Gavin Newsom and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller swap their hairstyles? AdvertisementBut hope and humor are what make life worth living, and President Trump makes Kissinger seem as inoffensive as Bluey. Rick Caruso decides not to run for California governor or mayor of Los Angeles when he realizes JD Vance has a better chance of winning than he does. Instead, the developer challenges L.A. City Councilmember Traci Park and easily beats her by spending $538 million. NASA announces that a meteor is headed toward Los Angeles, leading Mayor Karen Bass to successfully order the evacuation of the city for everyone except her.

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Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle. Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you love going in circles. NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal? Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal. NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Round and Round.

A Barnes & Noble bookstore is slated to open in Turlock in May of 2026, filling a vacancy for city bibliophiles that has existed since Lightly Used Books closed its doors in March. Barnes & Noble has a location in Modesto, and had one in Merced until 2024. Shortly before the pandemic, Barnes & Noble seemed destined for a fate similar to Borders, as online giant Amazon grew to dominate the bookselling business. According to a report in Forbes magazine, Barnes & Noble reported a loss of $125 million on revenue of $3.7 billion for the 2018 fiscal year, and lost more than $1 billion in market value since 2014. The Barnes & Noble reins, according to Forbes, were handed to Waterstones CEO James Daunt, who nursed Barnes & Noble back to health and opened more than 60 new stores this year, with plans to open the same number in 2026.

Right-wing talking heads like Megyn Kelly and Mark Levin once reserved their sharpest slings for liberals, immigrants and Joe Biden. Kelly, a former Fox News anchor and NBC host, has been engaged in an increasingly ugly social-media shootout with her former Fox News colleague Mark Levin, the longtime host of the syndicated The Mark Levin Show and star of Fox News’ weekend staple Life, Liberty & Levin. “You’re just upset bc I’m not afraid of you or your baseless slurs,” she quickly clapped back on her former Fox News colleague. At Fox, where Kelly once served as a popular primetime anchor, the network’s usually voluble anchors have stayed silent as their onetime colleagues battle it out. Who you gonna root for in that fight?” one longtime Fox News producer wryly tells The Hollywood Reporter.

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Advertisement“I think this rollout, first of all, was never meant to be a rollout,” she told Murray. AdvertisementWhile mounting pressure from his own base and bipartisan support for the transparency act led Trump to sign the bill into law, his administration has failed to meet the 30-day deadline, as only a fraction of the Epstein files have been released. Greene said Trump told her his “friends will get hurt” if she does. There’s no monogram.”“It’s just wild to me,” Bensky added about his dismissal of an Oval Office invite. So when we say ‘the people’s house,’ you’re talking about survivors.

AdvertisementEven though the federal minimum wage remains just $7.25 per hour, a majority of states now require employers to pay a higher rate. That strategy has been successful in several red states, including Nebraska and Missouri, where Republican politicians have been reluctant to raise the minimum wage due to business lobbying. Referendums on the minimum wage tend to pass easily due to their popularity even among conservative voters. Twenty states are on their way to a $15 minimum wage if they haven’t reached it already. “Right now, the federal minimum wage, if you index it for inflation, or relative to inflation, it’s the lowest level since the 1940s,” Hawley told HuffPost at the time.

A worker boards up a Sephora store off Colorado Boulevard ahead of the Rose Parade on Wednesday. Lightning typically seeks the highest conductive point, raising concerns in large open areas with bleacher-seated crowds and steel-framed parade floats. (National Weather Service)Pasadena spokesperson Lisa Derderian said that parade organizers were preparing responses to different weather scenarios and would have a meteorologist present during the parade. Parade organizers have urged spectators to bring a rain jacket or poncho instead. AdvertisementUrban flooding remains a risk in Pasadena and throughout Los Angeles, Lewis said.

Wandering wallaby's escape ends at Walmart Rex was missing for nearly a day before being returned to the petting zoo and animal sanctuary in Williamstown, New Jersey, from which he escaped.

Starbucks – the unfathomably woke coffee empire that takes up 90% of local real estate – just did America a massive favor on the eve of 2026. I'm giving Starbucks props, which is so against everything I stand for I can't even believe what I'm saying. Now, to be fair, equally woke ChatGPT tells me that there are, roughly, 17,000 Starbucks locations in America as of Dec. 2025. But that doesn't change the fact that Starbucks is overpriced, way too strong of a brew, and, again, insufferably woke. Fair is fair, and I have to be fair here.

There’s also a populist backlash, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recently laying down a marker by proposing a total moratorium on the construction of the data centers powering the AI boom. AI companies and researchers aligned with this view have launched their own nonprofit groups and super PACs, and are expected to spend $50 million on the midterms. AdvertisementBut it’s not just the tech industry that could view opposition to data centers as a red flag. The assemblyman also has AI industry supporters of his own ― some of whom helped raise money for Hochul while she was considering the RAISE Act ― and he could soon see support from Public First. AdvertisementThe AI industry’s ads attacking Bores allude to this split, linking supporters of regulation to a particularly infamous adherent of effective altruism.

Judy Faulkner, founder and CEO of Verona, Wis.-based Epic, has been named to Forbes‘ 2025 list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” for the second consecutive year. The 22nd annual list highlights women across countries and industries. Selection is based on four key metrics: money, media, impact and spheres of influence, according to Forbes. Of the 100 women featured, 17 appeared on the list for the first time this year, which was published Dec. 10. The company has never raised venture capital or made an acquisition, and Ms. Faulkner’s net worth is $7.8 billion, according to Forbes.

Denmark's postal service ends letter delivery after 400 yearsDenmark’s national postal service, PostNord, has delivered its final letter, marking the end of a 400-year tradition as digital communication replaces physical mail. The move makes Denmark the first country to conclude that letter delivery is no longer essential—or economically viable—in the digital age.

DHS & FBI focus resources on Minnesota childcare fraud investigationThe FBI and the Department of Homeland Security say they are surging resources into Minnesota to investigate allegations of fraud there, including at child care centers, days after YouTube content creator Nick Shirley, who has created anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim videos in the past, posted a viral video in which he claimed to find widespread fraud at Somali-run child care centers. CNN's Holmes Lybrand reports.