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Small Business Ideas

Logan Airport braces for record Thanksgiving travel surge [Video]

THE RAILS AND IN THE SKIES. MID-MORNING IN TERMINAL A AT LOGAN. ITS A TYPICAL TUESDAY, BUT PREPARATIONS ARE ALREADY UNDERWAY FOR WHAT COULD BE A RECORD BREAKING HOLIDAY TRAVEL SEASON. TOM. ITS GOING TO PUT A WAIT ON. WELL EXPLAIN WHAT THIS IS IN A MOMENT, BUT FIRST, HERES WHAT MASSPORT IS EXPECTING. WERE GOING TO SEE WE EXPECT ALMOST 1.2 MILLION PEOPLE TO COME THROUGH THE AIRPORT STARTING THIS FRIDAY THROUGH THE MONDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING. ITS AN UPTICK FROM WHAT WE SAW LAST YEAR AND EVEN OVER OUR RECORD YEAR OF 2019. ITS NOT JUST AIR TRAVEL. HIGHWAYS WILL ALSO BE CONGESTED. MASSDOT HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATOR JONATHAN GULLIVER SAYS THE BUSY WEEK ON THE ROADS BEGINS EARLIER THAN IT USED TO. WE EXPECT THAT MONDAY, STARTING AS EARLY AS 2 P.M., YOULL START SEEING MUCH MORE HEAVY TRAFFIC THAN USUAL. THAT WILL PEAK ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY. SUNDAY AND MONDAY WILL BE BUSY WITH RETURN TRAVEL TO JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAY RUSH. MASSPORT IS PROMOTING THE NEW FLY LOGAN APP, WHICH INCLUDES A PARKING RESERVATION FEATURE SO YOU CAN BOOK AND PAY FOR PARKING IN ADVANCE. WELL MAKE SURE THE SCALE READS ZERO ONLY ON FIVE INSPECTORS. BRIAN OLIVER AND TOM BENSON FROM THE CITY OF BOSTON, INSPECTIONAL SERVICES ARE DOING AN ANNUAL TEST OF ALL THE SCALES AT LOGAN. SO THIS SCALE ACTUALLY PASSES TO MAKE SURE TRAVELERS ARE NOT OVERCHARGED. ISD COMMISSIONER TONYA DEL RIO HAS THIS ADVICE FOR ANYONE CHECKING A BAG ANY TIME OF THE YEAR. MAKE SURE, JUST LIKE IN A GAS PUMP, THAT THE SCALES MARKING ZERO WHEN YOU FIRST LOOK AT IT, BEFORE YOU PLACE YOUR BAGGAGE ON IT. IN ADDITION TO THAT, ISD RECOMMENDS THAT YOU WEIGH YOUR LUGGAGE ON ONE OF THE SATELLITE SCALES AROUND THE TERMINAL SO THAT YOU HAVE A BALLPARK IDEA OF WHAT YOUR BAGGAGE WEIGHS BEFORE YOU CHECK IN FOR YOUR FLIGHT. REPORTING LIVE IN LOGA

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Home Based Business

Sculpture depicts May 26 tornado that forever changed Rogers [Video]

We are just a week away from the 6-month anniversary of the May 26 storm, something that devastated several communities in our area. People in Rogers certainly remember the violent storm on Memorial Day weekend. Some are hoping a new sculpture will help the community heal in the long run. The sculpture is known as “Tornado Town.” It depicts the tornado that tore through Rogers on May 26 and the aftermath that followed. It’s a vision that started almost immediately after the storm. “Because our power was out for 5 days, and I had to drive around every morning, looking for coffee,” found object metal sculptor Tom Flynn said. “And every day, I’d have to drive by this trampoline wrapped around a power pole, and it just got me to thinking.” That led to a social media post, asking for trampoline spring donations. In all, 475 springs were collected to create the 9-foot tall tornado replica. It hangs from part of a scrapped, shortwave antenna as it bears down on Rogers. “Usually, in a museum when you have something hanging, it’s hanging from the ceiling,” wood mixed-media metal sculpture artist Michael Pantzer said. “So, since we didn’t know where this might be in the future, we had to come up with ok, it has to have its own structure.”The tornado replica actually weighs about 200 pounds, even though it may not look like it. The entire display, including the tornado and the aftermath, weighs nearly 500 pounds. Flynn and Pantzer say they spent about 500 hours constructing it. “Each spring had to be soaked in a vinegar to get the galvanize off of it and then stretched in a forge and shaped to fit this,” Flynn said. “That’s about 500 hours.” Leaf rakes were used to display downed trees. Actual damaged property was used to build the structures seen in the display. The focus now shifts to finding a permanent home for the tornado sculpture. A place where people can reflect on the lasting impact of what happened on May 26. “We have climbed up there,” Pantzer said. “We have shook on it, just to make sure if it is in public place, it actually is able to hold up to some person who has a crazy idea on it.”As soon as a location for the sculpture is announced, 40/29 News will update you.

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Small Business Ideas

G20 summit calls for more aid to Gaza and an end to the war in Ukraine [Video]

Brazil’s president opened the second day of a meeting of the world’s 20 major economies Tuesday by calling for more action to slow global warming, saying developed nations must speed up their initiatives to reduce harmful emissions.President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva’s comments came the day after representatives of the G20 nations endorsed a joint statement that called for a pact to combat hunger, more aid for Gaza, an end to the war in Ukraine and other goals, amid global uncertainty surrounding the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.The president of Brazil, the host of the two-day meeting, opened Tuesdays session focusing on environmental challenges, saying developed nations should consider moving their 2050 emission goals forward to 2040 or 2045.The G20 is responsible for 80% of greenhouse effect emissions, he said. Even if we are not walking the same speed, we can all take one more step.In addition to a $325 million contribution for the World Bank clean technology fund, U.S. President Joe Biden has announced a series of climate and development related initiatives. But many of them would require buy-in from Trump, who opposes such projects and has called the climate crisis a hoax.Biden has also urged G20 members to each commit $2 billion to replenish a pandemic fund established in 2022. Biden has pledged the U.S. will provide up to $667 million by 2026, but that would require Congressional approval.Condemnation of wars but without casting blameThe joint statement approved Monday night called for urgent humanitarian assistance and better protection of civilians caught up in conflicts in the Middle East, plus affirmed the Palestinian right to self-determination.The war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who dont distinguish between civilians and combatants when counting the dead. More than 3,500 people also have been killed in Lebanon due to Israels offensive against Hezbollah, according to Lebanons Health Ministry.The document didn’t mention the suffering of Israel, which is not a G20 member, nor the 100 or so Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.Looming large at the meeting on Monday was news of Biden easing of restrictions on Ukraines use of longer-range U.S. missiles to allow it to strike more deeply inside Russia also played into the meetings.The United States strongly supports Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity. Everyone around this table in my view should, as well, Biden said.Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t attend, and instead sent Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Putin has avoided such summits since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant that obliges member states to arrest him.The G20 declaration highlighted the human suffering in Ukraine and called for peace, but didn’t name Russia.The declaration avoids pointing the finger at the culprits, said Paulo Velasco, an international relations professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. It doesnt make any critical mention of Israel or Russia, but it highlights the dramatic humanitarian situations in both cases.The entire declaration lacks specificity, Velasco said, calling it a declaration of goodwill with “very few concrete, tangible measures.Push to tax global billionaires, fight global hunger and reform the UNThe declaration also suggested taxing global billionaires, which would affect about 3,000 people around the world.Brazils government stressed that Lulas launch of a global alliance against hunger and poverty on Monday was as important as the final G20 declaration. The alliance is backed by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and, as of Monday, 82 nations had signed onto the plan, Brazils government said.Leaders also pledged to work for transformative reform of the U.N. Security Council so that it aligns with the realities and demands of the 21st century, makes it more representative, inclusive, efficient, effective, democratic and accountable.Virtually all countries agree that nearly eight decades after the United Nations was established, the Security Council charged with maintaining international peace and security should be expanded to reflect the 21st century world and include more voices.The declaration doesnt specify the shape that reform should take.Argentina’s objectionsThe clause on billionaire taxes was included despite opposition from Argentina, as was another promoting gender equality, according to an official from Brazil and one from another G20 country, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to speak publicly.Argentina did sign the G20 declaration, but had issues with references to the U.N.s 2030 sustainable development agenda, which right-wing President Javier Milei calls a supranational program of a socialist nature.Milei also objected to the idea that governments should do more to fight hunger, and said efforts to regulate hate speech on social media would infringe on national sovereignty.Milei, an outspoken critic of Lula, has recently adopted a Trump-like role as a spoiler in multilateral talks.Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university and think tank, warned that Argentina’s last-minute approval of the joint statement “gave us a taste of what could come once Donald Trump takes office as U.S. president again. When that happens, Milei will not be embarrassed about troubling international negotiations.___Aamer Madhani in Rio de Janeiro, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, and Isabel DeBre in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.