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Wish You Were Here: New Zealand mountain adventures, sans hobbits

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

Our readers’ vacation adventures have taken them from Antarctica to Old Montreal and everywhere in between. Today, a pair of South Bay readers are sharing their recent experiences in New Zealand — no hobbit sightings, but plenty of gorgeous sights.Wish You Were HereNEW ZEALAND: San Jose reader Thuy Nguyen, left, and Santa Clara resident Susan Lacy took a 14-day Viking cruise of Australia and New Zealand in January. Among the excursions, “we visited Mount Sunday in New Zealand where ‘The Lord of The Rings’ was filmed,” Thuy says. If you know your Tolkien cinematic lore, Mount Sunday was the setting for Edoras, the capital city of Rohan.TRAVEL TIPS: “The seasons there are opposite of ours, so if you go, pack accordingly and enjoy. Oh, in both Australia and New Zealand, people drive on the left side of the road.”Related ArticlesTravel | Wish You Were Here: Antarctic adventures with some extremely helpful advice Travel | ...

Map: 3 wrong-way crashes among weekend’s 9 Bay Area road fatalities

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

Eight motorists and a pedestrian were killed over the weekend on Bay Area roads. Four of the deaths were caused by wrong-way drivers on freeways.The map above shows the approximate locations of the crashes. Click on the links below for the complete stories.1/ A 51-year-old Alameda man died around 2:18 a.m. Saturday after his pickup truck crashed into the rear of an SUV stopped at a traffic light in the 2700 block of Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.2/ A 22-year-old Santa Rosa man was killed when his Nissan pickup crashed head-on into another vehicle while he was driving north in the southbound lanes of Highway 101 in San Rafael. The crash happened around 3:30 a.m. Saturday just north of the connector to Interstate 580. The driver of the southbound car,  a 30-year-old Novato man, was injured.3/ A 27-year-old man was killed around 8:37 a.m. Saturday when a vehicle hit a pole near Joaquin Miller Road and Skyline Boulevard, in Oakland. Police said it was not known if he was the driver or a p...

Slots Empire Bonus Codes 2023: Updated List of Slots Empire Deposit Bonuses, Free Spins & More

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

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Jill On Money: Paying for college

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

The May 1st deadline to make college decisions is approaching, which means that families are deep into conversations about how to pay the looming, large bill.Related ArticlesBusiness | Should US airlines pay passengers for delays like the EU? Business | How to prepare financially to leave an abusive relationship Business | How doing the bare minimum with debt is costing you Business | How to affordably retire 10 years early Business | How to protect your parents from financial scams Before making a decision that can have repercussions for years ahead, there are a few things to keep in mind.As I have noted in the past, financial aid packages are notoriously difficult to read and compare because there is no single way that schools are required to detail scholarship, grant, and loan information. It is critical to understand is what is FREE MONEY and what is a loan that requires repayment. If it is not clear...

Stocks drift ahead of week’s deluge of profit, economic data

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting Monday, as Wall Street remains hesitant to make big moves amid questions about where the economy, interest rates and corporate profits are heading. The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in midday trading after barely budging last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 14 points, or less than 0.1%, at 33,823, as of 11 a.m. Eastern, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower. Coca-Cola was rising 0.6% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the first three months of the year. It was the only company in the S&P 500 to report Monday morning, but more than 170 others are scheduled to follow it this week. The question is whether they can top the low bar that Wall Street has set for them, and what CEOs for those companies say about prospects for profits later this year. Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to report a roughly 6% drop in earnings per share from a year earlier, which would be their worst showing since the spring of ...

Driver involved in fatal Apple store crash pleads not guilty

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) — The driver of an SUV that crashed into a Massachusetts Apple store, killing one man and injuring nearly two dozen other people, was traveling as fast as 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) in the seconds before the crash and did not apply his brakes as he had told investigators, a prosecutor said in court Monday.Bradley Rein, 53, pleaded not guilty in Superior Court in Brockton to charges including second-degree murder and 22 counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the Nov. 21 crash at an outdoor shopping plaza in Hingham, just south of Boston.Kevin Bradley, 65, of Wayne, New Jersey, who was doing construction work at the store, died when he was struck by Rein’s 2019 Toyota 4Runner, prosecutors said. The other 22 victims were either struck by the SUV or by debris.Rein’s vehicle “accelerated to a high speed … before it veered to the left, drove up onto the sidewalk and then crashed through the glass door...

Montgomery Co. school bus crash sends 4 children, 1 adult to hospital

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

A school bus crash in Montgomery County, Maryland, on Monday morning sent four children and one adult to the hospital, police said.The single-vehicle crash happened just before 9:30 a.m. in Silver Spring on Old Columbia Pike between Martello Drive and Briggs Chaney Road.A Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman said the bus was servicing Fairland Elementary School on Fairdale Road at the time of the crash.The driver and the children were all taken to the hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.Old Columbia Pike remains closed between Martello Drive and Briggs Chaney Road.This is a developing story. Stay with WTOP for the latest. Source

Migrants mount legal challenge to UK-Rwanda deportation plan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Several asylum-seekers and refugee groups began a court challenge on Monday to the British government’s plan to send hundreds of migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda.The claimants’ attorney, Raza Husain, argued at the Court of Appeal in London that the “high-profile and controversial” policy was unlawful. He said Rwanda was “an authoritarian one-party state” that “imprisons, tortures and murders” opponents. The governments of Britain and Rwanda signed a deal a year ago under which some migrants who arrive in the U.K. in small boats would be flown to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed. Those granted asylum would stay in Rwanda rather than return to Britain.Britain’s Conservative government says the plan will smash the business model of people-smuggling gangs and deter migrants from taking risky journeys across the English Channel. More than 45,000 people arrived in Britain by boat in 2022, compared with 8,500 in 2020.Human rights groups argue it’s inhu...

Nationals Notebook: Heating up in the cold

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

Well wouldn’t you know it took playing games in thirty-something degree weather for the Washington Nationals bats to finally heat up?After getting swept by the Baltimore Orioles — getting shut out by a team whose starter’s ERA was 28th to begin the week and allowing Dean Kremer’s ERA to drop from 9.49 to 6.16 — the Nats took two of three in frigid Minnesota (in the forties is cold and in the fifties is crisp for those scoring at home) before coming up short in the series finale as the bats returned to their 2023 form (stranding nine after going 1 of 6 with runners in scoring position).No sweep, but it was their first series win since mid-September of 2022 (they dropped five straight series to end last year and had one split with Colorado in their first six series of 2023).Now this week, the Nats go for consecutive series wins, which last happened last year on Labor Day weekend.Digesting the Division: Atlanta (14-8) leads the NL East despite a four-game losing strea...

Ground cumin recalled in 16 states, including Va. over salmonella risk

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:41 GMT

Check your spice cabinet, Lipari Foods is recalling a lot of its ground cumin in Virginia over concerns it could make people sick.Some Lipari Branded Ground Cumin Tubs are being voluntarily recalled over a possibility they were contaminated with salmonella, according to a company announcement posted by the Food and Drug Administration.Lipari Foods is recalling a lot of its ground cumin in Virginia over concerns it could make people sick. (Courtesy FDA)Salmonella illness can be serious and at times deadly for young kids, elderly people and others with weakened immune systems.Most people who are infected with the organism experience symptoms like fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps.Rarely, getting sick from salmonella leads to the organism entering the bloodstream, causing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections, endocarditis and arthritis.Usually, symptoms start between six hours and six days from infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and ...