jiliasia 50 North American Aquafeed Market Overview, Emerging Trends, Key Players Analysis, Competitive Landscape, And Revenue Forecast By 2029After her son's death, Melissa Etheridge turned her grief into advocacy by creating a foundation to support new research into old 'plant medicine'The Christmas tradition has become nearly global in scope: Children from around the world track Santa Claus as he sweeps across the earth , delivering presents and defying time. Watch Santa's location in the live feed of the NORAD tracker above. Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa’s location. Millions more follow online in nine languages, from English to Japanese. On any other night, NORAD is scanning the heavens for potential threats, such as last year’s Chinese spy balloon. But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs are fielding questions like, “When is Santa coming to my house?” and, “Am I on the naughty or nice list?” “There are screams and giggles and laughter,” said Bob Sommers, 63, a civilian contractor and NORAD volunteer. Sommers often says on the call that everyone must be asleep before Santa arrives, prompting parents to say, “Do you hear what he said? We got to go to bed early.” NORAD’s annual tracking of Santa has endured since the Cold War, predating ugly sweater parties and Mariah Carey classics. The tradition continues regardless of government shutdowns, such as the one in 2018, and this year. Here’s how it began and why the phones keep ringing. It started with a child’s accidental phone call in 1955. The Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears advertisement that encouraged children to call Santa, listing a phone number. A boy called. But he reached the Continental Air Defense Command, now NORAD, a joint U.S. and Canadian effort to spot potential enemy attacks. Tensions were growing with the Soviet Union, along with anxieties about nuclear war. Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up an emergency-only “red phone” and was greeted by a tiny voice that began to recite a Christmas wish list. “He went on a little bit, and he takes a breath, then says, ‘Hey, you’re not Santa,’” Shoup told The Associated Press in 1999. Realizing an explanation would be lost on the youngster, Shoup summoned a deep, jolly voice and replied, “Ho, ho, ho! Yes, I am Santa Claus. Have you been a good boy?” Shoup said he learned from the boy’s mother that Sears mistakenly printed the top-secret number. He hung up, but the phone soon rang again with a young girl reciting her Christmas list. Fifty calls a day followed, he said. In the pre-digital age, the agency used a 60-by-80 foot plexiglass map of North America to track unidentified objects. A staff member jokingly drew Santa and his sleigh over the North Pole. The tradition was born. “Note to the kiddies,” began an AP story from Colorado Springs on Dec. 23, 1955. “Santa Claus Friday was assured safe passage into the United States by the Continental Air Defense Command.” In a likely reference to the Soviets, the article noted that Santa was guarded against possible attack from “those who do not believe in Christmas.” Some grinchy journalists have nitpicked Shoup’s story, questioning whether a misprint or a misdial prompted the boy’s call. In 2014, tech news site Gizmodo cited an International News Service story from Dec. 1, 1955, about a child’s call to Shoup. Published in the Pasadena Independent, the article said the child reversed two digits in the Sears number. “When a childish voice asked COC commander Col. Harry Shoup, if there was a Santa Claus at the North Pole, he answered much more roughly than he should — considering the season: ‘There may be a guy called Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he’s not the one I worry about coming from that direction,’” Shoup said in the brief piece. In 2015, The Atlantic magazine doubted the flood of calls to the secret line, while noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations. Phone calls aside, Shoup was indeed media savvy. In 1986, he told the Scripps Howard News Service that he recognized an opportunity when a staff member drew Santa on the glass map in 1955. A lieutenant colonel promised to have it erased. But Shoup said, “You leave it right there,” and summoned public affairs. Shoup wanted to boost the morale of the troops and the public alike. “Why, it made the military look good — like we’re not all a bunch of snobs who don’t care about Santa Claus,” he said. Shoup died in 2009. His children told the StoryCorps podcast in 2014 that it was a misprinted Sears ad that prompted the phone calls. “And later in life he got letters from all over the world,” said Terri Van Keuren, a daughter. “People saying ‘Thank you, Colonel, for having, you know, this sense of humor.’” NORAD’s tradition is one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa story that have endured, according to Gerry Bowler, a Canadian historian who spoke to the AP in 2010. Ad campaigns or movies try to “kidnap” Santa for commercial purposes, said Bowler, who wrote “Santa Claus: A Biography.” NORAD, by contrast, takes an essential element of Santa’s story and views it through a technological lens. In a recent interview with the AP, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham explained that NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada —- known as the northern warning system — are the first to detect Santa. He leaves the North Pole and typically heads for the international dateline in the Pacific Ocean. From there he moves west, following the night. “That’s when the satellite systems we use to track and identify targets of interest start to kick in every single day,” Cunningham said. “A probably little-known fact is that Rudolph’s nose that glows red emanates a lot of heat. And so those satellites track (Santa) through that heat source.” NORAD has an app and website, www.noradsanta.org , to track Santa on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight, Mountain Standard Time. People can call 1-877-HI-NORAD to ask live operators about Santa’s location from 6 a.m. to midnight, Mountain Time.Netflix valuation to enter ‘danger zone’, warn analysts, despite being ‘overweight’; Target price hiked to $1000

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NoneBreaking Out: 3 Low-Cap Altcoins You Can’t Afford to Miss Right Now!When Jimmy Carter came to Hickory in March 1976, he was one person in a large field of candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president. U.S. President Jimmy Carter visits Winston-Salem on April 2, 1979. The future president’s visit to the region included a stop in Morganton where he "burst into fluent Spanish to the surprise of a Morganton crowd and accepted a basket of peanuts from a Girl Scout, ‘That are about as good as the ones I grow,’” according to Hickory Daily Record reporting from the time. He then came to Hickory where he addressed a crowd at Lenoir-Rhyne University — then known as Lenoir-Rhyne College — estimated at 1,600 people. The future president received a favorable response from the crowd, particularly after he said: “Don’t vote for me unless you want to see the entire executive branch overhauled completely.” Other topics of Carter’s remarks included a pledge to prevent the damming of the New River and to beat primary rival and Alabama Gov. George Wallace in the North Carolina and Florida primaries, which he would go on to do. Habitat for Humanity of Catwba Valley Executive Director Mitzi Gellman holds a photo of former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn she took in 2017 in Atlanta during the International Conference for Habitat for Humanity. Gellman credited the former president for helping raise the organization's profile. Mitzi Gellman, now the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of the Catawba Valley, was among the 1,600 people who showed up for the rally. She was a high school student at the time who took photographs of the rally. Gellman spoke about how much pride she took as a 17-year-old in seeing someone from the South leading a serious campaign for president. “I just was fascinated by someone at the time who was from the South running for president,” Gellman said. “I used to tell people, you know, ‘He sounds like us when he talks and I like that.’” President Jimmy Carter speaks to an audience at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory in March 1976. Another Hickory resident, Doug Auer, also noted the significance of having a candidate from the South. During the 1976 election cycle, Auer was at two events with Carter in his role as a member of the Democratic Party committee of Tompkins County in upstate New York. President Jimmy Carter (center), makes remarks to the press behind Wingate Hall/Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University on March 17, 1978. Flanking Carter are U.S. Rep. Steve Neal (D-NC), left, and N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt. Carter made an address in Wait Chapel concerning the threat of the Soviet Union. Auer said people who lived in the Northeast were arrogant about the South. They did not think much about the South and their perceptions were shaped by television shows such as “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Hee Haw,” he said. He said Carter helped challenge some of those preconceptions. Regarding his own initial impression of seeing Carter, Auer said: “He was articulate. I was like, ‘Wow, didn’t expect that.’" Auer added, “The arrogance of the North still exists to this day. I mean, there’s no question that sort of the anti-elitism of Southern, white, rural Americans is still born out of that age where we didn’t really pay attention.” FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter uses a hand saw to even an edge as he works on a Habitat for Humanity home in Pikeville, Ky., June 16, 1997. Gellman also credited Carter with putting “the mission of Habitat on the map” through his decades-long involvement with the organization. “He’s definitely made just a huge impact on fundraising and visibility, and at the end of the day it’s all about how many houses, how many families can we move from poverty housing to some kind of standardized, decent housing,” Gellman said. Bethlehem resident Jo Anne Flick discusses, reads from letter from Jimmy Carter. Jo Anne Flick holds a letter with a message from former President Jimmy Carter which was written to her late husband, The Rev. Donald Flick. The Flicks had several interactions with Carter over the years, including a trip to South Africa to work on Habitat for Humanity building project. The Flicks were residents of Bethlehem in Alexander County. Kevin Griffin is the former City of Hickory reporter at the Hickory Daily Record. He currently works for the Greensboro News & Record. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

New Jersey gubernatorial candidates offered various reactions to the mysterious drone sightings over the Garden State . Why It Matters Recent drone sightings across New Jersey and other eastern states have sparked concerns, as little information about what they may be has been made public. The Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assured Americans in a statement last Thursday that there was "no evidence" that the sightings pose a public safety or security threat or have a foreign origin. The sightings come as the race to replace New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is 11 months out . The sightings present an opportunity for both Democratic and Republican candidates to show how they might lead the state in a potential crisis. Historically, whichever party isn't holding the presidency does well in New Jersey's gubernatorial elections, giving Democrats optimism about holding the office next year, but the state shifted to the right in this year's elections, with President-elect Donald Trump losing it by only about 6 percentage points. What to Know Both Democrats and Republicans running in New Jersey's governor race have commented on the drones. In a statement on Monday, Representative Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who has led early primary polls, released a "drone plan of action" to locate and track drones flying over the state, increase information available to police and increase communications about the drones with Garden State residents. She wrote that she is "incredibly frustrated with the lack of coordination and communication from agencies" amid the sightings. "Right now, our leaders need to be acting in accordance with a unified plan, and speaking with one voice in order to protect our national security, keep New Jerseyans safe, and ensure state and local authorities have the information and tools they need to take action," she said. Last week, Representative Josh Gottheimer, another Democrat running for governor, urged the FBI and DHS to allow state and local law enforcement to take down the drones safely. "New Jersey cannot become the wild west for drone activity — and Americans shouldn't have to worry about what's flying overhead, especially as technology like AI advances at an unprecedented clip," Gottheimer said in a statement. He also told reporters on Monday that the state needs a "proper system to track the activity" as residents "shouldn't have to worry about what's overhead." Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican leading early primary polls, told Fox News last week that he was "very, very fearful" that somebody could "take matters into their own hands." "You can't tell me with the resources we have available to us in New Jersey, McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix, Coast Guard, International Guard, the most well-equipped police force in the country, that we can't get answers? This is ridiculous," he said, criticizing Murphy and the White House for taking what he views as a "laissez-faire" approach to the drones. Newsweek reached out to each of the politicians' campaigns for comment via email. What People Are Saying Others have also responded to the drone sightings. Governor Phil Murphy on X: "Tonight I met with @NJSP officials and radar technicians at the Regional Operations & Intelligence Center who are surveying the area for unmanned aircraft systems. The public deserves clear answers — we will keep pushing the federal government for more information and resources." President-elect Donald Trump during a press conference: "The government knows what is happening. Our military knows where they took off from. If it's a garage they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went. For some reason, they don't want to comment. I think they'd be better off saying what it is. Our military know,s and our president knows." The FBI previously told Newsweek : "The FBI is aware of reported sightings of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)—commonly referred to as drones—observed flying in multiple locations over the past several weeks. The FBI remains engaged with our federal, state, local, and tribal partners to share information and protect the public." New York Governor Kathy Hochul, in a statement : " In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State." What Happens Next Pressure for officials to disclose more information about the drones is expected to continue over the coming days, while speculation about where the drones are coming from may continue growing in the absence of definitive information. Federal law enforcement has maintained that the drones do not pose a threat to the public.WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors’ lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. The justices heard arguments in November in Meta’s bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place. The high court dismissed the company’s appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward. Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users’ personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump’s first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016. Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company’s shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say. Related Story: Meta’s Previous Settlements Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users. Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign. 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