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Driving or flying before feasting? Here are some tips for Thanksgiving travelers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Getting a big holiday meal on the table can be stressful for the cook (see “The Bear,” Season two, Episode six.) But for guests, just getting to the table also can be difficult, and there’s no Butterball hotline for harried travelers.The number of people traveling 50 miles (80 kilometers) or more from home for Thanksgiving is expected to reach 55.4 million this week, a slight increase over last year, according to AAA projections.And while misery loves company, there are some steps travelers can take to improve the experience:EARLY BIRDS GET THE OPEN ROADSMost travelers — more than 49 million — are expected to drive to their Thanksgiving destinations. Traffic is anticipated to peak on Wednesday, the day before the holiday. The worst time to be on the road will be between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. that day, according to INRIX, a transportation data and insights provider.Not only will traffic jams slow you down, they can result in crashes caused by distracted drivers, said...

Oxford school shooting survivor heals with surgery, a trusted horse and the chance to tell her story

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

MAYFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — For Kylie Ossege, the 19-year-old college student who survived two deadly mass school shootings in Michigan — one as a senior at Oxford High School in 2021 and another 14 months later as a freshman at Michigan State University — Blaze stands as a source of comfort in a world otherwise shattered by bullets.Ossege runs a brush along Blaze’s broad forehead, then gives him a kiss between the eyes.“I feel very at home when I’m with him,” Ossege says of the 13-year-old American Quarter Horse she has owned since 2019. “He’s my best friend.”A better friend than time, perhaps, which now gathers for Ossege like dust in a corner, a clingy bundle of haunting memories that she can neither forget nor sweep away: Fifteen minutes as she lay shot and bleeding in an Oxford High School hallway. Six weeks recovering in a hospital. Fourteen months between a deadly high school shooting and another at MSU. And daily physical pain she can never fully escape.Ossege was severe...

DC combating car thefts and carjackings with dashcams and AirTags

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jeff Pena contacted his father as soon as he heard that police were passing out auto tracking devices to try to stem a sharp increase in carjackings, auto thefts and other crimes in the nation’s capital. “It’s just getting crazy out there,” said Pena, whose father, Raul Pena, drives for the rideshare app Lyft. “Especially now because Christmas is coming and nobody has any money.” That’s why the pair recently sat in a line of cars winding around the block near Nationals Park, the city’s pro baseball stadium, waiting their turn for a police officer to install the tracker — literally just an Apple AirTag — and show them how to use it. The elder Pena, 58, said he generally enjoyed driving and meeting new people but had become much more cautious in recent months and stopped driving late at night. “I do get nervous sometimes,” he said. “It’s worse now because it gets dark so early in the winter. Right now I feel very unsafe.”One week l...

Right-wing populist Milei set to take Argentina down uncharted path: ‘No room for lukewarm measures’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — What many deemed impossible just months ago is reality: right-wing populist Javier Milei resoundingly won Argentina’s presidency. And with his victory Sunday night, the fiery freshman lawmaker has thrust the country into the unknown regarding just how extreme his policies will be, following a campaign that saw him revving a chainsaw to symbolically cut the state down to size.With almost all votes tallied, Milei handily beat Economy Minister Sergio Massa, 55.7% to 44.3%. Milei won all but three of the nation’s 24 provinces and Massa had conceded even before the electoral authority began announcing preliminary results.Milei, 53, a self-described anarcho-capitalis t with a disheveled mop of hair, made his name by furiously denouncing the “political caste” on television programs. His pledge for abrupt, severe change resonated with Argentines weary of annual inflation soaring above 140% and a poverty rate that reached 40%. He will take power on Dec. 1...

A curious South African sea snail is a prized dish in Asia. That has meant a trail of destruction

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

HAWSTON, South Africa (AP) — Nearly every house in Hawston has a boat in its yard, sometimes two.It takes a moment to realize many are out of action, grass sprouting through holes in hulls that haven’t touched water for years. They are relics of another time, when people fished for their livelihood and the ocean provided more than enough.Thoe languishing boats and other economic problems in Hawston are the result of changes in the market to South African abalone, a curious fist-sized sea snail that is a highly prized morsel in East Asia and the unwitting instigator of 30 years of trouble for fishing communities along Africa’s southern coast. Abalone here was abundant and especially tasty, yet the demand largely put the village and its traditional fishers out of business, or made them criminals overnight.Raphael Fisher was born into fishing, as just about everyone was in Hawston. He grew up diving for the abalone that South Africans call perlemoen — or, affectionately, &#...

Biden is spending his 81st birthday honoring White House tradition of pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Liberty and Bell are ready for their presidential pardons.The two Thanksgiving turkeys were due at the White House on Monday to play their part in what has become an annual holiday tradition: a president sparing them from becoming someone’s dinner.“We think that’s a great way to kick off the holiday season and really, really a fun honor,” Steve Lykken, chairman of the National Turkey Federation and president of the Jennie-O Turkey Store, said in an interview with The Associated Press.The event, set for the South Lawn this year instead of the Rose Garden, marks the unofficial start of the holiday season in Washington, and Monday was shaping up to be an especially busy opening day.President Joe Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, also was celebrating his 81st birthday on Monday. In the afternoon, his wife, first lady Jill Biden, was accepting the delivery of an 18-and-a-half foot Fraser fir from Fleetwood, North Carolina, as the official White House Ch...

With the world’s eyes on Gaza, attacks are on the rise in the West Bank, which faces its own war

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

QUSRA, West Bank (AP) — When Israeli warplanes swooped over the Gaza Strip following Hamas militants’ deadly attack on southern Israel, Palestinians say a different kind of war took hold in the occupied West Bank.Overnight, the territory was closed off. Towns were raided, curfews imposed, teenagers arrested, detainees beaten, and villages stormed by Jewish vigilantes.With the world’s attention on Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there, the violence of war has also erupted in the West Bank. Israeli settler attacks have surged at an unprecedented rate, according to the United Nations. The escalation has spread fear, deepened despair, and robbed Palestinians of their livelihoods, their homes and, in some cases, their lives.“Our lives are hell,” said Sabri Boum, a 52-year-old farmer who fortified his windows with metal grills last week to protect his children from settlers he said threw stun grenades in Qaryout, a northern village. “It’s like I’m in a prison.”In six weeks, s...

Concert review: The Jonas Brothers overstayed their welcome at Xcel Energy Center

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas and Nick Jonas of Jonas Brothers perform during a stop of the group’s Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour. at MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 08, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bryan Steffy/Getty Images)How much Jonas Brothers is too much Jonas Brothers? That was the question going into the grown-up boy band’s concert Sunday night at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center.The trio’s current outing — dramatically dubbed Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour. — sees them playing all five of their albums. (They’re ignoring their failed 2006 debut “It’s About Time”.) Initially planned as a one-off stadium event, it blossomed into a full tour with nearly 100 shows stretching into next summer.With a running time of nearly three hours, with an intermission, it’s an ambitious show that was clearly influenced by Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. And when the JoBros announced they were playing the Minnesota State ...

PHOTOS: Denver Broncos come back to beat Minnesota Vikings 21-20 in NFL Week 11

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

The Denver Broncos hosted the Minnesota Vikings at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, November 19, 2023. Denver won 21-20 after Russell Wilson connected with Courtland Sutton for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter.Related ArticlesDenver Broncos | Kiszla: Dancing on the brink and living on a prayer, Broncos beat Vikings and get back in playoff hunt Denver Broncos | Broncos 4 downs: Courtland Sutton might want to keep his Pro Bowl week free after his catch sank the Vikings’ ship Denver Broncos | Late Russell Wilson magic, game-winning TD to Courtland Sutton propel Broncos to fourth straight win, 21-20, vs. Vikings Denver Broncos | Heroes and Zeros from Broncos’ win over Minnesota Vikings: Courtland Sutton turns in another heroic effort Denver Broncos | Ja’Quan McMillian continues turnover binge, becomes first Bronco to recover fumbles in back-to-back games since Von Miller in 2015 ...

Late Russell Wilson magic, game-winning TD to Courtland Sutton propel Broncos to fourth straight win, 21-20, vs. Vikings: “Never a doubt”

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:42 GMT

Russell Wilson conjured some Sunday night magic.The Broncos quarterback dinked and dunked and scrambled.Then he lofted a pass to the back of the end zone and Courtland Sutton hauled in a go-ahead 15-yard touchdown with 63 seconds left in the game.A failed two-point try kept the score at 21-20 and gave the Vikings a chance, but Denver’s defense came up with one more stop on Minnesota quarterback Josh Dobbs and company.“We all as players and this organization, we believe,” said Wilson, who finished 25 of 37 for 259 for a touchdown. “We’ve been believing, relentlessly, every day.”Winning streak? Alive and well.A team that started 1-5 is now back to level at 5-5.Denver has reeled off four straight wins for the first time since 2016 to make that a reality.Its veteran quarterback had a lot to do with that in prime time after a mostly quiet three-plus quarters.Wilson on the go-ahead drive completed 6 of 9 passes for 68 yards, four to running back Samaje Perine...