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Ask Amy: Bargains find him, but joy is fleeting

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

Dear Amy: My family is upper-middle class. I love to dine out and at my instigation, we do it often.I am also always seeking value in whatever I purchase, including restaurant meals. Bargains gravitate to me.Our most recent meal at a fine restaurant came about when the restaurant was offering a weekday promotion of a 10-ounce strip steak with side dish for $19.95, considerably less than the normal price.My wife ordered a 9-ounce bleu filet, which was $40.75 — one of the most expensive items on the menu.When the check came, she said she was waiting to see if I would have a heart attack, indicating that she knew her dish was pricey.My wife worked as an accountant before we were married. I am semi-retired and manage our investments and shop for the family.We do quite well, financially, but this is a common pattern for us. My wife said that she does not look at prices and that if we are going out to dinner, she is going to order what she wants.Although her expensive meals are not ...

Ukraine gets back more than 30 children from Russia after alleged deportation

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

More than 30 children were reunited this weekend with their families in Ukraine after a lengthy operation to bring them home from Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea. They had been taken from areas occupied during the war by Russian forces.After a complicated rescue mission that involved travel across four countries, mothers hugged their children as they crossed the border to Ukraine from Belarus.Dasha Rakk, a thirteen-year-old girl, stated that she and her twin sister had made arrangements to leave Kherson, Russia, last year due to the war, and travel to a camp in Crimea for a few days. Russian officials stated that the children would stay longer once they arrived in Crimea.She said, "They said that we would be adopted and that we will have guardians." "When they told us that we would stay longer, we all began to cry."Natalia, Dasha's mother, said that she traveled from Ukraine via Poland, Belarus, and Moscow to meet her daughters. Russia has occupied Ukraine's Crimea peninsula since...

Elizabeth Holmes loses bid to remain free during appeal

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

By Joel Rosenblatt | BloombergElizabeth Holmes must report to prison as scheduled later this month, a judge ruled, rejecting her request to remain free on bail as she appeals her fraud conviction.The decision Monday by US District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, is likely his last in the case which he’s handled since Holmes was indicted in 2018. Davila presided over the Theranos Inc. founder’s four-month trial in 2021 and sentenced her in November to serve 11 1/4 years of incarceration for deceiving investors in her blood-testing startup.Legal experts said Holmes’s bid to remain free during an appeals process that might take two years was a long shot. She’s expected to make one final request for bail from the San Francisco-based federal appeals court, which she has also asked to overturn her conviction.RELATED: Ex-Theranos exec Balwani headed to prison after losing appealDavila ruled that even if Holmes won an appeals court ruling overturning his decisions to allow evid...

Florida dominates list for self-employed workers in US, study found

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

By NICOLE LAUREN | WFORMIAMI (WFOR) — How do you feel about being your own boss? Well, it seems like South Floridians seem to like the idea!A new study found that the number of self-employed workers is on the rise based on data from the US Census Bureau.The number of self-employed workers has increased by nearly one million (988,418) since 2016, according to the Census Bureau.The rankings for the cities with the most self-employed workers were:Hialeah, FloridaMiami, FloridaHollywood, FloridaCape Coral, FloridaLos Angeles, CaliforniaScottsdale, ArizonaGlendale, CaliforniaPort St. Lucie, FloridaHuntington Beach, CaliforniaFort Lauderdale, FloridaRelated ArticlesEconomy | Tech company leases big chunk of Silicon Valley office space Economy | The Bay Area’s economy of mud: Dredging concerns threaten jobs, $100 billion in assets Economy | Apple eyes big new Cupertino office building Economy | Marijuana law presents new chal...

Project that gave $500 a month to some Stockton residents shows that such efforts could have a ‘profound’ impact on public health, researchers say

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

By Carma Hassan | CNNResults are out from a two-year experiment testing the effects of guaranteed income on residents of Stockton, California — but the findings were complicated by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers say.The program, dubbed the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration or SEED, gave monthly payments of $500 to 131 people starting in February 2019. There was also a control group of 200 Stockton residents.A little over a year later, the Covid-19 pandemic began, launching a domino effect of lifestyle changes as more people stayed home under lockdown orders.Researchers Dr. Amy Castro and Dr. Stacia West, from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Tennessee, found that people who received the money were more likely to be able to handle a $400 emergency, according to the analysis, published Monday in the Journal of Urban Health.The extra $500 a month also “permitted judiciousness about COVID and what conditions workers would tolera...

Single-family house sells for $4.1 million in Palo Alto

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

319 Kingsley Avenue – Google Street ViewA spacious historic house located in the 300 block of Kingsley Avenue in Palo Alto has a new owner. The 2,004-square-foot property, built in 1908, was sold on March 20, 2023, for $4,145,000, or $2,068 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms and two baths, as well as a pool in the backyard. The unit sits on a 5,000-square-foot lot.These nearby houses have also recently changed hands:A 2,028-square-foot home on the 1000 block of Waverley Street in Palo Alto sold in January 2023, for $3,800,000, a price per square foot of $1,874. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, in August 2022, a 1,144-square-foot home was sold for $3,325,000, a price per square foot of $2,906. The home has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.In January 2023, a 3,264-square-foot home on Melville Avenue in Palo Alto sold for $3,930,000, a price per square foot of $1,204. The home has 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. 

What we know about the gunman who opened fire at a Louisville bank

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

A 25-year-old bank employee in Louisville, Kentucky, knew he was going to be fired and wrote a note to loved ones before heading to his job Monday morning and opening fire — killing five people and injuring eight others, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.The gunman, identified as Connor Sturgeon, started his attack around 8:30 a.m. at Old National Bank in downtown, authorities said. He opened fire as some employees met for a morning meeting before the bank was open to the public. Rebecca Buchheit-Sims, a manager at the bank, told CNN she watched the meeting virtually and witnessed her coworkers being slain.Buchheit-Sims described Sturgeon as “extremely intelligent” and others who knew him told CNN they were shocked to see the violence, which launched a massive police response in the heart of one of America’s most populated cities. But prior writings by the gunman indicate he struggled to fit in before he joined the team at ...

‘Straight Pride Parade’ organizer facing felony charge in Jan 6 Capitol riot

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

A lead organizer of Boston’s “Straight Pride Parade” is now facing a felony charge for his alleged participation in the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors announced.Mark Sahady, 48, of Malden, was indicted by a federal grand jury this week for obstruction of an official proceeding, for allegedly disrupting a joint session of the U.S. Congress “convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia said.He had previously been facing lesser charges of entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.The indictment, filed Wednesday, carries the new felony charge, upping his potential prison time, if convicted, from six months to a year for each of the other crim...

Money pours into early days of Democrat Adam Frisch’s second campaign to unseat Rep. Lauren Boebert

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

In just over seven weeks since Adam Frisch announced his second campaign to unseat far-right incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, he’s boosted his war chest by well over seven figures, his campaign announced Thursday.To date, the former Aspen City councilman has raised $1.7 million, “shattering expectations,” Frisch said in a statement.That much money shows a clear break from the slow start his 2022 campaign had, largely due to the national attention he earned by almost unseating Boebert. During the first quarter of that campaign, Frisch had raised $232,575, federal data shows.The 2022 race for Boebert’s sprawling 3rd Congressional district seat was the most expensive House race in Colorado.  Combined, Boebert and Frisch raised $14.1 million, compared to the $5.1 million raised by the two nominees in the next-closest race for the newly created 8th Congressional district.The level of fundraising for Boebert and Frisch’s first race even put them on a national scale, making it one of th...

Word Game: April 11, 2023

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 06:00:55 GMT

TODAY’S WORD — DOVECOTES (DOVECOTES: DUV-kotes: Raised compartmental structures for housing domestic pigeons.)Average mark 23 wordsTime limit 35 minutesCan you find 29 or more words in DOVECOTES? The list will be published tomorrow.YESTERDAY’S WORD — LOQUACIOUS laic loco locus luau olio quai quail quasi usual also ciao coal coil cola cool coulis sail silo social soil solo soulTo purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last!RULES OF THE GAME:1. Words must be of four or more letters.2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible.4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.Contact Word Game creator Kathleen Saxe at [email protected].