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Unconventional films for your holiday streaming list

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

It’s an annual tradition by now, to suggest some unexpected holiday movies that happen to fit the season, whether by dint of being set during the holidays, or evoking some kind of holiday spirit. Whatever mood you’re in this Christmas, you should be covered with this list of nontraditional holiday movies to explore.First up, a new release that is now available to purchase on streaming. Alexander Payne released an instant misfit holiday classic this year with “The Holdovers,” set at a boarding school in 1970 Massachusetts. Paul Giamatti stars as a grumpy history teacher tasked with supervising “the holdovers,” the kids who don’t go home during Christmas break.Newcomer Dominic Sessa plays his single charge, while Da’Vine Joy Randolph plays the cafeteria manager who is also folded into this reluctant family. With warmth, irascible charm and a delightful wordiness, “The Holdovers” will warm it’s way into your heart. It’s only available to purchase right now, but you might as well, becau...

Editorial: Why Biden can’t convince voters he’s beat inflation

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

Economic happy talk doesn’t lower mortgage payments. It’s one reason Bidenomics remains deeply unpopular.President Joe Biden wants the public to believe that the economy is doing great. At a recent campaign event, Biden bragged that he had overseen “record job creation, historic economic growth, (and) among the lowest inflation rates of any major economy in the world.” The White House frequently touts Bidenomics. His administration even claims, “Bidenomics is working.”His allies in the media are pushing this narrative, too. “Biden goes into 2024 with the economy getting stronger, but voters feel horrible about it,” The Associated Press wrote recently.New York Times writer Nate Cohn suggested the problem was vibes, not economic. “It’s harder to argue that voters should believe the economy is outright terrible, even after accounting for inflation,” he wrote.The subtext is clear: Biden has worked wonders on the economy — if only those dumb voters would realize it.At least they have one...

New pup owners should watch for holiday hazards

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

Dear Dr. John,I grew up with allergies such that having a dog was a challenge and it carried into my adult life, so my wife and grown children never had a dog either. Recently, we purchased a Shih Tzu/Poodle mix for my elderly mother. My mother did some things that worried us for the health of the small dog, such as giving it six cough drops. We also started to be concerned that she might trip over the dog, so we took it into our home.We have fallen in love with the dog. Since this is our first dog, our questions are about what is safe in the home at this time of year. She is curious and active, so can you list some of the typical hazards that we should be wary of? Thanks, and Merry Christmas. D.F.Dear D.F.,Congratulations on getting a dog and keeping the puppy after it did not work out for your mother. These animals are sometimes returned to where they came from, and I am glad to see that you kept the puppy.As a person with allergies to dogs, I am sure that you know that Poodle mix...

Dear Abby: Daughter’s harassed, school does nothing

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

Dear Abby: My daughter, who is in eighth grade, has slowly come out as lesbian. She enjoys makeup and fashion, but isn’t absolute in presenting in a feminine way. She is an artist and a musician, is very creative and enjoys being unique in her style sense.Some of the students have tried to project onto her that she’s actually transgender, which she is not. They ask if she is a boy or a girl even though she is obviously female. As she walks through the campus and in class, the kids holler in front of the campus monitors and teachers, “Is ‘it’ a he/she/it?”My daughter is being shunned in PE even though she is very athletic, belongs to Junior Lifeguards and excels as this every summer, and she’s a wonderful cross country runner. She is becoming discouraged at school even though she is an A-B student, and she no longer wants to go to PE because of the harassment she’s receiving in front of teachers.I have complained before and was told stu...

CHP: One person dies in fiery crash on SR-94

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- One person is dead after a fiery crash involving multiple vehicles on SR-94 Saturday morning. The first calls went out around 8:51 a.m. Saturday for reports of a multi-vehicle accident on SR-94 westbound, near the I-805 connector, and a car that exploded into flames. Suspected burglary leads to police pursuit; three arrested after tracked down by K-9 California Highway Patrol traffic incident logs report a vehicle fell off the transition from SR-94 eastbound to I-15 northbound, landing in the westbound lanes of SR-94, hitting other vehicles. That impact sparked a fire. CHP logs state one person died in the accident. They were not identified by authorities as of Saturday evening. Out-of-town family members find body in freezer in Allied Gardens: SDPD Caltrans closed SR-94 west immediately following the crash Saturday morning; traffic was detoured onto I-805. That stretch of highway remained closed for hours as crews worked to clear the scene. A signage pole was als...

Decaying Pillsbury mill in Illinois that once churned flour into opportunity is now getting new life

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — It was the dog, stuck atop skyscraping grain silos on Springfield’s northeast side in 2019, that forced Chris Richmond’s hand.The stray had found its way to the top of the behemoth Pillsbury Mills, for decades a flour-churning engine of the central Illinois city’s economy but now vacant more than 20 years. Rescue was too risky amid such decay, officials said. The brief but precarious appearance by the dog, found dead at ground level days later after ingesting rat poison, represented the hopelessness posed by the vacant campus, Richmond recalled. “That’s when I said, ‘This is just unacceptable in our community,'” said the 54-year-old retired city fire marshal, whose father’s Pillsbury paycheck made him and his brother first-generation college graduates.A year later, Richmond and allies emerged with a nonprofit called Moving Pillsbury Forward and a five-year, $10 million plan to raze the century-old plant and renew the 18-ac...

New migrants face fear and loneliness. A town on the Great Plains has a storied support network

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

FORT MORGAN, Colo. (AP) — Magdalena Simon’s only consolation after immigration officers handcuffed and led her husband away was the contents of his wallet, a few bills.The hopes that had pushed her to trudge thousands of miles from Guatemala in 2019, her son’s small frame clutched to her chest, ceded to despair and loneliness in Fort Morgan, a ranching outpost on Colorado’s eastern plains, where some locals stared at her too long and the wind howls so fiercely it once blew the doors half off a hotel.The pregnant Simon tried to mask the despair every morning when her toddlers asked, “Where’s papa?”To millions of migrants who have crossed the U.S. southern border in the past few years, stepping off greyhound buses in places across America, such feelings can be constant companions. What Simon would find in this unassuming city of a little more than 11,400, however, was a community that pulled her in, connecting her with legal council, charities, schools and soon friends, a unique...

Nevada tribe says coalitions, not lawsuits, will protect sacred sites as US advances energy agenda

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The room was packed with Native American leaders from across the United States, all invited to Washington to hear from federal officials about President Joe Biden’s accomplishments and new policy directives aimed at improving relationships and protecting sacred sites.Arlan Melendez was not among them.The longtime chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony convened his own meeting 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) away. He wanted to show his community would find another way to fight the U.S. government’s approval of a massive lithium mine at the site where more than two dozen of their Paiute and Shoshone ancestors were massacred in 1865.Opposed by government lawyers at every legal turn, Melendez said another arduous appeal would not save sacred sites from being desecrated.“We’re not giving up the fight, but we are changing our strategy,” Melendez said.That shift for the Nevada tribe comes as Biden and other top federal officials double down on their vows to ...

Financial pressures forcing Etobicoke church housing refugees to close by end of December

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

A Toronto church that has been on the front lines of the refugee housing crisis says it will be forced to close its doors as of December 28 due to a lack of funds.Nadine Miller with Pilgrim Feast Tabernacles in Etobicoke says they have been working around the clock since July to make sure refugees have a roof over their heads and warm food to eat.“Canada itself is known as a place of refuge. Internationally we have danced well, we have done well, we give well but now it’s in our country and we cannot allow Black people to sleep on the street,” she said.“We really need a helping hand at this point. We need those with a voice to stand up with us.”Miller says the cost to keep Pilgrim Feast Tabernacles running as a shelter has put the church into debt to the tune of between $700- to $800,000.“On a given month with all the different locations that we have, it’s $30,000. And then you have staff, that another $100,000. Every month we’re in at...

SFFD: 3 food truck workers in Union Square injured after stove ruptured

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:51:24 GMT

(KRON) -- Three food truck workers in Union Square were taken to the hospital Saturday evening after an incident in the kitchen, the San Francisco Fire Department said. The three workers suffered burn injuries after a stove inside the truck "ruptured."SFFD said the food truck was in the area of Stockton and Geary streets. There was no fire and no danger to people near the food truck.Video from the Citizen App shows the scene of first responders tending to the incident. Watch in the media player above. SFFD first tweeted about the incident at 8:28 p.m. No other information was immediately available. Pro-Palestine protestor climbs on Christmas tree in Union Square Earlier in the day, police advised the public to avoid Union Square due to protestors committing crimes that range from assault to damage to property. That scene has since been cleared, and several suspects were arrested, according to the San Francisco Police Department.