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A big birthday with an even bigger price tag

Dear Annie: My younger sister is turning 30 and has planned a birthday dinner at a trendy rooftop restaurant where the tasting menu is $165 per person — not including drinks, tax or tip. She also wants us to split the cost of a professional photographer “to capture the moment for all of us.” I want to celebrate, and the dinner does sound fun. But I just had to replace my transmission and pay an almost $2,000 dental bill. I’m in penny-pinching mode, and I think a home-cooked dinner or a less-trendy restaurant would be just as fun. I told my sister I might skip the dinner and ...

US airports seeing record-high wait times

WASHINGTON (AP) — Air travelers are experiencing the highest wait times ever under the Transportation Security Administration, the agency’s acting head said Wednesday, as the latest offer to end a funding impasse and put restraints on President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda met fierce resistance in Congress. The TSA’s Ha Nguyen McNeill described the mounting hardships facing unpaid airport workers — piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned that lawmakers must ensure “this never happens again.” “This is a ...

Wall Street yo-yoing because of war in Iran

NEW YORK (AP) — Hopes for a possible end to the war with Iran pushed stocks higher on Wall Street Wednesday, while oil prices eased. The S&P 500 rose 0.5% in its latest flip-flop after the United States delivered a plan to pause the war to Iran. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 305 points, or 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8%. But the moves were shaky, and the S&P 500 briefly came close to erasing all of its jump, which maxed out at 1.2% during the morning. Financial markets have swung sharply since the war began more than three weeks ago, and many of the reversals ...

Warning signs flash red for GOP as Iran war drives up gas prices and Florida district flips

WASHINGTON (AP) — Political warning signs that have privately worried some Republicans for months are starting to flash red ahead of November’s midterm elections, as the war in Iran keeps gas prices high, travelers face unprecedented airport security wait times and Americans remain concerned about steep costs of living. The latest sign of trouble came Tuesday from President Donald Trump’s own backyard as Democrat Emily Gregory won a Florida special election to flip a state legislative district that encompasses his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Against that backdrop, Trump ...

Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez push bill to impose data center moratorium

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two high-profile progressive lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would pause new data centers in the United States until national safeguards are in place to protect workers and consumers and ensure the technologies don’t harm the environment. The legislation by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is unlikely to advance in either the House or Senate, but it shows the deep concerns many progressives share about the growing impact of data centers and artificial intelligence. Communities across ...

Jury finds Instagram and YouTube liable social media addiction trial

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Meta and YouTube must pay millions in damages to a 20-year-old woman after a jury decided the social media giant and video streamer designed their platforms to hook young users without concern for their well being. The California jury’s decision Wednesday in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit could influence the outcome of thousands of similar lawsuits accusing social media companies of deliberately causing harm. The plaintiff, known by her initials KGM, testified at trial that she became addicted to social media as a child and that this addiction exacerbated her ...