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Air travel hits new post-pandemic record

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

(CNN) — Memorial Day air travel just reached the highest level in nearly three and a half years.The Transportation Security Administration reports screening 2,658,057 passengers on Thursday, besting by only a few thousand the pandemic-era high set just last Friday. This Friday is expected to be even busier.The last time TSA reported a higher screening number was in the Thanksgiving travel period in 2019.TSA Administrator David Pekoske said at a news conference this week that the agency expects to screen 10 million passengers over the Memorial Day period.“We figure that we will see 2.6 million people on a regular basis across this holiday weekend,” Pekoske said. “From TSA’s perspective, we are ready. We have more staff on hand this year than last year which is a good thing because we have more passengers this year than we had last year.”About 10 million people are expected to travel through airports over the course of the holiday weekend, he said.Pekoske said the TSA e...

Debt limit negotiators under pressure to reach deal as risk of default grows

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

(CNN) — There are signs that negotiations over raising the nation’s debt limit are gaining momentum, but major differences remain and it’s unclear how quickly an agreement could come together. Time is running short as the risk of a first-ever default grows.For now, White House and House GOP negotiators have yet to arrive at a consensus a number of contentious issues. One of the most critical issues talks have revolved around is spending cuts, which Republicans have demanded in exchange for voting to raise the debt limit.Asked if a deal could come together Friday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy emphasized they are working as hard as they can.“We know it’s a crunch time,” McCarthy said. “So we’re going to work just as hard, we worked through the night last night. I thought we made progress yesterday. I want to make progress again today and I want to be able to solve this problem.”GOP negotiator Patrick McHenry, a congressman from North Carolina, shrugged when asked if he ...

Study: Wounded vets face increasing challenges in current economy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

Paying bills and job hunting in this economy are hard for anyone. Wounded veterans, often facing ongoing physical and mental health issues, have it even worse.More wounded vets than before reported not having enough cash to make ends meet, a recent survey found. Sixty-four percent of those surveyed — or 6 in 10 vets — said they didn’t have enough money to pay bills at least once in the past 12 months, a jump from 42% the previous year, according to the Annual Warrior Survey released this year by the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit veterans service organization.“We’re getting more feedback from ‘warriors’ that they’re having a harder and harder time meeting their financial obligations on a regular basis,” says Tom Kastner, vice president of financial wellness at the Wounded Warrior Project.Wounded vets are feeling the pinch of inflation like everyone else. The cost of everyday goods like food was the main reported cause of financial stra...

Which is cheaper: Disney World or a Disney Cruise?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

A Disney Cruise certainly isn’t cheap, especially compared with other cruise operators. But what about compared with other types of Disney vacations?For many travelers, a Disney cruise actually comes out cheaper than a trip to Walt Disney World.To better understand Disney Cruise Line versus Disney World costs, NerdWallet analyzed prices for two people sharing one room across three price tiers: Value, Moderate or Deluxe.Disney World trip costs included four categories:Park tickets (and add-ons, such as Genie+).On-property hotel room rates.Food at park restaurants.Add-on activities, such as spa treatments and tours.Cruise prices are mostly all-inclusive, so the analysis only included:Base rates (including taxes and fees).Add-on activities.Here’s a closer look at the data on Disney Cruise Line versus Disney World costs.Disney Cruise Line vs. Disney World: An overall cost comparisonWhile the data doesn’t definitively determine whether one is cheaper every time, there are some clear tren...

Latest GOP 2024 hopeful DeSantis ‘blazing a trail’ on book bans in Republican-controlled states

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) — As he vies for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is touting a series of measures he has pushed that have led to an upswing in banned or restricted books — not just in Florida schools but in an increasing number of other conservative states.Florida last year became the first in a wave of red states to enact laws making it easier for parents to challenge books in school libraries they deem to be pornographic, deal improperly with racial issues or are in other ways inappropriate for students.Books ensnared in the Florida regulations include explicit graphic novels about growing up LGBTQ+, a children’s book based on a true story of two male penguins raising a chick in a zoo and “The Bluest Eye,” a novel by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison that includes descriptions of child sexual abuse. Certain books covering racial themes also have been pulled from library shelves, sometimes temporarily, as school administrators try to assess wha...

Oath Keeper who stormed Capitol gets more than 8 years in prison in latest Jan. 6 sentencing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army veteran who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a military-style formation with fellow members of the Oath Keepers was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in prison, a day after the far-right extremist group’s founder received an 18-year prison term in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. Jessica Watkins, of Woodstock, Ohio, was acquitted of the seditious conspiracy charge that Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was found guilty of in November, but jurors convicted her of obstruction and conspiracy to impede Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. She is the third member of the antigovernment group to receive her punishment this week in one of the most serious cases the Justice Department has brought in the riot. Rhodes’ 18 year-term is the longest sentence that has been handed down so far in the hundreds of Capitol riot cases. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said that while Watkins was not a top leader, like Rhodes, she was more...

Iowa law limits gender identity instruction, removes books depicting sex acts from school libraries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa teachers will be banned from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students through grade six, and all books depicting sex acts will be removed from school libraries, under a bill signed into law by Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. Her office announced Friday that the bill was signed. The law is among similar measures that have been approved in other Republican-dominated statehouses around the country. As with many of those proposals, Iowa Republicans framed their action as a commonsense effort to ensure that parents can oversee what their children are learning in school and that teachers not delve into topics such as gender and sexuality.Despite the opposition of all Democratic legislators, Republicans who hold large majorities in Iowa’s state House and Senate approved the measure in April and there was little doubt that Reynolds would sign it; she had made issues related to gender identity and sexuality a focal point of her...

Killer whales damage boats in Spanish, Portuguese waters in puzzling new behavior

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A pod of killer whales repeatedly rammed a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar this week, damaging it enough to require Spanish rescuers to come to the aid of its four crew members.It was the latest episode in a perplexing trend in the behavior of orcas populating the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula that has left researchers searching for a cause.Spain’s Maritime Rescue service said that killer whales repeatedly ran into the Mustique, a 20-meter (65-foot) vessel sailing under a U.K. flag, late on Wednesday, rendering its rudder inoperative and cracking its hull. Spanish rescuers needed to pump out seawater before towing her to safety.The alert reached the Spanish service via their British counterparts, who had relayed on the distress call, the Spanish service said. A helicopter and a rescue boat were deployed to help the damaged boat to dock in Barbate.This was the 24th such incident registered by the service this year. The service didn’t provide d...

No trace of boat with 500 migrants, rescue group says after an alarm sparked Mediterranean search

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

ROME (AP) — A day after searching a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea, an Italian humanitarian group said Friday that its rescue vessel found no trace of a boat said to be in distress and carrying 500 migrants, including a newborn. The vessel “Life Support found no wreckage of any shipwreck, and the 500 persons didn’t disembark in Italy,” the nongovernmental organization Emergency said in a written statement from Milan. ”It’s hard to believe that no coastal authority knows where those 500 persons are.”Emergency raised the possibility that the migrants were brought back to Libya, the launching point for many of the smugglers’ unseaworthy boats that aim to bring migrants to Italy’s shores. The group’s statement said that Libyan authorities so far were denying it brought the passengers back to Libya, where many migrants spend months in inhumane conditions in detention camps, often enduring beatings or rape, until they or families back in their homelands can...

Minister: Chevron ‘positive’ about Israeli-Cypriot plans for natural gas pipeline, processing plant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:04 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Oil and gas company Chevron is “positive” about an Israeli-Cypriot plan for a pipeline that would convey offshore natural gas from both countries to Cyprus where it would be liquefied for export by ship to Europe and elsewhere, an official said Friday.Cypriot Energy Minister Giorgos Papanastasiou said after talks with visiting Chevron Vice President for Exploration and Production Frank Cassulo that the company also wants to hear the views of other energy firms attending a gathering next week where the Cypriot government will formally pitch the plan in order to secure investor backing.Chevron has presented the Cypriot government with a plan to develop its Aphrodite deposit in waters south of the island, first discovered in 2011 and estimated to contain 4.2 trillion cubic feet of the hydrocarbon.Papanastasiou also pointed to recent statements by a senior ExxonMobil executive who said the oil and gas company is interested in Israeli-Cypriot plans. ExxonMobil hold...