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Books go behind the (often steamy) scenes of Hollywood

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

From hellhole to benign workplace, there’s a Tinsel Town for everyone in new books about making movies.Movie fans seem to think Hollywood is falling short this summer. “Barbenheimer” has helped turn around what was becoming a grim season, with other blockbusters such as the “Mission Impossible” and “Indiana Jones” sequels and “Elemental” not busting as many blocks as expected/hoped.Maybe those fans are filling in the gaps with Hollywood-themed books? For whatever reason, a lot of current and upcoming fiction tackles moviemaking, ranging from “From Dust to Stardust,” due Sept. 5 and mostly set in the silent film era, to Tom Hanks’ “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” which takes place on the present-day set of a Marvel-like movie. There’s also Lindsay Lynch’s new “Do Tell,” whose main character is a gossip columnist in the era when “Gone With the Wind...

Walker: Lightbulbs on the White House chopping block

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

While everyone was worried about gas stoves and other household appliances, they weren’t watching what the other hand was doing: speeding up the ban on incandescent lightbulbs.The incandescent lightbulb has been on its deathbed since 2007 and officially breathed its last breath on Aug. 1. The rule was initially issued under the George W. Bush administration, sparking plenty of controversies to merit several postponements. Donald Trump rolled it back. But thanks to an administration focused on climate change, President Biden made it official. It is now illegal to manufacture and/or sell standard incandescent bulbs, which have been used since 1879.The Department of Energy contends the standards would save consumers $3 billion each year in utility costs and cut planet-warming carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next 30 years, equivalent to emissions generated by 28 million homes in one year. The LED (light-emitting diode) bulb will now reign supreme.Sure, there are amp...

Dear Abby: BF’s preaching making woman’s life hell

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

Dear Abby: I’ve been in a relationship with a wonderful man for two years. He’s a minister. He and his late wife used to travel all over the world spreading the word. I’m from a less conservative, more spiritual background. I attend an all-denominational church that accepts everyone. My views on politics are also different from his. He constantly quotes the Bible and believes I’ll go to hell if I don’t follow the word of God daily. I was baptized Pentecostal at a young age, but that is not something I believe anymore, and his constant preaching is exhausting.I am a strong woman, and I have voiced how I feel about this. He’s the best man I’ve ever been with. He’s kind, considerate, loving, helpful and loves my family. I am recovering from Guillain-Barre syndrome, and he has helped me walk, helped out in the business and has been so good to me. I am now mostly recovered, and everything would be perfect except for politics and religion. I...

Tropical Storm Watch upgraded to warning for Southern California

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The Tropical Storm Watch has been upgraded to a Tropical Storm Warning across Southern California as Hurricane Hilary continues moving north.The warning was issued at 8 p.m., impacting areas within San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties.A full list of impacts for communities in the warning area can be found here. Radar: Tracking Hilary According to the National Weather Service, a Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions -- such as strong winds or heavy precipitation -- are expected to set in within 36 hours.Hilary's window for tropical storm force winds are expected to be Saturday night into early Sunday for those in the warning areas, weather officials said. Previous forecasts indicated that this impact would hit Sunday afternoon.Heavy rainfall associated with Hilary is also anticipated for much of the Southern California region, NWS said, reaching its peak Sunday into Monday morning.Rainfall amounts forecasted range ...

No winning ticket sold for Friday’s $18 million Lotto Max jackpot

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

There was no winning ticket sold in Friday’s Lotto Max $18 million draw.The jackpot for the next draw on Aug. 22 will be an estimated $23 million.The Canadian Press

Thousands more Mauritanians are making their way to the US, thanks to a route spread on social media

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

CINCINNATI (AP) — Aissata Sall was scrolling through WhatsApp in May when she first learned about the new route to the United States. For Ibrahima Sow, the discovery came on TikTok a few weeks later. By the time their paths crossed at the tidy one-story brick house in Cincinnati, they had encountered hundreds of other Mauritanians, nearly all of them following a new path surging in popularity among younger migrants from the West African nation, thanks largely to social media. “Four months ago, it just went crazy,” said Oumar Ball, who arrived in Cincinnati from Mauritania in 1997 and recently opened his home to Sow, Sall and more than a dozen other new migrants. “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing.” The spike in migration was made possible by the discovery this year of a new route through Nicaragua, where relaxed entry requirements allow Mauritanians and a handful of other foreign nationals to purchase a low-cost visa without proof of onward travel. As word of the entry point spreads, ...

Japan’s Kishida to visit Fukushima plant before deciding date to start controversial water release

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will visit the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday before setting a release date for its treated radioactive wastewater, as his government continues working to promote understanding over the controversial plan at home and abroad.“The government has reached the final stage where we should make a decision,” Kishida told reporters in Washington on Friday after wrapping up his summit with U.S. and South Korean leaders at the American presidential retreat of Camp David.Since the government announced the release plan two years ago, it has faced strong opposition from Japanese fishing organizations, which worry about further damage to the reputation of their seafood as they struggle to recover from the accident. Groups in South Korea and China have also raised concerns, turning it into a political and diplomatic issue.The government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., say the water must be removed ...

Rail whistleblowers fired for voicing safety concerns despite efforts to end practice of retaliation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Hours before a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio and erupted in fire in February, a judge ruled a former railroad employee could proceed with a lawsuit claiming he had been harassed for years by managers who said he reported too many flaws in rail cars he inspected and had his job changed after reporting an injury.Richard Singleton’s case against Norfolk Southern was settled for an undisclosed amount after the judge said he had enough evidence to go to trial over whether he was disciplined for reporting safety violations that slowed trains passing through a Macon, Georgia, railyard. The settlement provided relief for Singleton, but does little for residents near East Palestine, Ohio, who worry about possible health effects from the accident’s toxic blaze. That derailment and others since inspired nationwide fears about railroad safety.Lawyers and unions representing rail workers say there is an industry-wide pattern of retaliation against workers like ...

Chinese military launches drills around Taiwan as ‘warning’ after top island official stopped in US

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese military launched drills around Taiwan on Saturday as a “stern warning” over what it called collusion between “separatists and foreign forces,” its defense ministry said, days after the island’s vice president stopped over in the United States. Taiwanese Vice President William Lai’s recent trip to Paraguay to reinforce relations with his government’s last diplomatic partner in South America included stops in San Francisco and New York City. The mainland’s ruling Communist Party claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and says it has no right to conduct foreign relations.A spokesperson for China’s Eastern Theater Command said in a brief statement that the military exercises involved the coordination of vessels and planes and their ability to seize control of air and sea spaces.It was also testing the forces’ “actual combat capabilities,” Shi Yi said. The drills were a warning over provocations from pro-Taiwan independ...

Local governments are spending billions of pandemic relief funds, but some report few specifics

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:59 GMT

Joplin officials say they have big plans for $13.8 million of pandemic relief funds the tornado-ravaged southwestern Missouri city received under a two-year-old federal law. Yet the latest federal records show none of the money has been spent — or even budgeted.In fact, about 6,300 cities and counties — nearly 1 in 4 nationwide — reported no expenditures as of this spring, according to an Associated Press analysis of data released by the U.S. Treasury Department. About 5,100 of those listed no projects — either planned or underway.So what gives? Is the money not needed? Are cities just sitting on it? Local and federal officials told the AP in interviews that the publicly available data is misleading — pockmarked by differing interpretations over exactly what must be reported, lagging in timeliness and failing to account for some preliminary planning. Critics contend it’s an indication of a flawed pandemic response.Federal officials estimate that governments have spending commi...