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Goldwein & Towner: Social Security can’t grow its way solvent

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

In just 10 years, Social Security will be insolvent. Some politicians think we can ignore the problem or grow our way out of it — but that’s a recipe for disaster.Without action, the law calls for an immediate 23% across-the-board benefit cut upon insolvency. That’s a $17,400 cut for a typical 67-year-old couple retiring in 2033 and an even more devastating cut for current low-income retirees.Politicians would be clamoring to avoid this cut in a more normal world. Democrats would be focused on how to get more revenue into the system. Republicans would advocate for bringing cost growth under control. And both would demand we act soon to stave off this potential crisis.Sadly, the real world is far more dystopian. In the State of the Union address earlier this year, President Biden declared Social Security should be “off the books” for discussion. Former president Donald Trump has similarly promised not to touch Social Security.In a recent Republican presidential campaign, Gov. Ron DeS...

‘Monster’ multilayered & magnificent journey

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Japan’s Kore-eda Hirokazu, a multiple Cannes award winner for his films “Like Father, Like Son” (2013) and “Shoplifters” (2018), now brings us his latest Cannes 2023 award winner “Monster,” a multi-perspective tale about two 5th graders who find shelter from the emotional storms of school, teachers and parents by playing alone together after class. For the first time, Hirokazu had no hand in writing the script. Instead, he collaborated with Yuji Sakamoto, whose award-winning screenplay has been compared to the 1950 world-wide art house hit “Rashomon.” Also noteworthy, “Monster” was the last film scored by the great Ryuichi Sakamoto (“The Last Emperor”).The story begins when widowed, working-class single mother Saori Mugino (a radiant Sakura Ando, “Shoplifters”) notices that her elementary school age son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) is behaving strangely and surmises that the culprit is his school teacher Hori (the talented Eita Nagayama). She believes that the teacher physically att...

‘Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget’ a delight

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Aardman Animations and its partners brought us “Chicken Run” 24 years ago, a smash hit, stop-motion film conceived by Aardman founders Peter Lord and “Wallace and Gromit” creator Nick Park.The film tells the story of an egg farm in Yorkshire, where the chickens, led by the defiant hen Ginger (Julia Sawalha) and combative American rooster Rocky Rhodes (Mel Gibson) band together to fight farmers Mr. and Mrs Tweedy (Tony Haygarth and Miranda Richardson) and escape their POW-camp like surroundings.This new film “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is another Aardman production, directed by Sam Fell (“ParaNorman”) with a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick (“Chicken Run”), John O’Farrell, “Chicken Run”) and Rachel Tunnard (“Military Wives”). Beginning where the previous effort ended, at a bird sanctuary, we find that Ginger (Thandiwe Newton, “Westworld”) and Rocky (Zachary Levi, “Shazam!”) have had a daughter named Molly (Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us”), who is as rebellious and combative...

Dear Abby: He loves her – as a side chick

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Dear Abby: I have been involved with a man I met online. We texted and talked for months before we met. He told me he had a lady friend he goes fishing with. He said she was just a friend. On our first Valentine’s Day, he gave me a teddy bear that said, “I love you.” I started developing deep feelings for him, but he then informed me that he loves her.I tried several times to walk away, but he kept pulling me back. I don’t know if he doesn’t want to hurt her or if he just loves having two women in his life. I know about her, but she doesn’t know about me. Should I contact her and let her know? What is the right thing to do? — Two-Timed in North CarolinaDear Two-Timed: The right thing to do is to walk away from this person — and stay away. He lied to you when he told you his fishing buddy was just a friend. Now that you know their relationship is more than that, run!Dear Abby: My parents announced during their recent visit that they are...

A US pine species thrives when burnt. Southerners are rekindling a ‘fire culture’ to boost its range

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

WEST END, N.C. (AP) — Jesse Wimberley burns the woods with neighbors.Using new tools to revive an old communal tradition, they set fire to wiregrasses and forest debris with a drip torch, corralling embers with leaf blowers. Wimberley, 65, gathers groups across eight North Carolina counties to starve future wildfires by lighting leaf litter ablaze. The burns clear space for longleaf pine, a tree species whose seeds won’t sprout on undergrowth blocking bare soil. Since 2016, the fourth-generation burner has fueled a burgeoning movement to formalize these volunteer ranks.Prescribed burn associations are proving key to conservationists’ efforts to restore a longleaf pine range forming the backbone of forest ecology in the American Southeast. Volunteer teams, many working private land where participants reside or make a living, are filling service and knowledge gaps one blaze at a time.Prescribed fire, the intentional burning replicating natural fires crucial for forest health, re...

How the US keeps funding Ukraine’s military – even as it says it’s out of money

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has been increasingly pressuring Congress to pass stalled legislation to support Ukraine’s war against Russia, saying that funding has run out.On Tuesday, however, President Joe Biden touted a new military aid package worth $200 million for Ukraine.Money is dwindling. But the announcement of more weapons being sent to Kyiv just underscores the complexity of the funding. So has the money run out? Or are there still a few billion dollars floating around?It’s complicated. Store credit …In a Nov. 4 letter to Congress, White House budget director Shalanda Young said flatly: “We are out of money to support Ukraine in this fight. This isn’t a next year problem. The time to help a democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression is right now.”Since then, the U.S. has announced three more aid packages totaling $475 million. That may seem contradictory, but it’s due to the complex programs used to send aid to Ukraine. There are two pots o...

An appeals court will hear arguments over whether Meadows’ Georgia charges can move to federal court

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court will hear arguments Friday over whether the election interference charges filed against Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows should be moved from a state court to federal court.Meadows, who is charged alongside former President Donald Trump and 17 others, is accused of scheming to keep the Republican in power after Democrat Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020. Meadows testified at a hearing in August that the actions detailed in the sweeping indictment were taken as part of his job.U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled in September that Meadows did not meet the threshold to move his case to federal court. The evidence presented showed the actions were taken “on behalf of the Trump campaign with an ultimate goal of affecting state election activities and procedures,” he wrote.Meadows appealed Jones’ ruling to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which set oral arguments in the case for Friday. It is to be heard by a three-judge panel...

Why more women live in major East Coast counties while men outnumber them in the West

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Anyone who has suspected that there are more women than men where they live, or vice versa, will find fodder for their suspicions in new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.Whether it refutes or confirms their suspicions likely depends on where they live.Women outnumber men in the largest urban counties east of the Mississippi River, along the Eastern Seaboard and in the Deep South, while the West skews male, according to data released last week from the 2022 American Community Survey 5-year estimates, the most comprehensive source of data on American life. Those numbers were also backed up by age and sex figures from the 2020 census released earlier this year.There are limitations to what can be concluded from the data. Still, Nancy Averbach, 57, doesn’t find the numbers surprising. She lost her husband eight years ago, and has since found it hard to meet a compatible partner. Across the U.S. in 2022, the most recent year that figures are available, there were 96.6 adult men for...

The Vatican’s ‘trial of the century,’ a Pandora’s box of unintended revelations, explained

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Verdicts are expected Saturday for a cardinal and nine other defendants in the most complicated financial trial in the Vatican’s modern history: a case featuring a Hollywood-worthy cast of characters, unseemly revelations about the Holy See and questions about Pope Francis ’ own role in the deals.The trial had initially been seen as a showcase for Francis’ reforms and his willingness to crack down on alleged financial misdeeds in the Vatican, which long had a reputation as an offshore tax haven.But after 2 1/2 years of hearings, no real smoking gun emerged to support the prosecution’s hypothesis of a grand conspiracy to defraud the pope of millions of euros (dollars) in charitable donations.Even if some convictions are handed down, the overall impression is that the “trial of the century” turned into something of a Pandora’s box of unintended revelations about Vatican vendettas, incompetence and even ransom payments that ultimately cost the Holy See reputat...

Shooting of Palestinian college students came amid spike in gun violence in Vermont

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The recent shootings of three college students of Palestinian descent in Vermont’s largest city come as the small rural state, often ranked as one of the nation’s safest, is grappling with a spike in gun violence.Two days after the students were shot and seriously wounded during their Thanksgiving break, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said it “was one of the most shocking and disturbing events in this city’s history.”Statewide, Vermont has had 10 homicides and one suspicious death since October, including a double homicide in Burlington, Weinberger said. Burlington has seen 16 gunfire incidents so far this year, he said, adding that Vermont’s largest city is not alone.“Many communities are experiencing an alarming rise in gun violence with recent shootings happening in Newport, Danville, St. Johnsbury, Brattleboro, Castleton, Leicester, Brookfield,” Weinberger said at the time.Overall the country had a 6% decrease in national firearms homicides between...