- With Hurricane Helene disrupting travel, here’s what fliers need to know
As the Southeast U.S. recovers in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s destruction, consumers looking to change their air travel plans to or from affected areas without taking a financial hit may be out of luck. Regrettably, the big-picture issue that happens in U.S. air travel doesn’t compensate when there is a significant disruption; air passengers have very limited rights. Despite Helene’s massive destruction, travelers hoping to change flights for free or cancel their plans for a refund may find airlines unwilling to grant that financially flexibility. Weather-related events like Hurricane Helene are generally considered to be outside an airline’s control. The airline’s duty in such cases generally depends on a passenger’s specific fare, such as economy or business class. There’s nothing airlines will do for you if you don’t have a ticket that grants free cancellation or comes without fees for changes.
- Pete Rose, baseball star who earned glory and shame has died. Fans Debate: despite his gambling revelations, does he belong in HOF
One of the sport’s greatest players, he set a record with 4,256 career hits. But his gambling led to a lifetime ban and kept him out of the Hall of Fame. For millions of baseball fans, Rose will be known mainly for a number, 4,256, his total of hits, the most for any player in the history of the game. But he was a deeply compromised champion. Few sports figures have been the lightning rod for controversy and public opinion that he turned out to be, an athlete who maximized his gifts, earned a legion of fans with his competitive zeal and achieved wide celebrity and acclaim — only to fall from grace with astonishing indignity. [More]
- Dikembe Mutombo, NBA Hall of Famer, has blocked his last shot. Fan favorite dies young
“Dikembe Mutombo was simply larger than life,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “On the court, he was one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players in the NBA. Off the floor, he poured his heart and soul into helping others.” Mutombo was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo before moving to the United States and playing college basketball at Georgetown University. Drafted by the Denver Nuggets as the fourth pick in the 1991 draft, the seven-foot, two-inch center played with six NBA teams throughout his 18-year career and was an eight-time NBA All-Star. In 2015, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
- She was one of a kind. Maggie Smith will be long remembered
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith was a British actress. Known for her wit in both comedic and dramatic roles, she had an extensive career on stage and screen over seven decades and was one of Britain’s most recognisable and prolific actresses.[1] She received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for six Olivier Awards. Smith is one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.
- Kris Kristofferson, Country Singer, Songwriter, Actor, and voice of our generation, dies at 88
Expressing more than just the malaise of someone suffering from a hangover, “Sunday Morning Coming Down” gives voice to feelings of spiritual abandonment that border on the absolute. “Nothing short of dying” is the way the chorus describes the desolation that the song’s protagonist is experiencing. Steeped in a neo-Romantic sensibility that owed as much to John Keats as to the Beat Generation and Bob Dylan, Mr. Kristofferson’s work explored themes of freedom and commitment, alienation and desire, darkness and light. “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose/Nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’ but it’s free,” he wrote in “Me and Bobby McGee.” Janis Joplin, with whom Mr. Kristofferson was briefly involved romantically, had a posthumous No. 1 single with her plaintive recording of the song in 1971. Hundreds of artists have recorded Kristofferson’s songs, among them Al Green, the Grateful Dead, Michael Bublé and Gladys Knight and the Pips.
- Good news: COVID cases are on a downward trend. And updated vaccine will continue to protect against new variants.
COVID-19 cases continue to fall throughout the country after a summer wave peaked in early August, surveillance data shows. The percentage of positive COVID-19 tests dropped from 17.8% the week of Aug. 10 to 14.9% the week of Sept. 7, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Walgreens’s national respiratory disease tracker showed a similar trend. Americans can prepare for the respiratory virus season by ordering free tests from COVIDtests.gov,
- Restaurant Portions Are About to Get Smaller. (Will they get cheaper, too?)
Portion sizes in American restaurants shot up in the 1980s and never came down. Nutritionists and policymakers haven’t had much success fighting portion creep. But today, a combo plate of economics, demographics and climate science may accomplish what years of official hand-wringing could not: loosening the grip that super-size restaurant portions have on the national diet. More than 75 percent of customers say they want smaller portions for less money, according to the 2024 National Restaurant Association report on the industry.Food costs aren’t the only pressure on serving sizes. As much as 40 percent of food served at restaurants never gets eaten! [more]
- “Table for one” was a dreaded no-no for most travelers. Now more people are dining solo with unexpected benefits
Once stigmatized, solo dining at restaurants is now becoming more common as diners find benefits to solo dining. Maybe you’re traveling solo for work or taking a vacation alone. Do you order food in your hotel room or choose to eat at a restaurant by yourself? For many, eating alone in public can be unimaginable. But now, more people are electing to dine solo. OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation company, found that “60% have dined solo at a sit-down restaurant in the past 12 months.” And if you are from a younger generation, like Gen Z or a Millennial, that number increases to 68%. One of the biggest benefits of solo dining is it allows people to be more mindful about their food, truly focusing on the flavors, textures and experience of our meal without external distractions. Solo diners can choose where and what they eat without catering to other people’s tastes, which can feel very empowering to people.
- Hurricane Helene is approaching Florida. Check its path and get out of the way if your town is in the storm track
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) advises Helene is currently located about 85 miles north-northeast of Cozumel, Mexico with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph. A turn toward the north-northeast with an increase in forward speed is expected later Wednesday through Thursday, bringing the center of the storm across the eastern Gulf of Mexico and to the Florida Big Bend coast by Thursday evening. After landfall, Helene is expected to slow down and turn toward the northwest over the southeastern United States Friday and Saturday. Near where Helene makes landfall, general rainfall of 8-12 inches is forecast, with 2 feet of rain possible in isolated areas. Helene is now the fifth hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season. A typical season sees a total of 7 hurricanes.
- Our increasing fear suggests otherwise, but FBI finds violent crime declined in 2023.
Violent crime in the U.S. dropped in 2023, according to FBI statistics that show a continued trend downward after a coronavirus pandemic-era crime spike. Overall violent crime declined an estimated 3% in 2023 from the year before, according to the FBI report Monday. Murders and non-negligent manslaughter dropped nearly 12%. Violent crime has become a focal point in the 2024 presidential race, with former President Donald Trump recently claiming that crime is “through the roof” under President Joe Biden’s administration. Even with the 2020 pandemic surge, violent crime is down dramatically from the 1990s. [More]
- Popular stopover for 50 years, Motel 6 is sold to an Indian hotel company expanding in the U.S.
Motel 6 was founded in 1962 in Santa Barbara, Calif., and has been an indelible part of Americana for its basic accommodations. The Motel 6 name originally came from the company’s offering of an all-cash $6-a-night rate. Motel 6 and Studio 6 currently have roughly 1,500 hotels across the United States and Canada. The budget hotel chain that has lined American highways for decades, will be sold to Oyo, an India-based hotel operator. Oyo expanded into the United States in 2019, and has recently ramped up efforts to expand further. It currently operates more than 300 hotels domestically.
- Major movie theater chains unveil a $2.2 billion makeover plan
The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) said Thursday that it recognizes “competition for consumers’ hard-earned dollars is fiercer than ever” and that the renovations are a “tangible way” for moviegoers to experience. The renovations will “modernize and improve” theaters of all sizes, including the newest in projection technology, better sound systems and seating, plus improving concessions and even adding arcades or bowling, NATO said. Better air conditioning, new signs and revamped carpeting are also included in the plan. [More]
- The tricky business of marriage! Perhaps you’re not surprised… a startling number end up in divorce
Breaking down the percentage of marriages that end in divorce can be tricky as the numbers can vary greatly by state, by religious affiliation, by race, by sexual orientation, by occupation and by the number of times one has been married. Research shows that 41% of first marriages, for instance, end in divorce. By contrast, 60% of second marriages and 73% of third marriages end the same way. One’s stage of life can also contribute to how likely a marriage is to end. Over the lifespan of a marriage, there are two primary peaks that tell us something about why marriages sometimes end. The first peak occurs around the fifth year of marriage due to escalating conflict and negative interaction patterns. The second peak in divorce rates occurs around the 15th to 20th year of marriage, when couples have focused all their energy and resources on raising their children and when the children get a little older or move out of the house, they begin to wonder if the marriage is still satisfying.” On the positive side, current divorce rates have dropped as many more couples and individuals are participating in counseling, less people have been getting married overall and “there has been a societal shift on delaying marriage until later in life when individuals or couples are more settled in a career. [More]
- Housing costs are through the roof. Here Are the Pros and Cons of an alternative: a Mobile Home
For many, living in a mobile home is not a choice, but a necessity. An estimated 20 million Americans live in mobile homes, and they make up the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country. The average sale price of a home in December 2020 was $394,900 while the average price of a new mobile home was $88,200 in August of 2020. There are pros and cons, of course, so do your homework. [More]
- This is serious. We can’t let it happen. Lawmakers Fear More Jan. 6-Like Violence
Republicans and Democrats alike must be aligned when it comes to resisting violence post-election. Members of Congress are on edge about the possibility of more violence in this year’s presidential election, less than four years after a mob of Donald Trump supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol seeking to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 contest. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are anticipating that Trump, who faces felony charges for working to overturn the results of the last election, will again sow chaos and challenge the election results if he loses to Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump’s lies about voter fraud in the last election incited the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, where more than 140 police officers sustained injuries while defending the building. Five people died after the riot, and the attack on Congress caused about $2.7 billion in damages, according to the Government Accountability Office.
- An extremely practical guide to this year’s cold, flu, and Covid season
More than 200 viruses cause the coughs and sneezes that make so many of us miserable every fall and winter. The good news is that there are now a range of strategies available to fight them, although after years of battling a constantly shifting pandemic, many people are understandably exhausted and confused about how they should keep themselves and others safe. The bottom line is you can minimize respiratory viruses’ effects on your life by reducing your exposure to them, priming your immune system to fight them off, getting vaccinated, and making a plan to get tested and treated for an infection if you’re someone who’ll benefit. Here’s how to think about this year’s cold, flu, and ongoing Covid-19 season, how to keep yourself healthy and safe, and how to be strategic about testing, vaccines, and medications. [More]
A newspaper by and for seniors, Senior News Daily scours the internet each morning for news of interest to active men and women of retirement age. Coverage includes financial and health news, politics, retirement strategies and assisted living news and helpful blogs about aging.
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