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Dear Abby: Woman wants all the gifts that can’t fit

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 GMT

Dear Abby: Several of our grandchildren have had weddings in the last few years, along with showers and receptions. They all had plans to move into residences of their own. The shower gifts were household items — nothing extravagant, but nice.Our granddaughter is now planning to be married in the next few months, and she wants all the things the previous grandkids wanted. Her parents will only go so far.This granddaughter and her fiance have agreed to live with the groom’s recently widowed mother, who has a fully furnished home and a spare bedroom. The newlyweds may have a bedroom to decorate, but the rest of the house belongs to someone else. Packing up gifts for storage will require a place to put them, because other family members don’t have spare room.How do we have a normal shower for a couple who won’t have room for their gifts? Renting a unit can get expensive. By the way, the bride does have a job and income, but the groom is currently unemployed. ...

Deputies investigating homicide of elderly woman in Borrego Springs: SDSO

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 GMT

BORREGO SPRINGS, Calif. — Authorities are investigating an apparent homicide in Borrego Springs after finding an elderly woman was found in her home on Saturday with apparent stab wounds, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office.Sometime in the afternoon, a deputy responded to the home in the 2800 block of Borrego Springs Road to conduct a welfare check on one of the residents, a 63-year-old woman, at the request of a family member, SDSO Lt. Joseph Jarjura said in a release.Upon arrival, the deputy was told by the family member that she was concerned after seeing blood in the house. SDSO added that the family member also noted there should be three people in the residence.The deputy then searched the home and found what appeared to be the woman with stab wounds to her body, Jarjura said. Fire department personnel later pronounced the woman dead on scene at 3:15 p.m. Seven injured in shooting at Spring Valley home: SDSO Her name has not been disclosed by law enforcement, ...

UCSD says video claiming evacuation of Jewish student meeting is 'incorrect'

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 GMT

SAN DIEGO — UC San Diego responded to a video circulating on social media that alleged a building where Jewish students gathered to discuss antisemitism was evacuated, saying in statements over the weekend that the post's claims were untrue.The footage was initially posted to X, formerly Twitter, by a self-described news aggregator based in Hungary, but has since been taken down. It was later shared again to Instagram by a pro-Israel advocate that appears to live in Tel Aviv.The video contained text that read "The police have been forced to evacuate Jewish students from a building of University of California San Diego @ucsandiego where they had gathered to discuss antisemitic threats. Swiftly, a large and threatening anti-Israeli mob gathered in front of the building.” SDSU responds to video showing people taking down Israeli hostage flyers In a statement, the university said no such evacuation took place and that the video was from a student government meeting on Nov. 1, 2023. Ac...

Canned seafood moves beyond tuna sandwiches in a pandemic trend that stuck

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sardines swirling in preserved lemons. Mackerel basking in curry sauce. Chargrilled squid bathing in ink. All are culinary delicacies long popular in Europe that are now making their mark on U.S. menus. The country’s canned seafood industry is moving well beyond tuna sandwiches, a pandemic-era trend that began with Americans in lockdown demanding more of their cupboard staples. Since then, the U.S. market has only expanded, fueled by social media influencers touting the benefits of the high-powered protein food in brightly colored metal containers. On the TikTok channel Tinned — Fishionado, Kris Wilson posts recipes for quick meals, including one mixing leftover rice, soy sauce, avocado and a runny egg with a tin of smoked mussels from the Danish company Fangst. Tinned fish, as it’s called in Europe, is now a regular offering on menus at wine bars from San Francisco to Houston to New York, where patrons scoop the contents straight out of the can. The...

Georgia deputy who shot absolved man had prior firing for excessive force. Critics blame the sheriff

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 GMT

When Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge fatally shot Leonard Cure during a roadside struggle after pulling him over for speeding, it wasn’t the first time a traffic stop involving the Camden County sheriff’s deputy had spiraled into violence.Last year, Aldridge dragged a driver from a car that crashed after fleeing the deputy on Interstate 95. Body and dash camera video obtained by The Associated Press show the driver on his back as Aldridge punches him. Records indicate the deputy faced no disciplinary action. Personnel records show Aldridge was fired in August 2017 by a police department in the same Georgia county after he threw a woman to the ground and handcuffed her during a traffic stop. The Camden County Sheriff’s Office hired him nine months later. Aldridge stopped Cure for speeding Oct. 16 and ended up shocking the 53-year-old Black man with a Taser after he refused to put his hands behind him to be cuffed. Body and dash camera videos show Cure fought back and had a hand ...

A Montana farmer with a flattop and ample lobbyist cash stands between GOP and Senate control

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 GMT

BIGFORK, Mont. (AP) — After 17 years in the U.S. Senate, Democrat Jon Tester is a well-known commodity in Montana — a plain-spoken grain farmer with a flattop and a carefully cultivated reputation as a moderate.The 67-year-old lawmaker smiled and laughed his way through the crowd at a Veterans Day event in Bigfork, a small town on Flathead Lake where the population has surged in recent years. He chatted with veterans who supported him and some who didn’t, then stood behind a lectern in the Bigfork High School gymnasium to promote his biggest recent accomplishment: expanded federal health care for millions of veterans exposed to toxic smoke at military “burn pits.”Tester has survived three close elections and a changed national political landscape to emerge as the lone Democrat still holding high office in Montana. The 2024 election brings possibly his stiffest challenge yet: Republicans, just two seats short of Senate control, are expected to spend tens of millions on attack a...

A$AP Rocky will soon learn if he’s going to trial for charges of shooting at former friend

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A$AP Rocky could learn Monday whether he will be ordered to trial on allegations that he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator outside a Hollywood hotel. A Los Angeles judge is set to hear evidence Monday against the 35-year-old rap star and father of two children with Rihanna as he decides whether he should stand trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. He has pleaded not guilty.Prosecutors allege that outside the W. Hotel in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, Rocky pointed a handgun at Terell Ephron, then in a confrontation soon after fired shots that grazed Ephron’s knuckles and left him with minor injuries.At the first day of the hearing earlier this month, Ephron, who once went by A$AP Relli, testified that he and Rocky were close friends as teens along with the other members of the A$AP collective, a group of New York high school students who sought to make music and pursue other art forms.He said their friendship lasted un...

Appeals court to hear arguments on whether to reinstate gag order against Donald Trump

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court is hearing arguments Monday on whether to reinstate a gag order against Donald Trump in the federal case charging him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith’s team will urge a three-judge panel of the Washington-based appeals court to put back in place an order barring the former president from making inflammatory statements about lawyers in the case and potential witnesses. The prosecutors say those restrictions are necessary to prevent Trump from undermining confidence in the court system and intimidating people who may be called to testify against him. Defense lawyers have called the gag order an unconstitutional muzzling of Trump’s free speech rights and say prosecutors have presented no evidence to support the idea that his words have caused harm or made anyone feel threatened.The gag order is one of multiple contentious issues being argued ahead of...

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

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 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 Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:53 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...