As a winter storm bore down on a broad swath of the US, a staffing crisis was brewing for Southwest Airlines Co. in Denver. Chris Johnson, the carrier’s vice president of ground operations, declared a “state of operational emergency” at the airport after “an unusually high number” of employee absences, according to a Dec. 21 message to ramp workers seen by Bloomberg News.

More than half all New York food stamps applicants are left waiting for their benefits to arrive, as critical administrative bottlenecks at the city’s social services agency worsen amid staff shortages and impending budget cuts, officials said Thursday. The Human Resources Administration (HRA) is promptly processing just 46.3 percent of applications for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, commonly known as food stamps, the agency’s Deputy Social Services Commissioner Jill Berry told councilmembers at a committee hearing on the impact and cause of the bureaucratic delays. That rate of timely processing marked a striking decrease from an already dismal 60 percent during the 2022 fiscal year—down from 92 percent the previous year, according to the most recent Mayor’s Management Report. The annual charter-mandated review characterizes the timely processing of food stamp applications as a “critical indicator” of agency performance because it has a clear and immediate impact on New York City’s poorest residents. HRA officials said the city issues retroactive benefits following delays, but Kathleen Kelleher, a staff attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Civil Law Reform Unit, said that does not address the immediate need. “People can’t eat retroactively,” she said during public testimony at Thursday’s hearing. Kelleher said she has been working with food stamp recipients for more than 30 years and has never seen a worse situation. She criticized the city’s hiring delays, saying it reveals a lack of urgency.

With so little known about both long COVID and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, it doesn’t really matter which a patient has, experts say—at least not right now. While the symptoms of both can be treated, there’s no specific drug for either because the cause—or causes—remain up in the air.

The legendary television host talks about his friendships with Muhammad Ali and Groucho Marx, interviewing Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis, and finding a new audience on YouTube.

Paré died Christmas Eve in Edmonton, her family said in a Sunday news release. Paré was born in 1927 in Irma, about 176 km east of Edmonton. She raised four children and had a successful catering career for 18 years before forming the Edmonton-based Company’s Coming Publishing Limited in 1980 with her son, Grant Lovig. The company started as an experiment with the April 14, 1981, debut of a single cookbook, 150 Delicious Squares, that quickly became a success with books available in grocery stores and bookshops across the country. Other titles such as Muffins and More and Company’s Coming for Christmas have become a staple in many Canadian kitchens.

Busloads of migrants were dropped over Christmas weekend near Vice President Kamala Harris' residence in Washington amid freezing temperatures, having traveled from the southwest border in Texas, immigrant aid groups said on Sunday.

Thousands of residents were without power near Tacoma, Washington, after three electrical substations were vandalized, local authorities said on Sunday, adding that it was not yet clear if the Christmas Day incidents were linked.

A South Korean tour group’s van became stuck in the snow outside a house in Williamsville, N.Y. They spent the weekend with the homeowners — who luckily had a well-stocked kitchen. Alexander Campagna and his wife, Andrea, lifelong residents of Buffalo, were ready to wait the blizzard out. They had stocked the fridge and planned for a quiet holiday weekend indoors at their home in suburban Williamsville, N.Y., as long as the power stayed on. Then, on Friday at 2 p.m., with the storm already swirling and snow rapidly piling up, making roads impassable, there was a knock at the door. Two men, part of a group of nine tourists from South Korea that was traveling to Niagara Falls, asked for shovels to dig their passenger van out of a ditch. And so an unlikely holiday weekend began, with the Campagnas welcoming the travelers, along with their driver, as house guests. They became “accidental innkeepers,” said Mr. Campagna, a 40-year-old dentist. The Campagnas, well aware of the dangers the storm presented, immediately invited the travelers in, “knowing, as a Buffalonian, this is on another level, the Darth Vader of storms,” Mr. Campagna said. The visitors — seven women and three men — filled the three-bedroom house, sleeping on couches, sleeping bags, an air mattress and in the home’s guest bedroom. The other travelers included parents with their daughter, an Indiana college student, and two college-age friends from Seoul. Three of them spoke English proficiently. They spent the weekend swapping stories, watching the Buffalo Bills defeat the Chicago Bears on Christmas Eve and sharing delicious Korean home-cooked meals prepared by the guests, like jeyuk bokkeum, a spicy stir-fried pork dish, and dakdori tang, a chicken stew laced with fiery red pepper. To the surprise and glee of the Korean guests, Mr. Campagna and his wife, who are both fans of Korean food, had all the necessary condiments on hand: mirin, soy sauce, Korean red pepper paste, sesame oil and chili flakes. There was also kimchi and a rice cooker. “It was kind of like fate,” Mr. Choi said, remarking on the luck of arriving at the Campagnas’ doorstep with their fully stocked kitchen and unhesitating hospitality. He said the hosts were “the kindest people I have ever met.”

A chance encounter led to the capture of a suspected kidnapper, Nalah T. Jackson, and the discovery of missing Columbus twin Kason Thomas. (I told you that story about the cops finding the baby just so I could tell you this one.)

Domenick Nati told Insider that the problem has forced him to cancel his Christmas plans as no Ubers are available where he lives in Virginia.

Sgts. Shawn Anderson and Richard El of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department found baby Kason Thomass in the parking lot of a Papa John's.

“I was not at all concerned when I came here, but now I am,” K said. “I would definitely not recommend people move here for a job in tech based on my experience.”

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”—a song written by a Jewish composer that has become a secular Christmas anthem—played a small but crucial role in the rise of modern Islamic fundamentalism.

Deccan, 24th December 2022: In Vaikunth Cemetery near the Deccan area, at around 2.30 am on Friday, two transgenders were spotted doing black magic. Police have arrested the two in this case. The names of the arrested accused are Lakshmi Nibaji Shinde and Manoj Ashok Dhumal. A dead body was cremated at Vaikunth crematorium around 1 am on Friday. A few hours later, Shinde and Dhumal came near the pyre. The two of them were doing something similar to black magic with the materials they had brought with them, such as black dolls, photos of some people, lemons, needles, and turmeric. One of the workers of the crematorium witnessed the incident and informed the police. After that, the police reached the spot and caught both of them red-handed. The police are currently investigating the incident. A case has been registered against the accused under section three of the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013.

"So I've been following this bee lady on Instagram. She's so cool and brave, and she goes in front of these hives of bees and says 'they're very calm today'," Pratt said. "'I'm going to use my bare hand to sift through the bees and look for the queen'."

According to a recent report, sexual violence by New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officers has become an everyday practice of policing. In fact, on average, there is a complaint of sexual violence filed against an NOPD officer every 10 days. Further, the report shows that officers are often allowed to resign without any investigation: of the 254 NOPD officers who left their job between 2019-2021, 90 percent had been reported for misconduct in the previous year. The report comes on the heels of recent national headlines – former NOPD officer Rodney Vicknair pled guilty in November to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old rape victim.

All this whining about Steve Cohen is exposing baseball's biggest losers.

Those who are able to assist must call the Lackawanna Police Department at 716-822-4900 for further instructions.

The crashes happened along I-80 eastbound between Route 53 and State Route 4 in Sandusky County.

MOSCOW, Idaho — A University of Idaho professor has filed a lawsuit alleging defamation by a Tik Tok crime sleuth, who accused the professor of murdering the four Idaho students on her account -- which later was reposed and viewed by millions. A Texas based internet sleuth, Ashley Guillard, posted multiple Tik Toks in November and December accusing University of Idaho Professor Rebecca Scofield of the quadruple murder. Scofield later sued when Guillard didn't take the videos down. The suit, filed Wednesday, was first reported by the University of Idaho Argonaut. Guillard says she "solves crimes online" through psychic readings, and her videos have gained thousands of views. In the videos, Guillard says Scofield was having a relationship with one of the victims and then planned the murders with another student because "(the victim) wanted a break in the relationship" and wanted to "keep from making the relationship public" court filings said. However, Scofield says in the suit that she didn't even have any of the victims in her classes. The lawsuit says that Scofield was not even in Moscow when the homicides occurred -- she and her husband were in Oregon visiting friends, it said, when the quadruple stabbing occurred off King Road on Nov. 13. The complaint says that Guillard wrote, "I don't care what y'all say, Rebecca Scofield killed (the victims) and she was the one to initiate the plan..."