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Unwrapping a big box of Christmas conflict

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

Q. My co-parent and I are having trouble deciding how to celebrate the Christmas holidays with the children.I would like to exchange the kids on Christmas Day at noon so they can be with us both. She would like to spend the holidays with her parents about 3 hours away, which would require that she take the kids a day before Christmas and return the day after.I know the kids love their grandparents, but I don’t think it’s fair. I asked the kids what they wanted to do, and they said stay with me. She said she also asked the kids, and they said stay with her. What’s good ex-etiquette?A: Even though court ordered parenting plans are supposedly written “in the best interest of the children,” the truth is, parenting plans are written for the parents. It’s difficult for children to do things like get up in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner because they are scheduled to be at the other parent’s home at a specific time.You and mom both committed the No. 1 co-parenting blunder out there: You ...

Clooney mines ‘The Boys in the Boat’ for inspiration

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

As a director, George Clooney is fond of period pieces and with the fact-based “The Boys in the Boat,” the Oscar-winning multihyphenate has done something radical.Clooney, 62, has adapted the best-selling Daniel James Brown novel about the University of Washington rowing team that triumphed at Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics by making it as if this is 1930s inspirational tale.“He’s always been a classicist,” noted Variety critic Owen Gleiberman in a rave review, praising “the thrillingly shot races.”Clooney scored a black-and-white hit with “Good Night and Good Luck,” about journalist Edward R. Murrow taking on ‘50s McCarthyism, and had another bullseye with “The Monuments Men” about the American military squad assigned to retrieve stolen Nazi artworks.“We’re just always looking for good stories,” Clooney said in a virtual press conference. “The first one we adapted was ‘Ides of March,’ from a play called ‘Farragut North.’ I think it’s fun when you could see how if they...

Ex waits too long to retrieve property from house

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

Q. My divorce was finalized five years ago and I bought out my ex’s interest in our home.  He had 30 days to walk through the home to see if there was anything he had left behind when he moved in with his girlfriend the prior year and take whatever he wanted at that point.  I repeatedly emailed asking him to come for anything he wanted because I just wanted to get it over with. He never did. About a year later, I inherited a significant amount of money and completely gutted / renovated the house. I donated most of the old furniture to charity.Last week I got an email from my ex saying that he had ended his relationship, bought a new house, and wanted to come get his belongings because, among other things, he needs furniture for his place.  I responded that it was too late. He has now sent an email saying that I am in contempt and will have to buy him new furniture if I will not give him half of what was in the house when we divorced.  Does he have some legal ground to stand on here?...

Unconventional films for your holiday streaming list

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

It’s an annual tradition by now, to suggest some unexpected holiday movies that happen to fit the season, whether by dint of being set during the holidays, or evoking some kind of holiday spirit. Whatever mood you’re in this Christmas, you should be covered with this list of nontraditional holiday movies to explore.First up, a new release that is now available to purchase on streaming. Alexander Payne released an instant misfit holiday classic this year with “The Holdovers,” set at a boarding school in 1970 Massachusetts. Paul Giamatti stars as a grumpy history teacher tasked with supervising “the holdovers,” the kids who don’t go home during Christmas break.Newcomer Dominic Sessa plays his single charge, while Da’Vine Joy Randolph plays the cafeteria manager who is also folded into this reluctant family. With warmth, irascible charm and a delightful wordiness, “The Holdovers” will warm it’s way into your heart. It’s only available to purchase right now, but you might as well, becau...

Editorial: Why Biden can’t convince voters he’s beat inflation

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

Economic happy talk doesn’t lower mortgage payments. It’s one reason Bidenomics remains deeply unpopular.President Joe Biden wants the public to believe that the economy is doing great. At a recent campaign event, Biden bragged that he had overseen “record job creation, historic economic growth, (and) among the lowest inflation rates of any major economy in the world.” The White House frequently touts Bidenomics. His administration even claims, “Bidenomics is working.”His allies in the media are pushing this narrative, too. “Biden goes into 2024 with the economy getting stronger, but voters feel horrible about it,” The Associated Press wrote recently.New York Times writer Nate Cohn suggested the problem was vibes, not economic. “It’s harder to argue that voters should believe the economy is outright terrible, even after accounting for inflation,” he wrote.The subtext is clear: Biden has worked wonders on the economy — if only those dumb voters would realize it.At least they have one...

New pup owners should watch for holiday hazards

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

Dear Dr. John,I grew up with allergies such that having a dog was a challenge and it carried into my adult life, so my wife and grown children never had a dog either. Recently, we purchased a Shih Tzu/Poodle mix for my elderly mother. My mother did some things that worried us for the health of the small dog, such as giving it six cough drops. We also started to be concerned that she might trip over the dog, so we took it into our home.We have fallen in love with the dog. Since this is our first dog, our questions are about what is safe in the home at this time of year. She is curious and active, so can you list some of the typical hazards that we should be wary of? Thanks, and Merry Christmas. D.F.Dear D.F.,Congratulations on getting a dog and keeping the puppy after it did not work out for your mother. These animals are sometimes returned to where they came from, and I am glad to see that you kept the puppy.As a person with allergies to dogs, I am sure that you know that Poodle mix...

Dear Abby: Daughter’s harassed, school does nothing

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

Dear Abby: My daughter, who is in eighth grade, has slowly come out as lesbian. She enjoys makeup and fashion, but isn’t absolute in presenting in a feminine way. She is an artist and a musician, is very creative and enjoys being unique in her style sense.Some of the students have tried to project onto her that she’s actually transgender, which she is not. They ask if she is a boy or a girl even though she is obviously female. As she walks through the campus and in class, the kids holler in front of the campus monitors and teachers, “Is ‘it’ a he/she/it?”My daughter is being shunned in PE even though she is very athletic, belongs to Junior Lifeguards and excels as this every summer, and she’s a wonderful cross country runner. She is becoming discouraged at school even though she is an A-B student, and she no longer wants to go to PE because of the harassment she’s receiving in front of teachers.I have complained before and was told stu...

CHP: One person dies in fiery crash on SR-94

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- One person is dead after a fiery crash involving multiple vehicles on SR-94 Saturday morning. The first calls went out around 8:51 a.m. Saturday for reports of a multi-vehicle accident on SR-94 westbound, near the I-805 connector, and a car that exploded into flames. Suspected burglary leads to police pursuit; three arrested after tracked down by K-9 California Highway Patrol traffic incident logs report a vehicle fell off the transition from SR-94 eastbound to I-15 northbound, landing in the westbound lanes of SR-94, hitting other vehicles. That impact sparked a fire. CHP logs state one person died in the accident. They were not identified by authorities as of Saturday evening. Out-of-town family members find body in freezer in Allied Gardens: SDPD Caltrans closed SR-94 west immediately following the crash Saturday morning; traffic was detoured onto I-805. That stretch of highway remained closed for hours as crews worked to clear the scene. A signage pole was als...

Decaying Pillsbury mill in Illinois that once churned flour into opportunity is now getting new life

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — It was the dog, stuck atop skyscraping grain silos on Springfield’s northeast side in 2019, that forced Chris Richmond’s hand.The stray had found its way to the top of the behemoth Pillsbury Mills, for decades a flour-churning engine of the central Illinois city’s economy but now vacant more than 20 years. Rescue was too risky amid such decay, officials said. The brief but precarious appearance by the dog, found dead at ground level days later after ingesting rat poison, represented the hopelessness posed by the vacant campus, Richmond recalled. “That’s when I said, ‘This is just unacceptable in our community,'” said the 54-year-old retired city fire marshal, whose father’s Pillsbury paycheck made him and his brother first-generation college graduates.A year later, Richmond and allies emerged with a nonprofit called Moving Pillsbury Forward and a five-year, $10 million plan to raze the century-old plant and renew the 18-ac...

New migrants face fear and loneliness. A town on the Great Plains has a storied support network

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:20:14 GMT

FORT MORGAN, Colo. (AP) — Magdalena Simon’s only consolation after immigration officers handcuffed and led her husband away was the contents of his wallet, a few bills.The hopes that had pushed her to trudge thousands of miles from Guatemala in 2019, her son’s small frame clutched to her chest, ceded to despair and loneliness in Fort Morgan, a ranching outpost on Colorado’s eastern plains, where some locals stared at her too long and the wind howls so fiercely it once blew the doors half off a hotel.The pregnant Simon tried to mask the despair every morning when her toddlers asked, “Where’s papa?”To millions of migrants who have crossed the U.S. southern border in the past few years, stepping off greyhound buses in places across America, such feelings can be constant companions. What Simon would find in this unassuming city of a little more than 11,400, however, was a community that pulled her in, connecting her with legal council, charities, schools and soon friends, a unique...