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Tom Cruise on a ‘Mission’ to save summer movies

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

Attention Tom Cruise!!Your Mission, which you have accepted, is to carry the summer box-office once again.  Your $500 million stunt-crazy extravaganza “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” easily the most expensive movie in history, is expected to match last summer’s “Top Gun: Maverick” as a blockbuster to become the year’s top-grossing film.That “Mission” caters to all ages and all groups is in itself a semi-miracle in our divided nation.“Part One” is, first and most importantly, a Tom Cruise production.  Not only does the world’s most famous Scientologist control every aspect of what you see onscreen, including his death-defying stunts, but all that happened offscreen to make this 163-minute fantasy a reality.This is the franchise’s last hurrah, a 2-part 7th installment that includes the core team – played by Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson (now starring in AppleTV+ “Silo” series) and Simon Pegg – reunited for an impossible mission revolving around rogue AI, a highly cont...

5 ideas for easy & awesome summer entertaining

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

It it just me, or is this summer big on impromptu gatherings? Every other afternoon someone’s saying, “Hey, can you come over tonight for cocktails? Or grilling? Or cocktails and grilling?” What absolutely no one is asking is “Can you come over in two weeks for a formal, four-course dinner?”So when you want to host, what’s the easiest way to entertain? Well, pot luck is a no-brainer with impromptu entertaining. Have guests bring at least one thing each — the fixings for one kind of drink, say, or an uncomplicated side. But beyond that, here are 5 easy and fun ideas for no-fuss but still-stylish hosting this season.Whip up an easy but unexpected main.Instead of the usual (but yes, admittedly delish) barbecue ribs and such, make a whole side of grilled salmon for a crowd. This is so much easier than it sounds. First, buy a great side of skin-on salmon — I like wild sockeye from Bristol Bay, Alaska (available at almost any Whole Foods). Pat the salmon dry ...

Roast beef & blue cheese tartine perfect for Bastille Day

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

July 14 is Bastille Day, the day in 1789 when the Bastille prison in Paris was stormed, and the French Revolution began. With this in mind, I thought about making a French-inspired supper and decided to make a tartine. The word “tartine” means slice of bread with spreadable ingredients in French and can also mean an open-face sandwich.For this quick sandwich supper, I topped thick slices of bread with some deli roast beef and crumbled blue cheese. A watercress salad with its slightly peppery flavor adds a little zing.Helpful Hints:You can find roasted beets can be found in the produce section of the market. You can use cherry tomatoes instead.You can use any type of blue cheese, such as Roquefort.You can use any type of whole grain bread.TAG GOES HERERoast Beef and Blue Cheese TartineINGREDIENTS4 thick slices whole grain breadOlive oil spray4 tablespoons reduced fat mayonnaise2 tablespoons prepared horseradish10 ounces lean sliced deli low-sodium roast beef3/4 cup reduce...

Lucas: Secret Service could blow past Hunter Biden in coke probe

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

The surprise is not they found cocaine in the White House — given who lives there.The surprise is that they told you about. Now it is up to the Secret Service to get Hunter Biden off the hook, which it may do as early as today when it releases its report of the incident.A coverup could have been launched had President Joe Biden been in the White House when the discovery was made, and not spending the weekend at Camp David with his son Hunter and family.After all, Hunter Biden is the only known cocaine user in the White House.  Hunter is awaiting court action over his sweetheart deal to plead guilty to two “misdemeanor” charges over carrying an illegal gun and tax evasion.Frequent visitor Hunter – believed by some to be a resident so frequent are the visits – comes and goes as he pleases and is not subject to the search and surveillance that regular White House employees are, let alone tourists.Hunter could have called a press conference to say that the cocaine was not hi...

Editorial: Poll finds student borrowers spent $$ they thought would be forgiven

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

If there was any doubt that today’s students are in desperate need of classes in financial literacy, it’s this: More than a third of student loan borrowers spent money they otherwise would not have, believing some of their debt would be forgiven by the Biden administration, according to a new poll.Don’t spend what you don’t have. That concept is admittedly at odds with a country that’s mired in credit card debt. As The Hill reported, a  typical American household now carries $10,000 in credit card debt, by one estimate.The aggregate picture is staggering: the nation’s credit card debt stands at $986 billion, according to the Federal Reserve. A Wallet Hub report put total card debt at $1.2 trillion at the end of 2022.Paying down credit card debt can be onerous, and a burden on many borrowers – especially if they racked up a good chunk of that debt paying for necessities during COVID shutdowns.Those carrying large credit card debt loads haven’...

Moore: Biden points finger at profits as cause of inflation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently reiterated a point the Biden White House has been making for the past year: that inflation remains high not because of the Biden $6 trillion spending spree but because “high profit margins” captured during the COVID-19 pandemic drive up consumer prices.We then were told that the White House’s grand strategy to bring down sticker prices further at the store is to lower business profit margins for everything from drugs and computers to food and gasoline.How low should those evil profits go? To zero?Wait, since when are profits evil? The ability of a company to turn a profit is the very engine of growth — also of innovation, job creation and entrepreneurship.The only people who could possibly believe profits are nefarious are those who have never actually earned a profit. It isn’t so easy.As the late, great economist Walter Williams of George Mason University used to explain in his Econ 100 course: Farmers ...

Dear Abby: BF pauses relationship after sister’s death

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

Dear Abby: My boyfriend lost his sister unexpectedly to a heart attack. She was only 50. I’m trying to be there for him and give him his space while he’s grieving. The thing is, he has stopped responding or contacting me. Every few days, I’d send him words of support, but he doesn’t respond — not with a “thank you” or anything. This has been happening for the past week.Finally, I figured that he’s ghosting me and no longer wants to be bothered with me but doesn’t want to say it. So I told him I didn’t want to add to his stress, that I felt he was over our relationship and I wouldn’t bother him anymore. He responded, saying I’m taking it too personally, there’s nothing I can do to help and it’s something he has to go through.I know that. I understand grieving. But am I supposed to just wait until he feels like talking or being bothered with me, for however long it takes? I’m trying to be underst...

Nearly $4 million of meth found in tractor trailer roof

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

TECATE, Calif. -- Over 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine, worth nearly $4 million, was seized from a tractor trailer last Thursday at the Tecate Port of Entry, authorities said.The seizure occurred around 9:07 a.m. when U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers inspected a tractor trailer driven by a 46-year-old driver entering the United States from Mexico, border officials said.During the search, law enforcement found a total of 138 packages of methamphetamine hidden within the roof of the vehicle, according to CBP. The estimated street value of the drugs totaled $3,994,298. Rancho Bernardo Shell gas station reports 7,300 gallons of diesel fuel stolen “Our officers are always ready to serve and protect our borders,” stated Rosa Hernandez, PortDirector for the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. “The collaborative efforts to achieve this common goalare truly remarkable.”The driver was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for further process while CBP officers seized the tra...

Thousands of Ukraine civilians are being held in Russian prisons. Russia plans to build many more

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian civilians woke long before dawn in the bitter cold, lined up for the single toilet and were loaded at gunpoint into the livestock trailer. They spent the next 12 hours or more digging trenches on the front lines for Russian soldiers.Many were forced to wear overlarge Russian military uniforms that could make them a target, and a former city administrator trudged around in boots five sizes too big. By the end of the day, their hands curled into icy claws.Nearby, in the occupied region of Zaporizhzhia, other Ukrainian civilians dug mass graves into the frozen ground for fellow prisoners who had not survived. One man who refused to dig was shot on the spot — yet another body for the grave.Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are being detained across Russia and the Ukrainian territories it occupies, in centers ranging from brand-new wings in Russian prisons to clammy basements. Most have no status under Russian law.And Russia is planning to hold p...

Former teen performers accuse an agent of sexual assault. They’re hoping it’s Japan’s Me Too moment

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:27 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Kazuya Nakamura says he was 15 when one of the most powerful men in Japanese entertainment history forced him to have sex while he was part of a troupe of backup dancers managed by the legendary talent agent.At least a dozen other men have come forward this year to say they were sexually assaulted as teenagers by boy band impresario Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019, beginning with three who spoke anonymously to the BBC for a documentary broadcast in March. The story has all the elements of a major Me Too reckoning, but in Japan, response has been muted.While opposition politicians set up a committee in parliament to investigate, and the talent agency Kitagawa founded promised to do the same and offered a brief apology, the news still rarely makes the front pages or lead television news broadcasts.Kitagawa shrugged off similar allegations for decades. National media almost completely ignored the story, and Kitagawa’s business continued to thrive, even when a Tokyo appea...