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This holiday season is expected to be the busiest on record at airports, AAA says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

By Marnie Hunter | CNNPrepare to wait in line, air travelers: The 10-day Christmas and New Year’s travel period is likely to be the busiest ever at US airports, according to AAA’s year-end holiday forecast.AAA is expecting 7.5 million air travelers, topping the previous record in 2019 of 7.3 million, according to the forecast released on Monday. Average airfare prices are slightly lower than last year, AAA said.Overall, 115 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday season, making it the second-busiest since 2000, when AAA began tracking holiday travel. The busiest year ever was 2019, which was before the Covid-19 pandemic that disrupted travel worldwide.AAA’s forecast looks at the period from Saturday, December 23 to Monday, January 1.Holiday road warriorsRelated ArticlesTravel | Holiday getaway: Cut down your own Christmas tree in Plumas National Forest Travel | Disneyland closes 4 rides during busy Christmas season ...

Could Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million contract actually be a bargain for Dodgers?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

LOS ANGELES — When is $700 million not $700 million?Shohei Ohtani’s record-breaking, baseball world-shaking contract with the Dodgers will pay him $700 million for 10 seasons of work, more than a third of the sales price when the Guggenheim Group bought the franchise in 2012.But the machinations of high finances will make it feel like considerably less for the Dodgers, no doubt a big factor in their willingness to top every other bidder by a large margin.“This is a unique, historic contract for a unique, historic player,” Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, said in announcing the deal Saturday, referring to it as “a partnership.”That was not hyperbole.Ohtani’s deal reportedly includes a significant amount of deferred money – perhaps more than half of the $700 million, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Deferred money is worth less than money paid up front, lowering the real value of the contract and – more importantly – the amount counted against MLB’s Competitive Balance Tax each year.The Do...

‘Overperforming’ snowy mix stuns DC region, causing slippery roads for early commute

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

Listen to WTOP online and on the radio at 103.5 FM or 107.7 FM.A surprise wintry mix arrived in the D.C. region early Monday morning, causing roads to be slick for commuters heading into work. Here’s what you need to know.What was expected to be more of a rain-heavy mix turned into a snow event that “overperformed” in several spots in the area, WTOP meteorologist Lauryn Ricketts said. She added that the storm made “snow-covered roads” and some stickage on roads.“We got enough snow at a heavy clip,” Ricketts said, adding that drivers should “just be careful” on the roads.Despite the warmer weather, snow did stick in parts of the region with Stafford County, Virginia, reporting over an inch of snow while Herndon recorded .9 of an inch.Yup, big wet snowflakes coming down early this morning, as promised @wtop ⁦@WTOPtraffic⁩ pic.twitter.com/MXPBjQesBD— John Aaron (@JohnAaronWTOP) December 11, 2023The stormy weather arrived hours after...

Ben Stokes expected to be fit for start of England’s test series in India but will not bowl

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

England test captain Ben Stokes is expected to be fit for the start of the five-test tour of India beginning Jan. 25 after being selected in a 16-man squad less than two weeks after undergoing left knee surgery.Stokes will not bowl in the series, England director of cricket Rob Key said in a video call on Monday, though that was never the plan in the wake of his Nov. 29 operation.Key said Stokes’ surgery was a “success” and that the captain was on course to be ready for the first test in Hyderabad from Jan. 25-29.Stokes barely bowled in the Ashes series against Australia this year and was only a batter in the recent 50-over World Cup also held in India.It will be England’s first test series since the retirement of veteran pacer Stuart Broad while Chris Woakes, one of the team’s best fast bowlers in the Ashes, was left out. Instead, England will have four seamers in Jimmy Anderson, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood and uncapped Gus Atkinson.Four spinners were se...

Liz Weston: Investing for retirement — Why you might want to reconsider that 403(b)

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

Like many other educators, high school science teacher Robert Curtiss of Dearborn, Michigan, thought he was doing the right thing by investing in his school district’s 403(b) retirement plan. Then federal regulators charged the company handling Curtiss’ investments with fraud.In July 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Equitable Financial Life Insurance Co. had misled investors — mostly public school employees — about what their investments cost. Equitable often issued quarterly statements showing $0 in fees, when in reality the expenses were much higher, according to the SEC. Equitable agreed to pay a $50 million civil penalty to harmed investors.After hearing about the fine, Curtiss learned that his retirement investments were costing him two to three times what a typical 401(k) investor would pay. Getting his money out would cost even more: the investments, known as variable annuities, had surrender charges of 5% to 6%.“I felt so frustrated,” Curtiss says. “If I wou...

UN officials and activists ramp up the urgency as “difficult” climate talks enter final days

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Visibly tired and frustrated top United Nations officials urged climate talks to push harder for an end to fossil fuels. Time seems to be running out both in the talks in Dubai and for action that could keep warming at or below the internationally agreed-upon threshold.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres returned to the summit on Monday and said it was “time to go into overdrive, to negotiate in good faith, and rise to the challenge.” He said negotiators at the COP28 summit in particular must focus on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and climate justice.He said the global stocktake — the part of talks that assesses where the world is at with its climate goals and how it can reach them — should “phase out all fossil fuels” in order to reach the goal of limiting the rise of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times. That phase-out was, he said, ”a central aspect” for the ...

Tornados mortales desplazan a cientos de habitantes de Tennessee que ahora enfrentan un largo camino hacia la recuperación

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

(CNN) — Cientos de habitantes de Tennessee están desplazados o enfrentan cortes prolongados de energía después de que una serie de poderosos tornados y tormentas azotaran el estado durante el fin de semana, destruyendo cientos de hogares y matando al menos a seis personas, entre ellas una madre y su hijo pequeño.La destrucción causada por las tormentas en Tennessee, donde al menos dos tornados tocaron tierra este sábado, ha llevado a los funcionarios en algunas de las áreas más afectadas a declarar estados locales de emergencia, abrir refugios para familias desplazadas y anunciar el cierre de varias escuelas el lunes.Más de 34.000 personas se quedaron sin electricidad en el estado este lunes por la mañana. En Nashville, una empresa de servicios públicos local estima que podría llevar días restaurar el suministro eléctrico a algunas personas, mientras que a los residentes de Clarksville se les ha dicho que podría llevar semanas.Partes de Hendersonville y el suburbio de Nashvill...

Plan to keep your pets safe this holiday season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

(CNN) — For a dog or cat, the holidays are full of bright, shiny fun. Tinsel dangles from a tall invader in the living room, outfitted with branches just made for climbing. Twinkling lights bounce off fragile ornaments, which often look just like balls made for a dog’s mouth. One crunch, however, and shards might cause injury.“Think about it — to your cat and dog that tree is an invitation to a party. It’s filled with dangling ornaments that look an awful lot like the balls we give them to play with,” said Holly Sizemore, chief mission officer for Best Friends Animal Society, a nonprofit, no-kill sanctuary for homeless animals that provides adoption, education, and spay and neuter services.Don’t forget ribbon — yards of color cascading over gift boxes, which to cats are ready-made forts offering plenty of hiding places. Without watchful human eyes, furry friends can get into trouble, especially if they are already known troublemakers such as Reniji, a 15-year-old Maine coon mix with...

Hungary’s rule of law disputes with Brussels explained

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

BRUSSELS — Hungary and its combative leader Viktor Orbán have long been a thorn in the EU’s side, and this week promises to be a big one for that relationship.On Thursday and Friday, EU leaders meet to discuss a number of issues — Ukrainian membership of the EU, the bloc’s long-term budget, migration — on which Hungary has the potential to cause major disruption.But before that, the European Commission is set to allow Hungary to access billions in EU funds that have been frozen by Brussels over concerns about judicial independence. That decision could come as early as Tuesday.But how much money is at stake? And what does it mean for the health of the EU? Here’s POLITICO’s guide.What’s at stake? An awful lot of money.In December 2022, the Commission decided to freeze about €22 billion of EU cohesion funds intended for Hungary. Cohesion funds are meant to help poorer EU member countries invest in their economies. They are in large part paid as reimbur...

Dutch PM Rutte presses for EU to reach €5B Ukraine arms deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:58 GMT

BERLIN — EU leaders should back Ukraine with significant military financing this week to avoid a “double block” to support for Kyiv on both sides of the Atlantic, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte warned Monday.“With the problems in the United States, where the fresh money is blocked, it’s quite crucial that we don’t have a double block against Ukraine,” Rutte said at the Hertie School in Berlin.The U.S. Congress is deadlocked over fresh funding for Ukraine, while the EU is yet to come to a deal over the future of the European Peace Facility (EPF), a pot of cash used to partially reimburse states for arms deliveries to Kyiv.EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to hash out a proposal for a €5 billion cash addition to the EPF rather than the four-year €20 billion fund pitched earlier this year.But with Germany in a budget crisis and Hungary threatening a veto, the outcome of this week’s talks are still unclear. “We need to agree on the m...