Preliminary data indicates Black Friday sales got off to a roaring start this year, with consumers shopping earlier and online sales increasing significantly over last year.
Tag Archives: national
A Tale of Two Priests
The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church traditionally couch even the harshest disagreements in decorous, ecclesiastical language. But it didn’t take a decoder ring to figure out what Rome-based Archbishop Raymond Burke meant in a late-September address when he charged Boston Cardinal Sen O’Malley with being under the influence of Satan, “the father of lies.” Burke’s broadside at O’Malley was inspired by the Cardinal’s decision to permit and preside over a funeral Mass for the late Senator Ted Kennedy.
Room Service and a Shovel: The Rise of Voluntourism
Picking up trash and pulling weeds may not sound terribly posh, but at a growing number of high-end resorts, where rooms often cost $400 or $500 a night, these activities are becoming yet another hotel amenity.
Berets and Baguettes? France Rethinks Its National Identity
For decades, the French considered it taboo to question whether immigration and foreign influences were diluting France’s social and cultural character. Indeed, the topic was considered so toxic that no one in France besides extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen would even take it up in public
Engineers: Bay Bridge woes show need for critical action
Joe Marshall was cruising across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge when a piece of steel and a giant cable crashed down. He’s worried about what he calls “fracture-critical” bridges: roughly 460 bridges across the country that are in dire need of repairs.
Excerpt: ‘The Audacity to Win’ by David Plouffe
In a new memoir, The Audacity to Win, David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama’s 2008 race for the White House, provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse inside the campaign. Here’s an excerpt.Agony.
Bombs injured kids, exposed weaknesses
The force of the blast threw Rawnaq against the wall of her office at the Ministry of Justice. She instantly thought of her two children in the day care center just two floors below.
McCain: Why we can — and must — win the war in Afghanistan
For the first time since September 11, 2001, America is having a vigorous national debate about how to succeed in Afghanistan. This debate is entirely worth having.
Clinton arrives in Pakistan to write new chapter in relations
The U.S. secretary of state arrived Wednesday in nuclear-armed Pakistan, a country hit hard by terrorism, economic crisis and rising sentiment that it is paying too high a price for its partnership with the United States in fighting extremists.
Kids missing after Malaysia bridge collapse
One child is dead and two others are missing in Malaysia, after a suspension bridge they were crossing collapsed, the Bernama national news agency said Tuesday.