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Dear Abby: Friendships took a hit during pandemic

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

Dear Abby: I’m a woman in my late 40s, and since coming out of the isolation of the pandemic (the lockdown was strict where we live), I’ve had a hard time rekindling the friendships I valued before — with my two best girlfriends, in particular. We used to have the type of relationship in which we were very open. We told each other everything and had a lot of fun.The last two years were really hard on me. I faced a series of serious health issues, as did my youngest kid, who almost died and had to be hospitalized in another city because the care centers here were overcrowded. A few months later, my older child had a mental health crisis that we now spend a lot of time working through.Those challenges completely changed the way our house runs. They dominate my day-to-day life. The thing is, talking about all that feels too heavy. I don’t want to be the friend who always brings down the room. On the other hand, when my friends find out everything that has been g...

Hawaii could see a big hurricane season, but most homes aren’t ready

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — Jan Pappas and Ronald Yasuda hired a contractor to fasten the roof of their 1960s-era home to their walls with metal plates and nails so high winds of a potential hurricane wouldn’t blow it away. Their motivation? Global warming fueling natural disasters around the planet. “It’s happening right now, every place in the world,” said Pappas, who installed the so-called hurricane clips after watching extreme weather in other parts of the world. “How are we to expect that it’s not going to happen here to us?”Many of Hawaii’s homes are even more vulnerable than theirs. Two-thirds of the single-family homes on Oahu, an island of 1 million people that’s home to Honolulu, have no hurricane protections. That lack of preparedness is unnerving residents this hurricane season as the islands prepare for the possibility of a one-two weather punch: the increased odds of a tropical cyclone that come with any El Nino year combined with climate-fueled ocea...

11 dead and 27 missing in flooding around Beijing after days of rain, Chinese state media report

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

Chinese state media report 11 people have died and 27 are missing amid flooding in the mountains surrounding the capital Beijing. Days of heavy rains have prompted authorities to close train stations and evacuate people in vulnerable communities to school gyms, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday. Homes have been flooded, roads torn apart and cars piled into stacks. The level of rainfall is highly unusual for Beijing, which generally enjoys a moderate, dry climate. Flooding in other parts of northern China that rarely see such large amounts of rain have led to scores of deaths. The Associated Press

Fate of American nurse and daughter kidnapped by armed men in Haiti remains uncertain

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The fate of an American nurse and her daughter kidnapped in Haiti last week remains unknown Tuesday as the U.S. State Department refused to say whether the abductors made demands. Around 200 Haitians had marched in their nation’s capital Monday to show their anger over an abduction that’s another example of the worsening gang violence that has overtaken much of Port-au-Prince. Alix Dorsainil of New Hampshire was working for El Roi Haiti, a nonprofit Christian ministry, when she and her daughter were seized Thursday. She is the wife of its founder, Sandro Dorsainvil.Witnesses told The Associated Press that Dorsainvil was working in the small brick clinic when armed men burst in and seized her. Lormina Louima, a patient waiting for a check-up, said one man pulled out his gun and told her to relax.“When I saw the gun, I was so scared,” Louima said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to see this, let me go.’”Some members of the community said the unidentified men ...

Singer Coco Lee mourned by fans and family at Hong Kong funeral

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Singer and songwriter Coco Lee was being mourned by family and friends at a private ceremony Tuesday a day after fans paid their respects at a public memorial for the Hong Kong-born entertainer who had international success.Sobs were heard when pallbearers marched solemnly with her coffin inside the funeral hall before her cremation. Lee, who died July 5 at age 48, was known for her powerful voice and live performances.On Monday, scores of fans dressed in black had waited outside the funeral hall in the summer heat, with some carrying flowers. The public memorial service was also attended by her relatives and friends, including singers Elva Hsiao and Jenny Tseng.Lin Jing, a fan from Fujian province in southeast China, said she admired Lee’s smile and appearance, adding: “She was really talented. She always tried to improve and she inspired women to feel independent.”Inside the funeral hall, three pink hearts made of flowers and other floral decorations w...

As electoral disputes mount, one Texas court case takes center stage

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — Elections in Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, the state’s biggest city, are coming under the microscope this week as the Democratic stronghold faces unprecedented intervention from the state’s GOP-led Legislature.Various problems in last November’s midterm elections will be center stage in a civil trial beginning Tuesday. Erin Lunceford, a GOP candidate who lost her bid to become a district court judge in Harris County is suing to throw out the election results and have the court order a do over.Similar court challenges have become more common around the country following baseless conspiracy theories spread by former President Donald Trump and his supporters alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen by President Joe Biden’s backers.The Texas Legislature passed new laws this year eliminating Harris County’s top election office and permitting the state to take over more easily after a complaint is filed.Lunceford’s lawyers allege s...

Missouri man facing scheduled execution for beating death of 6-year-old girl in 2002

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

JEFFESON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man who abducted a 6-year-old girl and beat her to death at an abandoned glass factory was scheduled to be executed Tuesday in Missouri, as his attorneys pressed claims that he is mentally incompetent. Johnny Johnson, 45, was convicted in the July, 26, 2002, killing of Casey Williamson, whose disappearance set off a frantic search in her hometown of Valley Park, a small suburb of St. Louis. Casey’s mother had been best friends in childhood with Johnson’s older sister and had even helped babysit him. After Johnson attended a barbecue the night before the killing, Casey’s family let him sleep on a couch in the home where they also were sleeping. In the morning, Johnson lured the girl to the abandoned factory, even carrying her on his shoulders on the walk to the dilapidated site. When he tried to sexually assault her, Casey screamed and tried to break free. According to court documents, he killed her with a brick and a large rock, then washed off in t...

Mar-a-Lago property manager is the latest in line of Trump staffers ensnared in legal turmoil

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A longtime Mar-a-Lago staffer who spent years fetching luxury cars for wealthy club members is the latest person to be ensnared in former President Donald Trump ’s ballooning legal troubles.Carlos De Oliveira appeared in court Monday to face charges connected to what prosecutors allege was a scheme directed by the former president and current GOP frontrunner to try to erase security footage after it was subpoenaed by a grand jury. De Oliveira is also charged with lying to investigators, according to a new indictment unveiled last week.De Oliveira is now the second little-known Trump employee charged in connection to his alleged hoarding of classified documents at his Palm Beach, Florida, club. His case highlights the collateral damage of Trump’s mounting legal woes, as he leaves a trail of co-conspirators and allies accused of lying or committing other crimes on his behalf. Some of those finding themselves under legal scrutiny depend on Trump for their livelihood — a...

David Firestone: As his campaign craters, DeSantis walls himself in

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

As he flails to reverse a polling decline that is beginning to resemble a rockslide, Gov. Ron DeSantis must be feeling a little clueless about why his political fortunes are crumbling so quickly. Attacking wokeness and bullying transgender people seemed to work so well in Florida, so why aren’t national Republicans in awe of the divisions he’s deepened? Making repeated appearances with racial provocateurs never stopped him from getting elected as governor, so why did he have to fire a young aide who inserted Nazi imagery into his own video promoting DeSantis’ presidential campaign?But the political bubble inhabited by DeSantis is so thick — symbolized by the hugely expensive private-plane flights that are draining his campaign of cash, since he and his wife, Casey, won’t sit with regular people in a commercial cabin — that he has been unable or unwilling to understand the brushoff he has received from donors and potential voters and make the changes he needs to become competitive wi...

Owners of Lutsen Mountains hit brakes on contentious expansion of North Shore ski resort

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:57:08 GMT

The owners of Lutsen Mountains ski resort on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior have asked the U.S. Forest Service to hold off on a decision on a proposed $60 million expansion of the ski resort onto 550 acres of Superior National Forest land.The proposed expansion, in the works for nearly a decade, would more than double the resort’s downhill ski and snowboard capacity but had come under increasing criticism from environmental groups, Ojibwe bands, backcountry ski enthusiasts and even Superior Hiking Trail supporters.Forest Service officials had been saying a decision on the expansion was expected this summer, but it now appears the entire process may be on hold indefinitely.Charles Skinner, the Duluth-based president and owner of Midwest Family Ski Resorts, and his daughter, Charlotte Skinner, chief of staff to the company, released a statement Monday saying they have asked the Forest Service to defer any decision until additional communications are held with sev...