slot machine picture

LONG BEACH — Coaches and players from the Newbury Park and Simi Valley football teams were seated at tables next to each other at the CIF Southern Section football championship luncheon on Monday afternoon. It’s the second straight year that the two programs are representing Ventura County and are the two schools from the Daily News coverage area to reach a CIF-SS championship game. “It’s a very competitive county,” Simi Valley coach Jim Benkert said. “We’ve got a lot of good teams out there, whether they’re public or private and in our specific (Marmonte League), there’s three publics and three privates in the league. “You’ve got to step up to be successful and that’s what we’ve had to do. We’ve had to elevate to get to where we are.” There are three Marmonte League teams competing for championships — Simi Valley, Pacifica and St. Bonaventure. Oaks Christian was almost the fourth team but lost to Murrieta Valley in overtime in the semifinals. Newbury Park was the undefeated Conejo Coast League champion. The Pioneers (21-1) will try for their second consecutive CIF-SS championship on Saturday against Edison at Huntington Beach High after winning in Division 6 last season. Newbury Park (13-0) fell to Orange Vista in the Division 5 title game last year and will play in the Division 2 finals against Murrieta Valley. “That’s what was in the back of my head when we were all lifting this offseason: Get back to the championship and win it all,” Newbury Park senior lineman Joel Gonzalez said. “It’s something that I’ve been thinking about since that loss to Orange Vista.” Head coach Joe Smigiel took over at Newbury Park in 2021 and Benkert took the helm at Simi Valley in 2018 and both coaches have turned their respective programs around while rallying the support of the community. Smigiel is an alumnus of Newbury Park and many players have had family members before them play a sport at the school. Senior defensive end Michael Guzman’s dad wrestled for the Panthers and his grandfather played sports in Ventura County. He also has a younger brother on the JV team, which has served as the scout team for varsity throughout the playoff run. It’s the first time the two brothers have been able to play against each other. “In Ventura County, we got a lot of skill out here,” Newbury Park senior corner Drew Cofield said. “We have a lot of talent and a lot of players that go unnoticed and are under-recruited.” Gonzalez gets recognized as a Newbury Park football player even when he’s working part-time at an ice cream shop. Simi Valley senior Seth Knight is recognized in public, too. “We’re not just playing for ourselves,” Knight said. “We’re playing for our community and it brings us all together. I have people come up to me and talk to me about the game, just congratulations on winning. It brings our community together and strengthens us.” There’s some crossover between the two football programs, even though they haven’t played each other since 2015. Related Articles Some players have been in the same youth football programs as each other and Benkert coached against Newbury Park when he was a coach at Westlake and Smigiel was playing for the Panthers. Ventura County football continues to build and thrive on the connections formed by teams like Newbury Park and Simi Valley. “It’s the dog in the players,” Guzman said. “There’s a lot of connection and roots and love for the game here. That’s what drives us.”New translation tech helps New Hampshire DMV expand language accessslot machine picture 。

First batch of Canadian-made low-carbon jet fuel emerges from B.C. refineryTrump names Andrew Ferguson as head of Federal Trade Commission to replace Lina Khan

PM leads Romania presidential vote first roundBailey scores 19 as Incarnate Word beats East Texas A&M 65-53

Opinion: Fareed Zakaria: Why DOGE is an essential and important ideaNone

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors said Tuesday it will retreat from the robotaxi business and stop funding its money-losing Cruise autonomous vehicle unit. Instead the Detroit automaker will focus on development of partially automated driver-assist systems for personal vehicles like its Super Cruise, which allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel. GM said it would get out of robotaxis “given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.” The company said it will combine Cruise's technical team with its own to work on advanced systems to assist drivers. GM bought control of San Francisco-based Cruise automation in 2016 with high hopes of developing a profitable fleet of robotaxis. Over the years GM invested billions in the subsidiary and eventually bought 90% of the company from investors, all while racking up millions in losses. GM’s brushoff of Cruise represents a dramatic about-face from years of full-blown support that left a huge financial dent in the automaker. The company invested $2.4 billion in Cruise only to sustain years of uninterrupted losses, with little in return. Since GM bought a controlling stake in Cruise for $581 million in 2016, the robotaxi service piled up more than $10 billion in operating losses while bringing in less than $500 million in revenue, according to GM shareholder reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The automaker even announced plans for Cruise to generate $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025, but it scaled back spending on the company after one of its autonomous Chevrolet Bolts dragged a San Francisco pedestrian who was hit by another vehicle in 2023. The California Public Utilities Commission alleged Cruise then covered up details of the crash for more than two weeks. The embarrassing incident resulted in Cruise’s license to operate its driverless fleet in California being suspended by regulators and triggered a purge of its leadership — in addition to layoffs that jettisoned about a quarter of its workforce . GM CEO Mary Barra told analysts on a conference call Tuesday the the new unit will focus on personal vehicles and developing systems that can drive by themselves in certain circumstances. The company has agreements to buy another 7% of Cruise and intends to buy the remaining shares so it owns the whole company. The move is another step back from autonomous vehicles, which have proved far harder to develop than companies once anticipated. Two years ago, crosstown rival Ford Motor Co. disbanded its Argo AI autonomous vehicle venture in Pittsburgh that it co-owned with Volkswagen. At the time the company said it didn’t see a path to profitability for a number of years. Yet other companies are pressing forward with plans to deploy autonomous vehicles and expanding their services. Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo is accelerating plans to broaden its robotaxi service beyond areas of metropolitan Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Last week the company said it would begin testing its driverless Jaguars in Miami next year, with plans to start charging for rides in 2026. The move comes less than a month after Waymo opened up its robotaxi service to anyone looking for a ride in an 80-square-mile (129 square kilometer) area of Los Angeles. Waymo also has plans to launch fleets in Atlanta and Austin next year in partership with ride-hailing leader Uber. In April, a company called Aurora Innovation plans to start hauling freight on Texas freeways using fully driverless semis. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said his company plans to have autonomous Models Y and 3 running without human drivers next year. Robotaxis without steering wheels using Tesla's “Full Self-Driving” system would be available in 2026 starting in California and Texas, he said. But an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into Full Self-Driving's ability to see in low visibility conditions cast doubt on whether Teslas are ready to be deployed without humans behind the wheel. The agency began the investigation in October after getting reports of four crashes involving “Full Self-Driving” when Teslas encountered sun glare, fog and airborne dust. An Arizona pedestrian was killed in one of the crashes. GM said it will work with Cruise’s leadership to restructure the company and refocus Cruise’s operations on driver assist systems. The company expects the restructuring to reduce spending by more than $1 billion annually. Cruise has about 2,300 employees and will retain a presence in San Francisco, GM said. It’s too early to talk about employment levels until the restructuring is completed next year, a spokesman said. Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering, said Cruise will bring its software, artificial intelligence and sensor development to GM to team up on improving GM’s driver-assist systems. “We want to leverage what already has been done as we go forward, and we think we can do that very effectively,” Barra said. Shares of GM rose about 3% in trading after Tuesday's closing bell. They are up about 47% for the year. AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.Potter 3-5 2-2 8, C.Welling 6-10 8-12 21, Leonhardt 4-5 2-2 11, Nelson 3-11 4-7 10, Toolson 1-8 2-2 4, Grady 4-9 0-2 8, Green 1-1 5-8 7, Wells 3-7 0-0 6, H.Welling 1-3 0-0 2, Taitz 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-59 23-35 77. K.Griffin 5-14 0-0 11, Williams-Dryden 8-11 2-4 18, Davis 5-13 3-4 16, M.Griffin 1-1 0-0 2, D.Johnson 1-3 1-1 3, Ballard 1-3 1-2 3, Noel 4-7 4-4 14, Hardewig 2-3 0-0 5, Releford 1-2 0-0 2, Watson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-58 11-15 74. Halftime_Utah Valley St. 34-32. 3-Point Goals_Utah Valley St. 2-11 (Leonhardt 1-1, C.Welling 1-2, H.Welling 0-1, Grady 0-2, Nelson 0-2, Toolson 0-3), West Georgia 7-19 (Davis 3-4, Noel 2-3, Hardewig 1-2, K.Griffin 1-6, D.Johnson 0-1, Watson 0-1, Ballard 0-2). Fouled Out_Davis, Ballard. Rebounds_Utah Valley St. 37 (C.Welling 11), West Georgia 24 (K.Griffin 6). Assists_Utah Valley St. 13 (Leonhardt, Nelson 3), West Georgia 16 (D.Johnson 4). Total Fouls_Utah Valley St. 14, West Georgia 25. A_177 (6,500).

AP News Summary at 3:38 p.m. EST

Washington Nationals win lottery for No. 1 pick in next amateur baseball draft, Angels No. 2AP Business SummaryBrief at 9:51 a.m. ESTWashington Nationals win lottery for No. 1 pick in next amateur baseball draft, Angels No. 2

Ever since it became clear that Donald Trump won the most recent U.S. presidential election, the stock market has been on an impressive tear higher. Now everyone wants to know what the next four years will look like for stocks in the “Trump 2.0” era. Will this exciting price action last? Well, I have six words of wisdom to offer: Embrace the boom; beware the bust . Thanks in large part to the AI investment megatrend and long-awaited rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, the U.S. stock market has been booming for the past two years. That is, the craze around artificial intelligence has sparked an exceptional surge in investment. Companies have been racing to create the infrastructure necessary to support next-gen AI. Indeed, Meta ( META ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), Amazon ( AMZN ), Alphabet ( GOOGL ) – pretty much all the world’s major tech companies continue to spend billions upon billions of dollars to build new AI data centers, create new applications, hire more engineers, etc. And all that investment has created a major economic boom. Meanwhile, throughout 2022 – after embarking on the most aggressive rate-hiking cycle in nearly 50 years – the Federal Reserve finally slowed its pace of hikes. And here in 2024, the central bank actually started to cut rates. This has provided much-needed relief to consumers looking to finance big purchases and businesses looking to make new investments. This relief has also helped support the present economic boom. This optimal setup has helped stocks to really soar. Embrace the Boom; Beware the Bust Since hitting its lows in October 2022 – just over two years ago – the S&P 500 has surged 70% higher. It is now on track to notch its second consecutive year of 20%-plus gains. The S&P rose 24% in 2023. And so far in 2024, it is up 27%. If those gains hold, this will mark just the fourth time since the Great Depression – nearly 100 years ago – that the S&P 500 rallied more than 20% in back-to-back years. We are unequivocally in a stock market boom. And in our view, this boom is about to get even “boomier.” Thanks to Donald Trump’s victory and Republicans’ newfound control of Congress, a wave of deregulation, pro-business policies, and tax cuts are likely to sweep the nation over the next few years. Those dynamics will only add to the current economic boom. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Sure does – so long as you remember that all market booms inevitably end with busts. It is not a question of “if.” It is simply a question of “when.” As we mentioned before, the stock market is working on back-to-back years of 20%-plus gains. It has only done that three times before: in 1935/36, 1954/55, and 1995/96. After the two boom years in 1935 and ‘36, stocks immediately crashed about 40% in 1937. That boom turned into a bust almost immediately. Following the market boom in 1954 and ‘55, stocks went flat in ‘56, then dropped 15% in 1957. The boom turned into a bust after about a year. Similarly, post-1995/96, stocks kept partying throughout 1997, ‘98, and ‘99 – only to crash about 50% throughout 2000, ‘01, and ‘02. After about three years, that era’s big boom turned into a big bust as well. All booms of this nature turn into busts. It’s just a matter of timing. Does that mean you should dump your stocks while you still can and head for the hills to avoid this inescapable bust? Absolutely not. The Final Word on Conquering an Ever-Changing Stock Market Usually, the last 30 minutes of a movie is the best part of the film. The last episode of a TV show is almost always the best one, just as the last few minutes of a ballgame are normally the most exciting. Similarly, the last few years of a stock market boom can often be the most profitable. Just look at the Dot Com Boom of the 1990s. Tech stocks had some amazing years therein. The Nasdaq Composite rallied 40% in 1995, about 20% in ‘96, another 20% in ‘97, and then 40% again in ‘98. But tech stocks saved their best for last, with the Nasdaq soaring almost 90% for its best year ever in 1999. Then the bust started in 2000. Point being: The best year for tech stocks in the ‘90s was the final year of the Dot Com Boom. That’s why you don’t want to leave a stock market party early. But you also don’t want to leave too late. So, what’s an investor to do? Embrace the boom. Beware the bust. Ride stocks higher, then head for the exits when the warning signs appear. Of course, that’s much easier said than done, I know. But that’s exactly why we’ve been working to create a new investment tool that helps folks navigate through the market turbulence and all these booms and busts. And in fact, it has beaten the market every single month since we started live testing it in July. In short, this new tool is a home-grown stock screener that I can use to give you the chance to make long-term gains – but in only 30 days or less. That way, you can get into a position, potentially make a lot of money, and then cash out, helping to limit your exposure to the increased volatility coming our way in 2025 and beyond. Perhaps the best part? It requires just about 10 minutes of work a month and exposure to only 10 equities at a time. And next Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. EST , I’ll be unveiling this investment tool in a new broadcast that you won’t want to miss. Reserve your seat now! On the date of publication, Luke Lango did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. P.S. You can stay up to speed with Luke’s latest market analysis by reading our Daily Notes! Check out the latest issue on your Innovation Investor or Early Stage Investor subscriber site.Snap Inc. stock remains steady Tuesday, underperforms market