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COVID cases rising ahead of the holidays. Who should test — and how to get free tests

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

By Irene Wright, The Charlotte ObserverAs the holiday season brings families together, health experts are expecting cases of COVID-19 to rise.In the week following Thanksgiving 2022, hospitalizations from the virus increased significantly despite a lull in the early fall, just as health experts have seen this year, CNN reported.Emergency room visits for COVID-19 have increased 7% from late September until Nov. 11, suggesting a case spike is on the horizon, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In preparation, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would again offer free COVID-19 testing kits delivered to your door beginning on Nov. 20.Here’s what you need to know.Is it COVID-19? The flu? RSV?COVID-19 is just one pillar of the “tripledemic” making its way across the United States. The increase in cases aligns with both the annual flu season and the rise of RSV infections.Many of the symptoms of all three respiratory illnesses ...

6 things you may not realize are discounted on Black Friday

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

Black Friday has matured to more than deals on TVs, air fryers and electronics.All sorts of retailers are attaching the name “Black Friday” to sales, says Jane Boyd Thomas, a professor of marketing at Winthrop University in South Carolina.As the Black Friday sales go on longer and expand into more categories each year, you’ll find deals you might not have thought about. Here are six offbeat Black Friday buys.1. TiresCan you see the top of Lincoln’s head? Car nuts will know the penny trick for gauging tire wear. And if you’re due for a new set, tire retailers and manufacturers are ready to sell you some new rubber at a discount. Nationwide retailer Discount Tire’s website says it will drop Black Friday tire and wheel deals Nov. 23-29 this year.Look for deals on batteries and filters too. Your local car wash may even run a Black Friday promotion. Car stuff on Black Friday. Who knew?2. Big-ticket baby gearAfter the baby shower, stuff gets expensive to replace without the help of family...

Turkey rules the table. But an AP-NORC poll finds disagreement over other Thanksgiving classics

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

By MARK KENNEDY and LINLEY SANDERS (Associated Press)Thanksgiving may be a time for Americans to come together, but opinion is divided over what’s on the crowded dinner table. We mostly agree on the deliciousness of pumpkin pie, say, but are split over the eternal turkey question of dark meat versus white meat. And don’t even ask if marshmallows belong on sweet potatoes — it could cause a ruckus.About 3 in 10 U.S. adults (32%) who will celebrate Thanksgiving this year say turkey is their favorite dish in the holiday feast, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Stuffing or dressing (19%) and mashed potatoes (6%) come in second and third.“Thanksgiving — it’s about turkey,” said Ralph Caya, 71, from Pensacola, Florida, who participated in the survey. On the other hand, Vaidehi Upadhyaya, a 27-year-old pharmacist in Glen Rock, New Jersey, is a lifelong vegetarian. It’s all about the side...

In tears, ex-Trump exec testifies he gave up company job because he was tired of legal woes

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Tearing up as he testified, Donald Trump’s former corporate controller said he “gave up” on his longtime job because he was worn out by the company’s legal woes. Jeffrey McConney was on the witness stand for a fourth day in six weeks at the ex-president’s civil fraud trial when defense lawyer Jesus M. Suarez asked why McConney no longer works at the Trump Organization. McConney paused, took off his glasses, raised his hands in the air, wiped his eyes with tissues that a court officer brought to him and started reflecting aloud about his more than 35 years at the company, ending in February. “I’m very proud of the work that I did,” he said, then launched into a litany of investigations and legal proceedings in which he’s been subpoenaed or called to testify. “I just wanted to relax and stop being accused of misrepresenting assets for the company that I loved working for. I’m sorry,” he testified Tuesday, his voice trembling. McConney is among defenda...

Officials identify man fatally shot on a freeway by California Highway Patrol officer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man who was fatally shot by a California Highway Patrol officer in a struggle in a middle of a freeway that was captured on video was a 34-year-old man from Los Angeles, officials said Tuesday.The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office said Jesse Dominguez’s cause of death on Sunday afternoon has not been officially determined. Dominguez had been walking in westbound lanes of Interstate 105 in south LA County, according to the CHP. An officer tried to convince the man to get off the freeway but he refused and that led to a fight, authorities said. Dominguez was carrying a taser that he used against the officer, CHP said.“Following the pedestrian’s use of the weapon against the officer, and in fear for his safety, the officer fired his service weapon,” the statement said.Dominguez was pronounced dead at a hospital. The CHP has not provided the officer’s name or additional details about the altercation, including how many shots were f...

As 2023 draws to close, Biden’s promised visit to Africa shows no signs of happening yet

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden promised to visit Africa this year, but 2023 is drawing to a close with no trip in sight yet. Nor has Biden given any public indication he plans to attend the U.N. climate change conference that starts next week in Dubai.U.S. presidents tend to reveal their priorities through their calendars. Biden has pledged a closer relationship with African countries. He similarly has stressed the importance of global leadership on climate change. Presidential trips can come together very quickly if necessary. Biden has pulled off last-minute trips to Israel and Vietnam as well as a secretive journey to Ukraine. But the travel deadline is getting tight and there have been no obvious signs of preparation.Staring down what could be a tough 2024 reelection campaign, Biden is juggling a mix of other domestic and foreign concerns. Africa seems to have been pushed to the back burner despite effusive claims that Biden made last December at a Washington summit with ...

Lionel Messi draws Brazilian fans to what could be the Argentine great’s last match in Rio

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rafael Yen is just a boy, only 8 years old and mad for soccer like most kids in soccer-mad Brazil, but he has a conundrum that even his father is so far powerless to fix.Will Rafael wear an Argentina shirt at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday to watch Lionel Messi — his favorite player — when the World Cup champions play Brazil in a qualifying match?“I told him to take it easy, that would be like wearing a Vasco da Gama shirt at a Flamengo match,” said Miguel Yen, the boy’s father, referring to one of fiercest rivalries in Brazilian soccer. “Today he put aside a Brazil shirt, too, so I still don’t know what that is going to be like after he comes back from school.”Rafael has become such a fan of Messi, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, that he often sleeps with an Argentina shirt. He also got an Inter Miami jersey soon after striker moved to the MLS, and begged his father to take him to the Maracana to watch what could be his favorite player’s l...

Man pleads guilty to firebombing Wisconsin anti-abortion group office in 2022

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A man accused of firebombing an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin last year has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of damaging property with explosives.Online court records show Hridindu Roychowdhury, of Madison, entered the plea Monday in the Western District of Wisconsin. He will face up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced on Dec. 1, but prosecutors have agreed to recommend the judge reduce his sentence because he has accepted responsibility for the crime.According to court documents, someone broke a window at the Madison office of Wisconsin Family Action on May 8, 2022, six days after news outlets reported that the U.S. Supreme Court was set to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The reports sparked abortion rights supporters to mount protests across the country. Two Catholic churches in Colorado were vandalized in the days leading up to the Madison firebombing. And someone threw Molotov cocktails...

EPA offers $2B to clean up pollution, develop clean energy in poor and minority communities

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is making $2 billion available to community groups, states and tribes to clean up pollution and develop clean energy in disadvantaged communities in what officials called the largest-ever investment in environmental justice.Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan called the grant program unprecedented and said it “has the promise to turn disadvantaged and overburdened areas into healthy, resilient and thriving communities for current and future generations.”“Folks, this is historic,” Regan told reporters at a news conference Tuesday. The program, funded by the sweeping climate law signed last year by President Joe Biden, is aimed at poor and minority communities “that have long been overlooked and forgotten” and struggle to gain access to federal funding, Regan said.The climate law authorized $3 billion for underserved communities burdened by pollution, including $1 billion that has already been allocated.Regan, th...

Maine island that was site of eviction of historic mixed-race community added to national register

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:59 GMT

An island along the coast of Maine that was home to a mixed-race fishing community later forcibly removed by the state has been added to the National Register of Historic Places after a years-long effort.Malaga Island, a 42-acre (17-hectare) island about a 40-mile (64.37-kilometer) drive up the coast from Portland, is these days a public preserve visited by hikers and nature lovers. More than a century ago, it was home to a small community that historians believe was settled by free Black Americans around the time of the Civil War.In late 1911, during the administration of Maine Gov. Frederick W. Plaisted, several islanders were committed to the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded. The state then bought Malaga Island from a local family and ordered the remaining residents to vacate the island by July 1912. Nearly a century later, then-Gov. John Baldacci would issue an apology on the island.The island, located in the tiny town of Phippsburg, was formally listed on the national registe...