to deter crossings. Homan told The Post last week how he will use the military, too, to aid in the deportations of illegal migrants. Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, said he will employ servicemen to perform “non-enforcement” duties such as providing transportation to free up more ICE agents to do field work. He said he’s ready to do battle with sanctuary cities and states such as New York that prevent local law enforcement officers from communicating with the feds on the basis of immigration status. The incoming border enforcer said harboring illegal migrants is a felony. “Don’t cross that line,” he said.AHEAD OF THEIR YEARS The author, who is also the paper’s Sports editor, talks about his work in the Inquirer, which gets sampled later by members of his audience. —Photos from Abba’s Orchard School and Con Cabrera/Contributor MANILA, Philippines — On the second floor of Abba’s Orchard Montessori School’s campus on Bayani Road, Taguig City, a cozy reading corner rests against one side of the L-shaped classroom. There, students are free—at any time during their class hours—to sit down, pick up a copy of the Inquirer, and read about current events. The kids are age 9 to 11. A floor below, in a classroom filled with students age 6 to 8, there is a similar reading space where a comfy bean bag rests next to a shelf of books. The young kids can also pick up a newspaper to check on the day’s headlines. “This started when our elementary children began bringing national concerns into their group discussions,” Jusy Garcia, the head of the Bayani and McKinley campuses of Abba’s Orchard, told the Inquirer. “We’ve gone through a life-changing pandemic and a national election. There was a lot to talk about, and we didn’t want to keep them in a bubble.” Garcia started the initiative with the school’s seven campuses in the National Capital Region. “As a Montessori school, we want to encourage the children to speak their minds. But before we could do that, they must be well-informed in order to make sound opinions. Children must be given the keys to unlock doors of learning opportunities. We trust that the Philippine Daily Inquirer can give our children just that,” she added. The reception among students has been enthusiastic. “The first week they received newspapers, they were over the moon!” Garcia said. “At a time of artificial intelligence (AI) and fake news, providing a reliable source of information gives them a relevant seat at the discussion table.” Now, that partnership has expanded to all of the school’s campuses nationwide. LOOK, MA, NO SCREENS One can say that the so-called Generation Alpha at Abba’s Orchard Montessori School is on the same page with the much older regular readers of the Inquirer. —Abba’s Orchard School, Con Cabrera/Contributor “[I]n every paper delivered to our doorstep each school day is a slice of verified information that would help our children become active thinkers,” she said. The Inquirer paid a visit to the Bayani campus as part of the school’s program where they invite experts from their field and give the students a peek at their profession. During the Inquirer’s visit, however, the discussion turned to the value of sourcing news from newspapers. And it seemed like the students have learned a lot from their reading experiences. “Newspapers help us deal with fake news.” “There’s so much AI today and it’s hard to tell what news is real that’s why newspapers are important.” “Newspapers keep us updated about things we should know.” Those were just some of the comments raised by the young kids. The teachers of the different campuses already have a collection of anecdotes about how the habit of reading newspapers daily has impacted their students’ lives. Bea Vergara and Joana Sapolato, the guides who handle the Level 2 students (Grades 4 to 6 in the traditional setting) recounted how, during an immersive discussion of martial law, the kids were given roles to play: police and military, political detainees, cronies, journalists, students, and citizens. To make the discussion even more resonant, the guides took away some classroom privileges, like limiting the use of the reading corner to chosen students and the use of art materials from the art shelf. When the students playing the role of citizens felt the burden of the restrictions and voiced their opposition to it, guess who came to their side? “What’s surprising was the journalists started writing about what was going on in the classroom,” the teachers said. “Their idea of a newspaper has been modeled after the Philippine Daily Inquirer. They made their own headline and the front page contained a catchy drawing as the ‘photo’ of the article they wrote.” “They saw how big of an effect the newspapers came to play during the immersive activity and how it also had a big role in shaping our history.” Christine Amper, a guide from the Cebu campus, told the story of how newspapers have become part of her student’s discussions. During a class trip, a student named Nathan surprised his peers with a currency update during a discussion about the cost of an item being sold online. “I remember it’s already P57.80,” he said when asked about exchange rates. The casual discussion led to broader reflections on the economy, with one student proclaiming, “Oh no, we’re doomed!” In that same Cebu campus, students also turned to the newspaper when their interest was piqued by the filing of candidacies for next year’s national elections. Eventually, their discussion led to a History discussion on the three branches of government and actual elections were held in the classroom. The impact of newspapers extends beyond facts and figures, Garcia said, adding that teachers reported how students are mastering critical skills like distinguishing between fact and opinion. “They’ve learned to create objective opinions on social issues,” noted Garcia. “We’ve also used newspapers for vocabulary lessons, sentence analysis, and even blackout poetry.” In the classroom handled by Blessy Salaritan and Angela Rivera, Level 1 kids (Grades 1 to 3) use the Inquirer to learn new words and for literary purposes, such as blackout poetry. But even when doing so, they eventually drift to the news. For Garcia, the decision to have the Inquirer as the newspaper of choice for Abba’s Orchard’s campuses was a no-brainer. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . “Writing has always been so dear to me. I started writing for the school paper when I was 10. Since then, I was in every school press conference and writing contest. The Philippine Daily Inquirer was part of my writing journey as my coaches would use it as our study material,” she said. “Even if I wasn’t able to pursue that childhood dream of writing as a career, I’m more than fulfilled now because ... I was able to pass on my love for writing to them. I do have the Philippine Daily Inquirer to thank for that. Now that the children at school are able to turn the pages of the same newspaper I read through during my student days many years ago, it’s truly a personal full circle moment for me just seeing them do the same,” Garcia added.Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of the insurgency that toppled Syria’s Assad?

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GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — After losing to San Francisco in the playoffs three of the last five seasons, the Green Bay Packers wouldn’t mind seeing the 49ers get left out of the postseason entirely. The Packers (7-3) could damage San Francisco’s playoff hopes Sunday by beating the 49ers at Lambeau Field. San Francisco (5-5) dropped to .500 after losing at home to the Seattle Seahawks, though the 49ers remain just a game behind the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC West. “I think we’re motivated to keep winning more than anything,” Packers center Josh Myers said. “Obviously, they have knocked us out quite a bit. There’s that extra motivation behind it, but at this point, we’re just trying to churn out wins.” The 49ers will be playing this game without starting quarterback Brock Purdy, who injured his right shoulder in the Seahawks game. Although an MRI showed no structural damage, Purdy's shoulder didn't improve as the week wore on. Brandon Allen will start in Purdy's place. Green Bay is third in the NFC North and two games behind the Detroit Lions, but the Packers appear on track to at least earn a wild-card playoff berth. History suggests their path to a potential Super Bowl would get much clearer if the 49ers aren’t standing in their way. The 49ers trailed 21-14 in the fourth quarter before rallying to beat the Packers 24-21 in the divisional playoffs last year on Christian McCaffrey’s 6-yard touchdown run with 1:07 left. Now, it’s the 49ers who are struggling to protect late leads, as they’ve blown fourth-quarter advantages in three games against divisional opponents. “You could look at, ‘Hey, we’re three possessions away from being 8-2,’ but you can’t really live like that,” 49ers tight end George Kittle said. “Those are the mistakes that we’ve made to be 5-5. It’s not exactly where we want to be. It is frustrating. The nice thing is we have seven games left to go out there and play Niners football and take advantage of those opportunities.” Green Bay’s recent history of playoff frustration against the 49ers also includes a 13-10 loss at Lambeau Field in the 2021 divisional playoffs and a 37-20 road defeat in the 2019 NFC championship game. Even the Packers players who weren’t around for last season’s playoff loss realize what this game means. “I think one of the first meetings that I was in here, we had a conversation about the Niners beating us,” said Green Bay safety Xavier McKinney, who joined the Packers this season. “So I understand how important it is, and we all do.” Both teams must figure out how to convert red-zone opportunities into touchdowns. The 49ers are scoring touchdowns on just 48.8% of their drives inside an opponent’s 20-yard line to rank 27th in the NFL. The Packers are slightly worse in that regard, scoring touchdowns on 48.7% of their red-zone possessions to rank 28th. In their 20-19 victory at Chicago on Sunday, Green Bay drove to the Bears 5 without scoring on two separate series. Purdy isn't the only notable player who won't be participating in Sunday's game. San Francisco won't have four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Nick Bosa available after he hurt his left hip and oblique against the Seahawks. Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander (knee) and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper (hamstring) also have been ruled out. Kittle expects to play for the 49ers on Sunday after missing the Seahawks game with a hamstring injury. 49ers left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) is questionable. Green Bay’s defense feasted on turnovers the first part of the season, but hasn’t been as effective in getting those takeaways lately. The Packers have 19 takeaways – already exceeding their 2023 total – but haven’t forced any turnovers in their last two games. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan hasn’t eased McCaffrey back into the lineup in his return after missing the first eight games with Achilles tendinitis. McCaffrey has played 91% of the 49ers’ offensive snaps the past two weeks. Jordan Mason, who rushed for 685 yards during McCaffrey’s absence, has just five snaps on offense the last two games. Shanahan said he’d like to get Mason more opportunities, but it’s hard to take McCaffrey off the field. Green Bay nearly lost to the Bears because of its third-down struggles on both sides of the ball. The Packers were 1 of 5 on third-down opportunities, while the Bears went 9 of 16. The Packers’ defense could have a tough time correcting that problem against San Francisco, which has converted 45.4% of its third-down situations to rank fourth in the league. AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL