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Want to retire and be a writer? Here’s some inspiration

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

LOS ANGELES — For some people, retirement is a long-awaited chance to sleep late, relax and celebrate the joys of life without pressure or deadlines.For others, it’s an opportunity to finally get to work.Within a span of a few days, I heard about two retirees who had long dreamed of becoming authors, but their jobs kept getting in the way. Then they pulled the cord, hit the keyboard and never looked back.I was on the phone one day with former L.A. Times columnist and editor Bill Boyarsky, and when I asked about his wife, Nancy, he gloated. Her seventh novel had just been published, he said, and she was already working on her eighth.Then I heard from L.A. County Superior Court Judge Kelvin Filer, who was talking up his brother, Duane. “He actually wrote a book documenting his first year of retirement,” the judge said. He added that his brother has since written several other books.I hear fairly often from people who use retirement to chase dreams. Some set out...

This year, slow roast your Thanksgiving turkey

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

Food features prominently in many holiday celebrations, but perhaps no holiday is more closely associated with eating than Thanksgiving. In fact, Thanksgiving and food are so closely connected that many people refer to the holiday as Turkey Day, which is an homage to the popular main course that finds its way to millions of Thanksgiving dinner tables across the country each year.Side dishes abound on Thanksgiving dinner tables, but turkey still takes center stage. That reality can put some pressure on hosts tasked with preparing the meal for their family and friends.Unlike some other dishes that require a laundry list of ingredients and lots of prep work, turkey is a relatively hands-off main course. However, home cooks know a dried out turkey is not on anyone’s holiday wish list. Slow cooking can help to avoid such a result.This recipe for “Holiday Turkey,” courtesy Andrew Schloss’ “Cooking Slow” (Chronicle Books), calls for slow cooking the bird...

Lowry: Trump’s border policy necessary corrective

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

Let the panic over Donald Trump’s immigration policy begin.The New York Times ran a piece the other day headlined, “Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps, and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans.” The reaction has been shock and outrage.Steve Benen of MSNBC wrote that “Trump envisions a governing model in which the government actually rounds up people and puts them in camps.”It is certainly true that what Trump envisions is sweepingly ambitious to the point of impracticality. The context matters, though.Trump is formulating his plans at a time when we’re experiencing a crisis at the border and witnessing an unprecedented surge of illegal immigrants into the country because the Biden administration refuses to enforce the law.What’s the proper response here? To trim the sails of Biden’s policy, but largely accept it as the new status quo, even though no one in the mainstream would have considered it tolerable a few short...

Dear Abby: Fed up with boundary-pushing BF

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

Dear Abby: I have been with my live-in boyfriend for eight years. During the last five months, he has started staying out until daylight, choosing his friends over me, snapping at me when he talks at all and doesn’t want to be around me. We have always gone everywhere together and shared our friendships with each other. There’s an age gap of 16 years, but it has never been a problem.I left for a month last year when I caught him talking to another woman through messaging (not platonic talk). That month I did a lot of soul-searching and set boundaries I will no longer allow to be broken. Because of past failed relationships, I have learned how to stand up and voice my opinion and care for myself emotionally. I guess my question is, should I be concerned, keep trying to communicate my feelings to him or move on with my life? I always put him ahead of anyone other than my children and God, but he doesn’t give me the same respect. — Lost for Answers in ArkansasDe...

Smart Streetlights, license plate readers coming to San Diego

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Smart Streetlights and Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technologies have been approved to be deployed in San Diego, police said.The decision comes after nearly eight months of discussion amongst local leaders about the program aiming to enhance security, Lt. Adam Sharki with the San Diego Police Department said in a news release Tuesday.“Smart Streetlights and ALPRs will make our communities safer," Mayor Todd Gloria said. "They have been proven to help quickly identify and apprehend suspects in deadly crimes and bring them to justice. I want to thank the City Council for recognizing their value for public safety and approving the contract that now will enable us to deploy them.” San Diego police will receive 500 Smart Streetlight cameras, along with Flock Safety's ALPR technology, in a five-year agreement with Ubicquia Inc., per law enforcement officials. The devices are expected to be launched by January. City of San Diego passes plan to reduce fees,...

State-sponsored online spies likely to target Australian submarine program, spy agency says

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s cooperation with the United States and Britain to develop an Australian fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology is a likely target of state-sponsored cyberespionage, the nation’s digital spy agency said on Wednesday.The Australian Signals Directorate reported a 23% increase in cybercrimes in the country and a 14% increase in the average cost of each crime in its latest annual online threat assessment for the fiscal year that ended on June 30.The report highlights China’s role in backing a group of hackers, known as Volt Typhoon, that targeted U.S. critical infrastructure including military facilities on Guam. It warns that the same techniques could be used against Australian infrastructure as part of information-gathering or disruptive activities.Potential targets include the AUKUS agreement — an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — under which the U.S. will share its nuclear submarine technology secr...

New York’s high court to hear redistricting case, as Democrats angle to retake US House

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

New York’s highest court will hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that could reshape congressional districts in the state, which is expected to be a key battleground next year in the fight for control of the U.S. House.The Court of Appeals is holding the hearing in Buffalo as Democrats seek to scrap the state’s district lines after losing congressional seats last year in a series of upsets that helped Republicans win a narrow majority.Democrats want to redraw districts in a way that will give the party an edge in 2024. Republicans are trying to keep the map in place.“New York is being looked at as one state that can provide more congressional opportunities,” said New York Law School professor Jeffrey Wice, adding “each of these court battles matter as Democrats try to win their way back to a majority.” The lawsuit follows a bungled redistricting effort by Democrats for the 2022 elections.The maps used in last year’s elections were supposed to be drawn by an independent commi...

China’s economy shows sparks of life, despite persisting weakness in troubled real estate sector

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s economy showed more signs of reviving in October as retail sales and manufacturing picked up though the property sector remained sluggish, the government said Wednesday. Factory output rose 4.6% from a year earlier in October, while retail sales jumped 7.6%, helped by robust spending during the weeklong National Day holidays. But real estate investment sank 9.3%, and officials acknowledged that the industry was still in the “midst of adjustment,” after a crackdown on excessive borrowing by developers two years ago, coupled with the pandemic, plunged the industry into crisis.Disruptions to manufacturing, transport, travel and virtually every other aspect of life during the pandemic ended nearly a year ago when China’s leaders abandoned their “zero-COVID” policies aimed at preventing infections. So improved economic data from October also reflect lower rates of growth a year earlier. Overall, China’s recovery from the pandemic has been fitful, ...

Many parents don’t know when kids are behind in school. Are report cards telling enough?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

Nearly nine out of 10 parents believe their child is performing at grade level despite standardized tests showing far fewer students are on track, according to a poll released Wednesday by Gallup and the nonprofit Learning Heroes. Report cards, which many parents rely on for a sense of their children’s progress, might be missing the whole picture, researchers say. Without that knowledge, parents may not seek opportunities for extra support for their children.“Grades are the holy grail,” said Bibb Hubbard, founder and president of Learning Heroes. “They’re the number one indicator that parents turn to to understand that their child is on grade level, yet a grade does not equal grade-level mastery. But nobody’s told parents that.”In the Gallup survey, 88% of parents say their child is on grade level in reading, and 89% of parents believe their child is on grade level in math. But in a federal survey, school officials said half of all U.S. students started last school year behind...

Cuban private grocery stores thrive but only a few people can afford them

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:51:12 GMT

HAVANA (AP) — Until recently, the space was the one-car garage of a private home in Cuba’s capital, Havana. Today, it is a well-stocked, if small, grocery store whose big board at the gate entices shoppers with such offerings as cooking oil, tomato sauce, Hershey’s cocoa powder, Nutella, shampoo, cookies and jam — a treasure trove in a country that is short of supplies.The nameless shop in the residential neighborhood of El Vedado is one of dozens of tiny grocery stores that have sprung up around Cuba in recent months. Locals refer to them as “mipymes” — pronounced MEE-PEE-MEHS. The name derives from the Spanish words for the small- and medium-sized enterprises that were first allowed to open in 2021.By allowing the new businesses, the Cuban government hoped to help an economy in crisis and strengthen local production. The almost 9,000 enterprises approved so far include the likes of sewing workshops, fisheries and construction firms, but it is small retail shops like the one ...