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Local shops rule for great last-minute gifts

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

Last week, when we still had the luxury of time, we offered ideas for thoughtful and creative gifts for your friends and loved ones based on their interests.But this week is go time. By now we’ve missed most online ordering windows. (Unless, that is, you want to pay lots of money for 24-hour delivery fees). So that means it’s time to lace up those boots, hit the pavement, and get out there and buy your gifts in person. But that also means something quite nice: buying local.Starting in the stomping grounds of my clothing boutique, Gretta Luxe, downtown Wellesley is one of my favorite areas for mom-and-pop holiday shops. I can’t help but point out one of my favorite gifts of the season for fashion lovers — the Stella McCartney Quilted Gold Crossbody Bag ($895 at Gretta Luxe, 94 Central St., Wellesley, 781-237-7010) is the perfect present for anyone looking for a snazzy and high-style way to sail into the new year.A few blocks over, drop by Wasik’s (61 Central St., Wellesley, 781-237-0...

‘Migration’ doesn’t have all its ducks in a row

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

Co-written by the white-hot Mike White (TV’s “White Lotus”) and the film’s co-director Benjamin Renner of the Academy Award-nominated “Ernest & Celestine,” “Migration” tells the lukewarm, if beautifully animated, visually inventive and often funny tale of a family of mallards that must overcome the timidity of its patriarch. Mack (Kumail Nanjiani) is a duck, who is overprotective of his wife Pam (Elizabeth Banks) and their children, teenage son Dax (Caspar Jennings) and pint-sized, preteen daughter Gwen (Tresi Gazal), both of whom are eager to establish their independence.Mack and family live safely in a New England pond with Mack’s sleepy, senile Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito). But when another family of blue-winged ducks, part of a migratory flock on its way to Jamaica, stop at the pond to rest, Pam, Dax and Gwen are inspired to migrate there as well in order to expand their horizons and see more of the world. Dax also falls for a young blue-winged traveler. On the...

Editorial: Democracy hit or miss among young Americans- that’s a problem

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

We’re losing America’s young people. They may not be physically leaving the U.S., but a new poll shows they’re throwing American ideals overboard.As The Hill reported Wednesday, only about half of young Americans say democracy is the greatest form of government.Less than a week after the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, an event that set the nation on its course to independence, and only half of young Americans think democracy is worth achieving? This doesn’t bode well.The Economist/YouGov’s poll shows that among U.S. adults surveyed, support for democracy is strongest among older Americans, but it declines in every subsequent younger age bracket — with the weakest levels of support among adults younger than 45.Only 54% of U.S. adults ages 18-29 agree with the statement, “Democracy is the greatest form of government,” including 21% who agree strongly and 34% who agree somewhat. Another 34% say they neither agree nor disagree, and 12%t say they...

Dear Abby: Struggling daughter could pull mom under

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

Dear Abby: How can I help my financially drowning, 57-year-old daughter without being pulled under myself? I live comfortably now, but that could change in an instant with a stroke or a fall and the need for assisted living.My daughter had been employed throughout her adult life but was recently part of a group layoff. She has failed to find another job in her field, and her benefits have run out. I don’t blame her for the job loss, but I do think she could have been earning some money by working part-time. She didn’t do that until the benefit well had run dry.I “loaned” her some money but have made it clear that it will be short-lived. She hasn’t asked for my opinion but, boy, do I ever want to give it. She would have had a nice financial cushion had she not blown a $300K inheritance some years back.I feel guilty going out to lunch with friends or buying something unnecessary for the house when she’s close to being homeless. My house is large eno...

AP PHOTOS: In North America, 2023 was a year for all the emotions

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — To look is to be charmed. Amused. Saddened. Horrified. Amazed. Inspired.Photographers chronicling life in North America in 2023 captured images that evoked all the emotions, from the giddy silliness of people racing in inflatable dinosaur costumes to the wrenching sorrow of a vigil for victims of a mass shooting.This gallery from The Associated Press showcases a year that included unprecedented events — such as the first ever criminal indictment of a former president, Donald Trump, in connection to a hush money scheme from his 2016 campaign. Trump was photographed surrounded by security as he was escorted to a Manhattan courtroom in April.Some of the images focused on issues that the country continues to wrestle with, like immigration at the southern border where people come from around the world in hope of seeking asylum in the United States: A grim-faced man waits while cradling a sleeping child, reminiscent of Dorothea Lange’s iconic 1936 “Migrant Mother”; a...

Homeless numbers in Los Angeles could surge again, even as thousands move to temporary shelter

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the hours after being elected mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass made a promise that will be an inescapable metric of her time in office: “We are going to solve homelessness.”The Democratic member of Congress, who had been on then-candidate Joe Biden’s short list for vice president, envisioned streets clear of more than 40,000 homeless people — a broken city within a city — and the expansion of housing and health services that would repair troubled lives.“We are going to build a new Los Angeles,” she said.Now, one year into her first term, Bass says over 21,000 unhoused people were at some point moved into leased hotels or other temporary shelter in 2023, a 28% increase from the prior year. Dozens of drug-plagued street encampments were cleared, and housing projects are in the pipeline.Yet the encouraging figures belie a hard truth: It’s only the beginning.Billions of dollars have been spent on homelessness in the region, and an array of new programs are in place...

Ukraine ends year disappointed by stalemate with Russia, and anxious about aid from allies

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

The year started with high hopes for Ukrainian troops planning a counteroffensive against Russia. It ended with disappointment on the battlefield, an increasingly somber mood among troops and anxiety about the future of Western aid for Ukraine’s war effort.In between, there was a short-lived rebellion in Russia, a dam collapse in Ukraine, and the spilling of much blood on both sides of the conflict.Twenty-two months since it invaded, Russia has about one-fifth of Ukraine in its grip, and the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line has barely budged this year.A crunch has come away from the battlefield. In Western countries that have championed Ukraine’s struggle against its much bigger adversary, political deliberations over billions in financial aid are increasingly strained.Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing a waiting game two years into a war that proved to be a costly miscalculation by the Kremlin. He is wagering that the West’s support will gradually crumbl...

5 more boats packed with refugees approach Indonesia’s shores, air force says

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities detected at least five boats packed tight with refugees approaching shores of Aceh province, officials said Thursday.The boats are the latest in a surge of vessels that have arrived in Aceh, most carrying Rohingya refugees from southern Bangladesh, where the persecuted Muslim minority fled in 2017 following attacks by the military in their homeland of Myanmar.Indonesia intensified patrols of its waters after a sharp rise in Rohingya refugees arriving since November, said Aceh’s Air Force Base Commander Col. Yoyon Kuscahyono. He said air patrols detected at least five boats Wednesday entering Indonesian waters, likely carrying Rohingya refugees. They were spotted entering the regencies of Lhokseumawe, East Aceh, Pidie, Aceh Besar and Sabang in north Aceh province.Indonesia appealed to the international community for help on Dec. 12, after more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees arrived on its shores since November. Muslims comprise nearly...

Taylor Swift’s new romance, debt-erasing gifts and the eclipse are among most joyous moments of 2023

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A romance that united sports and music fans, a celestial wonder that drew millions of eyes skyward and a spiritual homecoming for some Native American tribes were just some of the moments that inspired us and brought joy in 2023.In a year that saw multiple wars, deadly mass shootings, earthquakes, wildfires, sexual harassment stories and other tragedies, these events were among those that broke through the tumult of 2023 and made people feel hopeful.As Taylor Swift would say, “Hold on to the memories.” Here are a few of them:___A FRIENDSHIP BRACELET WITH A PHONE NUMBER That’s how Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce planned to woo superstar Taylor Swift when he went to her Eras Tour concert stop in the Missouri capital. It didn’t work — at first.But the romantic gesture, and public admission of defeat on his “New Heights” podcast, caught the Grammy Award-winner’s attention. After the power pair took their relationship public — she went to a Chiefs game a...

After 2 grisly killings, a small Nebraska community wonders if any place is really safe

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:39:23 GMT

FORT CALHOUN, Neb. (AP) — The grisly killings of a retiree and then a priest has shocked everyone in tiny Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, including Sheriff Mike Robinson.He’s lived in the community just north of Omaha for 62 years and can’t recall a single homicide before these two.“It really is out of character,” Robinson said. “It’s a good town, good place to live, good place to raise your family.”Robinson says people have been troubled not only by the killings, but by the awful details of how their neighbors died in what appear to be random attacks.Linda Childers, 71, was killed Aug. 13, when she was shot with a crossbow three times and her throat was slit at her isolated home near a creek about a mile north of Fort Calhoun. Less than four months later, on Dec. 10, the Rev. Stephen Gutgsell, 65, was fatally stabbed during a break-in at the rectory next door to St. John the Baptist Church, where he had been set to lead Mass later that day.The brutal killings have shaken residents who have...