free 100 gcash casino 2024 real money From a 10-year-old to a Muppet to a president-elect, NYSE bell-ringers range from famous to obscureAutonomous AI Poses Existential Threat - And It's Almost Here: Former Google CEOThe Miami Hurricanes, who once appeared to be a near-lock for the College Football Playoff, are not playing for a national title. Instead, they will play in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando. That bowl berth against Iowa State is a let-down for fans with dreams of a sixth national title in their minds, as well as players hoping to compete for a championship. However, Miami’s trip to Orlando and the lead-up to it are still crucial periods for the Hurricanes for multiple reasons. First, it’s a chance for the program to achieve something it has not done in more than two decades: win 11 games. Although the 11th win won’t get them closer to a championship, it is a good sign of the program’s progress over Mario Cristobal’s tenure. It would also end UM’s five-game losing streak in bowls. “We’re not satisfied,” Cristobal said. “We want to win every single game. We won 10. We were close on the other two, but close isn’t good enough. We want progress. We’re hungry and driven to get better, and so that’s what our focus is on: to improving as a football program, to getting better, to moving into the postseason with an opportunity against a great football team like this and putting our best on the field.” There are signs the Hurricanes will show up at close to full strength for the bowl game. Running back Damien Martinez announced he was going to play, and star quarterback Cam Ward said in a video call posted on social media that he intends to play, as well. “We’re trying to win our first bowl game in 20 years,” Ward said in the video, mistaking the length of UM’s long bowl losing streak. “We’re going hard.” Playing in the bowl game also provides the opportunity for the Hurricanes to get in several practices between now and the game. That means Miami can develop its young players and prepare them for next season during both the practices and the bowl game itself. “It’s extremely valuable,” Cristobal said. “You really don’t have many opportunities throughout the course of the year — time is limited more and more each season with your student-athletes. I want to state this and be very clear: it’s very important, it’s ultra-important for the University of Miami to continue to develop and grow and progress by stressing the importance of offseason opportunities ... You learn a lot about your team and learn a lot about your people and your program when you head to the postseason.” Of course, there are potential negatives. Players can get hurt; Mark Fletcher Jr. suffered a foot injury in the Pinstripe Bowl last year that cost him all of spring practice. A poor performance can also potentially set the tone for next season, like how Florida State, fresh off a playoff snub last year, suffered a devastating loss against Georgia in the Orange Bowl and went on to a dismal 2-10 season this year. “This is the ending of ’24 and the beginning of ’25,” Cristobal said. “This is the last opportunity to be on the field and carry some momentum into the offseason. So it is, in essence, it is the most important game because it’s the next game. “There’s a lot of excitement in the form of opportunity for our guys. Our guys love to play football. The chance to play one more time with this special group — this is a special group of guys now. They’ve worked hard to really change the trajectory of the University of Miami, and they want to continue to elevate the status and the culture at the University of Miami. So certainly a ton to play for.” ____ Get local news delivered to your inbox!

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Warren County helped save most of the footage of last week's seven-hour Board of Supervisors meeting. The county issued a news release on Friday along with a statement from Granicus explaining the loss of video footage of the Board of Supervisors’ Dec. 10 meeting. A public hearing on the creation of a library board took up the bulk of the meeting that started at 7 p.m. and ended around 2 a.m. Wednesday. Approximately 115 people signed up to speak at the hearing. The county has since posted the video recording of the meeting, minus the 40-plus minutes not recording, to its website. The county notes under the video window that the recording is missing content. Deputy Clerk of the Board of Supervisors Zach Henderson said in an email Monday that he has the names of the speakers and the minutes of the missing time. Megan Rhyne, executive director for the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, commented on the matter in an email Monday. “It's a good reminder to public bodies that when providing this service, which more and more citizens rely on to stay informed about their communities, it's good to have back-ups and redundancies in place,” Rhyne states. The county Department of Technology did have a backup, which helped to piece together the video recording since Granicus had lost nearly four hours of the meeting, the release states. At the meeting, staff determined that, given the number of speakers, the normal recording window for the meeting needed to be extended to 5 a.m. Wednesday to ensure the video included all speakers, the release states. The department contacted the video services provider, Granicus, and requested that it extend the recording window by three hours, from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. The department received confirmation from Granicus that it updated the recording window, the release states. However, the department learned Wednesday evening that Granicus had lost nearly four hours of footage from the meeting, according to the release. The department uploaded the local backup recorded in the video services booth at the government center to Granicus for processing. The collected footage had a gap of 44 minutes, from approximately 10:34 p.m. to 11:18 p.m. The department requested that Granicus perform a thorough review of its services to determine why and how the disruption occurred and what steps it can do to ensure it does not happen again, the release states. “WCIT and Warren County Administration will monitor the response from Granicus and determine if any contractual changes are necessary in the future. “Warren County continues to work toward transparency and accountability with the public while providing the citizens of Warren County the best services available,” Granicus provided a statement, which the county included with the news release. Granicus subsidiary Swagit Productions live-streamed and recorded the meeting. Automated recordings were set to run until 2 a.m. The Granicus video support team received a call from the county at 8:46 p.m. requesting the video recording window for the meeting in progress be extended to 5 a.m. Granicus contacted the county department at approximately 9:13 p.m. stating the recording window had been extended. “However, during the process of extending the recordings, a technical malfunction caused the recording to end prematurely,” the Granicus statement reads. “Our investigation into the encoder and camera control devices revealed that the issue stemmed from an unexpected conflict in the recording parameters when the feed extension was initiated. “The issue has been reproduced and will be addressed,” the statement reads. “The next day when Granicus began indexing the meeting for posting on the Warren County website. Granicus realized that approximately 4 hours of footage, from 9pm until 1am was not available on its systems. Several checks were made to ensure the requested footage was not available in an alternative storage system. Granicus had posted its footage to the county website at 10:50 p.m. Wednesday. Granicus notified the county of the missing footage and asked that it send any backup footage recorded locally. Granicus received a call from the department on Thursday to take down the existing footage until they could determine how to restore the video in its entirety. Granicus’ management team and resources worked to identify what happened and why, and what they can do to prevent the problem from occurring again, according to the statement. “Granicus will continue to work with the Warren County Information Technology team to review resources, hardware or programming changes ensuring that this problem does not happen again,” the statement reads. “Granicus is actively implementing corrective measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future, including enhanced monitoring, additional testing of recording systems, and procedural updates for extending recordings during live sessions.”