XCR1250

'Extraordinary': George Washington's 250-year-old cherries found buried at Mount Vernon JULIA GOMEZ, USA TODAY Updated April 23, 2024 at 8:19 PM Archaeologists found something incredibly rare in the cellar of George Washington's home at Mount Vernon: Two intact jars of cherries buried in the basement of the first U.S. president's house. Nick Beard, project archeologist at Mount Vernon, told USA TODAY on Tuesday that he had been excavating the basement "for quite a while" when he saw the lip of one of the jars in November. When the bottle started to peek out from the earth, he proceeded carefully but said he didn't think it would turn out to be anything out of the ordinary, adding that it's common to find wine bottles and glasses at the site about 15 miles south of Washington, D.C. In fact, Beard stepped away from the bottles to help on a more immediate project. Only when he returned several weeks later did he realize what he discovered. As he worked, more and more glass became exposed. He tried to wiggle the glass out of its resting place, but when he did his fingers got a little wet. That's when he noticed whatever he was working on was full of liquid. "Which means if it's that full of liquid then it has to be intact enough to hold that liquid," said Beard. "That's not common, so that immediately got me excited." The bottles were originally uncovered in November 2023, but weren't fully excavated until March 22, 2024. Uncovered jars reveal centuries-old cherries When Beard further revealed the jars, he called other archeologists to come check his findings. The jars were fully excavated on March 22. The cherries were removed from the bottles to help preserve the glass, but after April 30, the glass will be sent off for conservation. Its contents will be sent to a lab for analysis and be tested in a controlled environment by specialists, according to a press release from Mount Vernon. "It's extraordinary," Jason Boroughs, principal archaeologist at Mount Vernon, told USA TODAY on Tuesday, saying something similar has only happened twice in Virginia in the past six decades: Archeologists work to uncover jars of cherries in Mount Vernon cellar. What was in the jar? Beard and Boroughs said that cherries and a mystery liquid were found in the jar. And the cherries, Boroughs said, actually look like cherries, even after hundreds of years. "They're plump, they have flesh, they have pits and stems," Boroughs said. "They don't look as if they've been sitting in a bottle for 250 years, although they have." The liquid inside even smelled like cherry blossoms, according to Mount Vernon. Containers with samples of the liquid found inside the cherry jars. The cherries in the bottles were probably dry when they were buried, Boroughs said. While the archeologists know what the cherries are, the liquid is still a bit of a mystery. Lily Carhart, curator of the preservation collections at Mount Vernon, said it's possible the groundwater got into the bottle after the cork that sealed it deteriorated. The liquid still needs to be tested, Boroughs said. And there is a small possibility it could've been a type of alcohol, like a brandy or cognac. The glass jars were emptied to preserve the glass. They will be sent for conservation, and the liquid contents inside will be sent to a lab for analysis, states a press release from Mount Vernon. Why were the cherries buried? Enslaved laborers picked the cherries, wiped them off to avoid condensation and placed them into the jar. Then, that jar was corked and buried sometime between 1758 and 1776, when both George and Martha Washington were living at the home, according to Boroughs. He added that the method would've kept the fruit inside the bottle preserved for up to a year. It was one of the most popular ways to preserve berries and its how folks in colonial America preserved food before there were refrigerators. "It pretty much keeps them isolated and sealed from the atmosphere, from air and from fungus and other things that could attack" he said. According to Boroughs, the cherries were supposed to be served on George Washington's dinner table, but instead were forgotten and buried under a brick floor that was placed in the 1770s, sealing its fate as a sort of a "time capsule." The glass jars were emptied to preserve the glass. They will be sent for conservation, and the liquid contents inside will be sent to a lab for analysis, states a press release from Mount Vernon. Can you still eat the cherries? "You would not want to put that close to your face," Carhart said about the cherries. Boroughs said that it could actually be possible to eat them, but "nobody wants to try." Why is this discovery significant? Boroughs said the discovery is remarkable because he "can't count the number of times 18th-century food remains have been found intact" the way the cherries were. "We're the first people to touch these objects since they were put in the ground by an enslaved person," Boroughs said. While the discovery itself is incredible, the archeologist said the stories that can be uncovered from it are just as amazing. "We think of these items sort of as the material bits of lives that we can recover from the ground," Boroughs said. "These bottles tell stories. They're attached to people who had real lives and if we know how to put the pieces together, we can piece together something about their lives." Beard added that it feels "surreal" to have such an "immediate connection with the people that lived back then." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Washington's 250-year-old cherries found buried at Mount Vernon

Trump poised to clinch $1.3 billion social media company stock award ECHO WANG April 23, 2024 at 5:20 AM By Echo Wang (Reuters) - Donald Trump is set to secure on Tuesday a stock bonus worth $1.3 billion from the company that operates his social media app Truth Social, equivalent to about half the majority stake he already owns in it, thanks to the wild rally in its shares. The award will take the former U.S. President's overall stake in the company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), to $4.1 billion. While Trump has agreed not to sell any of his TMTG shares before September, the windfall represents a significant boost to his wealth, which Forbes pegs at $4.7 billion. Unlike much of his real estate empire, shares are easy to divest in the stock market and could come in handy as Trump's legal fees and fines pile up, including a $454.2 million judgment in his New York civil fraud case he is appealing. The bonus also reflects the exuberant trading in TMTG's shares, which have been on a roller coaster ride since the company listed on Nasdaq last month through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and was snapped up by Trump supporters and speculators. Trump will be entitled to the stock bonus under the terms of the SPAC deal once TMTG's shares stay above $17.50 for 20 trading days following the company's March 26 listing. They ended trading on Monday at $35.50, and they would have to lose more than half their value on Tuesday for Trump to miss out. TMTG's current valuation of approximately $5 billion is equivalent to about 1,220 times the loss-making company's revenue in 2023 of $4.1 million. No other U.S. company of similar market capitalization has such a high valuation multiple, LSEG data shows. This is despite TMTG warning investors in regulatory filings that its operational losses raise "substantial doubt" about its ability to remain in business. A TMTG spokesperson declined to comment on the stock award to Trump. "With more than $200 million in the bank and zero debt, Trump Media is fulfilling all its obligations related to the merger and rapidly moving forward with its business plan," the spokesperson said. While Trump's windfall is rich for a small, loss-making company like TMTG, the earnout structure that allows it is common. According to a report from law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, stock earnouts for management were seen in more than half the SPAC mergers completed in 2022. However, few executives clinch these earnout bonuses because many SPAC deals end up performing poorly in the stock market, said Freshfields securities lawyer Michael Levitt. TMTG's case is rare because its shares are trading decoupled from its business prospects. "Many earnouts in SPACs are never satisfied because many SPAC prices fall significantly after the merger is completed," Levitt said. To be sure, TMTG made it easier for Trump to meet the earnout threshold. When TMTG agreed to merge with the SPAC in October 2021, the deal envisioned that TMTG shares had to trade above $30 for Trump to get the full earnout bonus. The two sides amended the deal in August 2023 to lower that threshold to $17.50, regulatory filings show. Had that not happened, Trump would not have yet earned the full bonus because TMTG's shares traded below $30 last week. The terms of the deal, however, give Trump three years from the listing to win the full earnout, so he could have still earned it if the shares traded above the threshold for 20 days in any 30-day period during this time.

SR went back to College.

Never had a Credit Card, debit, yup.

By Sumi Somaskanda & Naomi Choy Smith,in San Diego Share Getty Images A surge of illegal border crossings has fuelled US political debate On a blustery morning last month, volunteer Adriana Jasso raised the flaps to a tent propped up against the massive steel bars of the fence that straddles this stretch of the US-Mexico border. On her side, plastic tables were piled with apples, packets of hot chocolate, mylar blankets and stacks of ponchos - supplies waiting for hungry and tired migrants who had travelled for weeks, or even months, to reach California. On the other side, visible through the gaps in the towering barrier, a group of more than 100 people - from countries including Ecuador, Colombia, China and Rwanda - huddled together, waiting to be let through on to US soil. This border point south of San Diego is now one of the busiest along the entire US-Mexico frontier, which stretches around 1,950 miles (3,140km) from here to eastern Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. A record surge of illegal border crossings in recent years has fuelled the debate over immigration and border security, emerging as a key voter concern ahead of the US presidential election in November. While the border crisis has mostly centred on Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott has waged a fight with President Joe Biden over his immigration policies, recent figures show the geography of the US migration problem is shifting west to border states like Arizona and California. In San Ysidro, some 16 miles south of wealthy San Diego, crossings were up 85% in February from the previous year compared with Texas, which saw illegal entries dip during the same period. The BBC's US partner CBS reported that in January, the border crossing in Del Rio, Texas, recorded a few hundred apprehensions a day - compared to 2,300 daily migrant crossings in December. The migrant flow shift is due in part to the Texas governor's clampdown on illegal migration and Mexican authorities tightening security across the border as well. The sheer number of people arriving has overwhelmed resources in the San Diego area; after migrants are apprehended and processed at a facility near the border, local officials told the BBC that up to 1,000 people a day are being released at city train and bus stops. Just after 8am, Border Patrol agents arrived and opened the gate to begin intake on the strip of land where migrants have been waiting. Men are allowed only one layer of clothing, women and children two; they line up and pull off jackets and shoelaces (which are not allowed at the processing centre due to safety concerns), packing them into plastic bags or backpacks. From there, they file on to buses and head to a processing centre, where they are registered and can file a claim for asylum. The vast majority are heading to towns and cities across the US where they have family, friends and networks. The influx of migrants scattered across the country has strained communities, frustrating local officials and placing immigration at the top of the political agenda. A Wall Street Journal poll released in March ranked immigration among the top two issues for registered voters in seven battleground states - Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. At least 72% of those voters across the seven states said the country's immigration policy and border security were heading in the wrong direction, according to the survey. Getty Images The sheer number of people arriving has overwhelmed resources along California's southern border Even in California, the nation's largest Democratic stronghold, 62% of registered voters said US borders were not secure in preventing illegal border crossings compared to 30% who said they were secure, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies poll released in January. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has accused Mr Biden of creating a "bloodbath" at the US-Mexico border. The president accused Mr Trump of scuppering a bipartisan immigration bill for political gain. The border featured heavily during President Trump's time in office - his administration built roughly 15 miles of new barriers and reinforced or increased the height along another 350 miles of existing border wall structure. That includes near San Diego, where the Trump administration completed bollard fencing in 2019 that juts into the Pacific Ocean along a stretch of beach just north of Tijuana, Mexico, to stop migrants from swimming into the country. According to a study published in the JAMA medical journal, this has led to a significant increase in migrant drowning deaths. Nora Vargas, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors in San Diego County, has witnessed ups and downs of migration over several years. Since the Biden administration in May 2023 lifted Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allowed US officials to expel migrants who came to the border, Vargas says around 80,000 migrants have arrived through San Diego County. The Biden administration's attempt to stop migrants from crossing illegally and encourage them to apply for asylum via an app has been plagued by technical issues, and it has not appeared to slow the number of people crossing, due to the push factors like violence and poverty, says Vargas. "We should be able to find ways to ensure that people are treated with dignity, with respect, especially if you're fleeing persecution," she said. Vargas tells the BBC her county had an effective solution for mitigating the crisis: migrant transitional centres, or short-term facilities where newly arrived migrants could access food and medical treatment, charge their phones, and plan their next steps: migrants arriving here are not staying. Instead, they're moving on to other towns and cities across the US, where they have a network of family or friends. But as the numbers of asylum seekers arriving everyday ticked up, the county exhausted its funding. Vargas wrote an urgent letter to the White House in February, asking for federal assistance to help cover the estimated $1.5m (£1.2m) a month required to operate the facilities. Funding didn't arrive, however. The county was forced to close the transitional centre. Vargas blames Congress for failing to pass the Senate's bipartisan package of measures including funding for tackling the immigration crisis at the border. Getty Images The Trump administration built roughly 15 miles of new border barriers In the absence of transitional centres, Border Patrol agents are now dropping off some 900 people a day at bus and train stations in San Diego, a city of around 1.3 million people. At the Iris Avenue Transit Center, a swelling crowd of migrants milled around on a Sunday afternoon earlier this month, exhausted and relieved. Men and women from Brazil, India, China and Latin America called family members and consulted maps, trying to plot a path to their final destination. A group of young men from Guinea told the BBC they'd fled political instability, flying to Istanbul, then to Colombia, then trekking to the US. "Nobody wants to leave their home," a young woman from Ecuador said, blaming gangs and mafia groups in her home country that created an atmosphere of fear and violence. Two men from Medellín, Colombia, told the BBC they made the journey to the US to find work. Jim Desmond, a member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, visited the Iris Transit Center recently and told the BBC that non-profits are helping many of the migrants get to the airport, where they are hoping to secure a ticket to their final destination. Now, the airport itself is becoming a shelter, he says. "To have tourists come, you know off a flight or they're leaving, we don't want it to be their first or last impression, to see people sleeping and spending the night at San Diego airport," he said. Desmond is raising the alarm in his county over what he calls the unimpeded flow of people, many of whom he believes have not been properly vetted. It is not Congress, he says, but the White House that should be finding pathways to bolster legal immigration and swiftly clamp down on those who cross illegally. The White House has signalled that President Biden is eyeing executive action on securing the border, in lieu of a bill from Congress. California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has referred to the asylum system as "broken" and called for federal support for states and cities, has sought to put the blame squarely on Republican lawmakers and Mr Trump for rejecting border legislation. "It used to be in the Obama administration, in the Trump administration, and Bush and even Clinton, that migrants coming across the border illegally would run from border patrol agents. Now they're running to them," Desmond said. "And they're being processed and being dropped off and jumping ahead of the line. And anytime you have some entity that allows people to jump ahead of the line, chaos ensues." Back in San Ysidro, a young woman named Olga, wearing a transparent poncho over a pink winter coat, gripped a cup of coffee as she explained that she'd departed Ecuador four weeks earlier, to escape a different kind of chaos - soaring gang violence and economic hardship. She left three children with family in Ecuador and is hoping to reunite with her fourth child, who is in the US. The journey had shaken her. "There were good people but also bad people," she said through tears.

I've been on Medicare a "Medica" supplement for 12 years now. Choose carefully on your supplement plan, some are close to worthless.

They'll take out Medicare eventually.

Man, 110, who still drives his car every day has simple tips for long life A. PAWLOWSKI April 19, 2024 at 6:47 PM At 110 years old, Vincent Dransfield still drives his car every day, getting coffee at the convenience store and buying lunch. He lives independently in his own house in Little Falls, New Jersey, where he has resided since 1945. The supercentenarian requires no help with daily living, so his grandchildren visit him once a week to bring him some groceries and call every other day to check in, but he’s otherwise self-sufficient. Dransfield is in good health, other than dealing with achy knees and other minor issues, and navigates between the home’s main floor, his bedroom upstairs and the basement where he does his laundry without a problem, his family says. When asked how he feels at 110, Dransfield jokingly says he’s ready to put on boxing gloves and box. “I manage to do everything,” he tells TODAY.com. “I drive pretty good.” “He drives completely fine — better than some other people I see,” Erica Lista, Dransfield’s granddaughter, tells TODAY.com. Dransfield says he still drives his Hyundai every day. (Courtesy Erica Lista) She and her brother periodically check Dransfield’s driving to make sure that he’s doing OK. Family, friends and doctors are amazed by his healthy longevity, she says, noting she has more health issues at 49 than her grandfather does at 110. When Dransfield required an endoscopy recently for a swallowing problem, the medical staff was stunned he’d only had anesthesia once before in his entire life, Lista says. She noticed the anesthesiologist’s hands were shaking when he administered the medicine into a 110-year-old man. It’s uncommon for men to live to 100 — only 15% percent of centenarians are male, according to the New England Centenarian Study based at Boston University. The reasons are unclear. The club of supercentenarians — people who live to 110 or older — is even more exclusive. Men make up only about 10% of this age group, the study notes. The oldest man in the world is currently 111 and lives in England, according to the Gerontology Research Group, which maintains a list of validated supercentenarians. Dransfield is currently the 8th oldest man on the list. Born on March 28, 1914, Dransfield not only enjoys incredible longevity, but healthy longevity, with a fit mind and body. He says he has never had major diseases, like cancer or heart disease. Dransfield has just always been healthy, and has no headaches or backaches, Lista adds. “I’ve been very, very, very lucky in my lifetime," Dransfield told TODAY.com in 2023. Dransfield has lived in the same house since 1945. (Courtesy Erica Lista) He has one child, three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. His wife of 54 years died in 1992. Many family members, friends and firefighters recently gathered at the firehouse where he once served as chief to celebrate his 110th birthday. “The craziest part is just how excited people are to talk about him and celebrate him,” Lista says. “It’s just so heartwarming to see how many people think he’s as special as we do.” Here is what to know about the supercentenarian and his advice for living a long life: Spend time doing what you love Dransfield spent more than 80 years serving as a member of the local volunteer fire department and was the chief for a period of time. When asked what brought him happiness and kept him going in life, he quickly answers: “The fire department. … I met so many friends.” Lista says her grandfather continued to be a regular at the fire house as he got older and was part of the “3 to 5 club.” “After my grandmother passed away, that’s really what kept him going. Every day, he would go to the fire house from 3 to 5, and all the old guys would sit there and hang out. That was like his family,” she notes. As for Dransfield’s professional life, he worked for 60 years — most of that as an auto parts manager — before retiring in his late 70s: “I still wanted to work, but my wife said, it’s time for you to quit,” he recalls. Milk does a body good Dransfield left school after 8th grade and went to work for a dairy farm at 15 to help support his family. He delivered milk for five years and drank as much of it as he wanted, which he attributes to giving him a healthy boost — especially during the Great Depression in the 1930s. “I was drinking milk and eating well because I worked on a farm. And I often go back and think they gave me a good start in life and for my bones in my body,” Dransfield says. Milk still plays a role in his life: The supercentenarian credits drinking Ovaltine — a milk flavoring and nutrition supplement — every day after breakfast for his longevity. He’s been so outspoken about it that when he when he turned 100, everyone drank Ovaltine at his birthday party, Lista says. Dransfield relaxes at home. He lives independently and does everything around the house on his own (Courtesy Erica Lista) Stay active Dransfield didn’t lift weights or exercise in a gym, but he kept moving throughout his life. “I was 21 years old when I joined the fire department and that’s the exercise I got every day — answered the fire alarms in Little Falls,” he says. “I was active and ran out when the alarm went off for 40 years. Then for the next 40 years, (I continued) when I felt like it.” Structured exercise amuses him. “He laughs at people who jog. He’s like, ‘Where are they running to?’” his granddaughter says. Enjoy what you eat The supercentenarian likes Italian food, hamburgers, salad, milk chocolate and other sweets. He drinks a cup of coffee every day and occasionally drinks beer, but doesn’t enjoy other forms of alcohol. He didn't exactly follow a Blue Zones diet. “What’s crazy is he was not careful about his diet,” Lista says. “He has eaten whatever he wants. He has never watched his weight. He’s never had to lose weight. He’s always been fit.” At 110, Dransfield still cooks for himself, though that usually means heating up soup on the stove or microwaving prepared meals, Lista notes. He likes to buy meals from a restaurant down the road from his house. Dransfield enjoys carrot cake, his favorite, for a previous birthday. (Courtesy Erica Lista) It’s never too late to fix a bad habit Dransfield started smoking when he was 50 after a fellow firefighter offered him a cigarette and he liked it. But about 20 years later, he quit. “He told me one day that he was going to just stop smoking,” Lista recalls. “He threw the cigarettes out and that was it. He just never smoked again.” Stay positive Dransfield considers himself an optimist. He also has a great sense of humor and likes knowing everybody’s name in town, his granddaughter says. "Knowing people and loving people makes me live longer," Dransfield says. “He always had such a positive upbeat attitude, even when my grandmother passed away. He lived for her, but he was determined to keep on living,” Lista adds. “I keep positive. I never think any other way when something’s wrong,” Dransfield notes. “I’m doing fine and I hope the good Lord keeps me that way.” This article was originally published on TODAY.com

Border state lawmaker sounds alarm on bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang entering US: ‘They have no rules’ Adam Shaw Fri, April 19, 2024 at 1:38 PM CDT·3 min read A congressman whose district is along the southern border is warning about the dangers posed by a bloodthirsty Venezuelan street gang whose presence has grown in the United States amid the ongoing migrant crisis. "This gang in several years is going to be the dominant transnational criminal organization throughout the United States. There's no doubt in my mind," Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital in an interview. Last month, a CBP source provided Fox with an internal intelligence bulletin revealing tattoos and identifiers for Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan street gang. Members of that gang have been entering the U.S. illegally through the southern border. The gang drew additional attention when it emerged that the brother of the suspect in the killing of Georgia student Laken Riley had ties to the gang. Both are Venezuelan illegal immigrants. OPINION: VENEZUELAN GANGS ARE IMPORTING NEXT-LEVEL BRUTALITY, FEAR TO OUR STREETS These images from a CBP intelligence bulletin show tattoos and identifiers for Tren De Aragua. TdA is said to specialize in extortion, kidnapping, murder and sex trafficking. Federal authorities have been warning that the gang is trying to establish itself in the U.S., where police are already linking it to organized crime. The FBI has also warned that the gang could team up with the bloodthirsty MS-13. READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS "They're very vicious. They have no rules. They gobble up territory almost like a cancer," Gonzales said. Gonzales, who represents a majority Hispanic district, says the arrivals are part of a change in the flow of immigration across the border. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, outside the U.S. Capitol as the House voted to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act June 24, 2022. "Immigration isn't new to us. We've lived it for decades, but it's no longer Mexican nationals coming over looking for work," Gonzales said. "It's no longer passive people just trying to kind of mosey about their business. It is a different element of people. "They're more aggressive, they're demanding and they're culturally not the same. And that's why, once again, a district 70% Hispanic, the people in my district had enough. They're like, 'To hell with these people. They're coming over. I don't feel safe. They're very aggressive.’ And you know what? If someone knocked on my door and they had face tattoos with teardrops … I probably wouldn't feel safe either." BLOODTHIRSTY VENEZUELAN GANG TREN DE ARAGUA SETS UP SHOP IN US AS BORDER AUTHORITIES SOUND ALARM On visits to the border in the El Paso Sector, he said, officials had told him migrants will be afraid of TdA members when in detention. He also pointed to oil thefts in other parts of the border. He said the response should be "immediate repercussions." "So Border Patrol has to have the tools where they can vet some of these people far more than what is happening," Gonzales said, warning that people are just "cycling through." He also said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has to be strong and nationally present. "You have to have ICE have the ability to go around and actively hunt these criminal aliens that have committed crimes, hunt them down and deport them," Gonzales said. "That has to happen. And when it does happen, it can't happen in a vacuum. People have to know what's happening. And it can't just happen in one part of the country. It has to happen throughout the country." He also called for a "seamless" mission and cooperation between local, state and federal officials. "And I think the communities that do that, I think Texas will be at the forefront of this," Gonzales said. "The communities that do that will be the ones that do not have this issue years from now." Original article source: Border state lawmaker sounds alarm on bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang entering US: ‘They have no rules’

Perhaps he was just cold and looking to warm up a little bit.

So you believe they are lying? https://www.ecoticias.com/en/mobility/

The title is from the article.

https://news.yahoo.com/man-stands-motorcycle-while-driving-154902356.html

Wildland fire danger at that time?