ReportWire

Tag: Occasions

  • Report: Woman attacks 6 deputies at New Orleans airport

    Report: Woman attacks 6 deputies at New Orleans airport

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    Officials say a woman bit, kicked and spat on six sheriff’s deputies while refusing to exit a plane at an airport in Louisiana early Thanksgiving Day, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported Saturday.

    Authorities said the 25-year-old woman attacked Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputies at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, according to local news reports.

    Deputies were responding to Spirit airline workers’ requests to remove the woman, who had reportedly grown irate and asked nearby passengers who she assumed to be Latino whether they were smuggling cocaine. Paramedics treated the deputies on site, according to local news reports.

    Police charged the woman with six counts of battery on a police officer, three counts of disturbing the peace, one count of resisting arrest by force and another count of remaining after forbidden, according to reports. The woman was released from Jefferson Parish Correctional Center later that day after paying $10,750 bail and is scheduled for a Jan. 23 court date.

    Reports of passengers’ bad behavior have skyrocketed since air travel has increased after early pandemic shutdowns.

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  • National Christmas Tree blazes to life with Biden lighting

    National Christmas Tree blazes to life with Biden lighting

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    WASHINGTON — “Five, four, three, two, one!” and the towering National Christmas Tree blazed with bright color Wednesday evening as President Joe Biden marked a century-old American tradition leading the lighting near the White House.

    The president, joined by first lady Jill Biden and host LL Cool J, led the festive crowd braving damp, chilly weather in a countdown before the tree was illuminated.

    Biden delivered brief remarks on American unity and promise, concluding exuberantly as Jill Biden blew a kiss, “From the Biden family to you, Merry Christmas, America!”

    The tradition dates back to 1923 when President Calvin Coolidge walked from the White House to the Ellipse to light a 48-foot fir tree decorated with 2,500 electric bulbs in red, white and green, as a local choir and a quartet from the U.S. Marine Band performed. The lighting ceremony has been carried out year after year—drawing thousands to Washington—with a few exceptions during times of war and national tragedy.

    The current 27-foot white fir was planted just last year.

    Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff joined the Bidens to watch some of the evening’s musical performances.

    In 2020, due to COVID-19 health concerns, the lighting did not have a live audience. After President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson postponed the ceremony until days before Christmas as the nation observed a thirty-day period of national mourning. And the tradition was paused from 1941 to 1945 during World War II.

    CBS will broadcast the tree lighting ceremony on the evening of Dec. 18, one week before Christmas. This year’s ceremony included performances by the U.S. Marine Band, Ariana DeBose, Shania Twain, the Estefans and others.

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  • Asian faiths try to save swastika symbol corrupted by Hitler

    Asian faiths try to save swastika symbol corrupted by Hitler

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    Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.

    “My decoration said ‘Happy Diwali’ and had a swastika on it,” said Deo, a physician, who was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights.

    The equilateral cross with its legs bent at right angles is a millennia-old sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism that represents peace and good fortune, and was also used widely by Indigenous people worldwide in a similar vein.

    But in the West, this symbol is often equated to Adolf Hitler’s hakenkreuz or the hooked cross – a symbol of hate that evokes the trauma of the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany. White supremacists, neo-Nazi groups and vandals have continued to use Hitler’s symbol to stoke fear and hate.

    Over the past decade, as the Asian diaspora has grown in North America, the call to reclaim the swastika as a sacred symbol has become louder. These minority faith communities are being joined by Native American elders whose ancestors have long used the symbol as part of healing rituals.

    Deo believes she and people of other faiths should not have to sacrifice or apologize for a sacred symbol simply because it is often conflated with its tainted version.

    “To me, that’s intolerable,” she said.

    Yet to others, the idea that the swastika could be redeemed is unthinkable.

    Holocaust survivors in particular could be re-traumatized when they see the symbol, said Shelley Rood Wernick, managing director of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Center on Holocaust Survivor Care.

    “One of the hallmarks of trauma is that it shatters a person’s sense of safety,” said Wernick, whose grandparents met at a displaced persons’ camp in Austria after World War II. “The swastika was a representation of the concept that stood for the annihilation of an entire people.”

    For her grandparents and the elderly survivors she serves, Wernick said, the symbol is the physical representation of the horrors they experienced.

    “I recognize the swastika as a symbol of hate.”

    New York-based Steven Heller, a design historian and author of “Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?”, said the swastika is “a charged symbol for so many whose loved ones were criminally and brutally murdered.” Heller’s great-grandfather perished during the Holocaust.

    “A rose by any other name is a rose,” he said. “In the end it’s how a symbol affects you visually and emotionally. For many, it creates a visceral impact and that’s a fact.”

    ———

    The symbol itself dates back to prehistoric times. The word “swastika” has Sanskrit roots and means “the mark of well being.” It has been used in prayers of the Rig Veda, the oldest of Hindu scriptures. In Buddhism, the symbol is known as “manji” and signifies the Buddha’s footsteps. It is used to mark the location of Buddhist temples. In China it’s called Wàn, and denotes the universe or the manifestation and creativity of God. The swastika is carved into the Jains’ emblem representing the four types of birth an embodied soul might attain until it is eventually liberated from the cycle of birth and death. In the Zoroastrian faith, it represents the four elements – water, fire, air and earth.

    In India, the ubiquitous symbol can be seen on thresholds, drawn with vermillion and turmeric, and displayed on shop doors, vehicles, food packaging and at festivals or special occasions. Elsewhere, it has been found in the Roman catacombs, ruins in Greece and Iran, and in Ethiopian and Spanish churches.

    The swastika also was a Native American symbol used by many southwestern tribes, particularly the Navajo and Hopi. To the Navajo, it represented a whirling log, a sacred image used in healing rituals and sand paintings. Swastika motifs can be found in items carbon-dated to 15,000 years ago on display at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine as well as on artifacts recovered from the ruins of the ancient Indus Valley civilizations that flourished between 2600 and 1900 BC.

    The symbol was revived during the 19th century excavations in the ancient city of Troy by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who connected it to a shared Aryan culture across Europe and Asia. Historians believe it is this notion that made the symbol appealing to nationalist groups in Germany including the Nazi Party, which adopted it in 1920.

    In North America, in the early 20th century, swastikas made their way into ceramic tiles, architectural features, military insignia, team logos, government buildings and marketing campaigns. Coca-Cola issued a swastika pendant. Carlsberg beer bottles came etched with swastikas. The Boy Scouts handed out badges with the symbol until 1940.

    ———

    The Rev. T.K. Nakagaki said he was shocked when he first heard the swastika referred to as a “universal symbol of evil” at an interfaith conference. The New York-based Buddhist priest, who was ordained in the 750-year-old Jodoshinshu tradition of Japanese Buddhism, says when he hears the word “swastika” or “manji,” he thinks of a Buddhist temple because that is what it represents in Japan where he grew up.

    “You cannot call it a symbol of evil or (deny) other facts that have existed for hundreds of years, just because of Hitler,” he said.

    In his 2018 book titled “The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate,” Nakagaki posits that Hitler referred to the symbol as the hooked cross or hakenkreuz. Nakagaki’s research also shows the symbol was called the hakenkreuz in U.S. newspapers until the early 1930s, when the word swastika replaced it.

    Nakagaki believes more dialogue is needed even though it will be uncomfortable.

    “This is peace work, too,” he said.

    ———

    The Coalition of Hindus of North America is one of several faith groups leading the effort to differentiate the swastika from the hakenkreuz. They supported a new California law that criminalizes the public display of the hakenkreuz — making an exception for the sacred swastika.

    Pushpita Prasad, a spokesperson for the Hindu group, called it a victory, but said the legislation unfortunately labels both Hitler’s symbol and the sacred one as swastikas.

    This is “not just an esoteric battle,” Prasad said, but an issue with real-life consequences for immigrant communities, whose members have resorted to self-censoring.

    Vikas Jain, a Cleveland physician, said he and his wife hid images containing the symbol when their children’s friends visited because “they wouldn’t know the difference.” Jain says he stands in solidarity with the Jewish community, but is sad that he cannot freely practice his Jain faith “because of this lack of understanding.”

    He noted that the global Jain emblem has a swastika in it, but the U.S. Jain community deliberately removed it from its seal. Jain wishes people would differentiate between their symbol of peace and Hitler’s swastika just as they do with the hateful burning cross symbol and Christianity’s sacred crucifix.

    ———

    Before World War II, the name “Swastika” was so popular in North America it was used to mark numerous locations. Swastika Park, a housing subdivision in Miami, was created in 1917, and still has that name. In 2020, the hamlet of Swastika, nestled in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, decided to keep its name after town councilors determined that it predated WWII and referred to the prosperity symbol.

    Swastika Acres, the name of a Denver housing subdivision, can be traced to the Denver Swastika Land Company. It was founded in 1908, and changed its name to Old Cherry Hills in 2019 after a unanimous city council vote. In September, the town council in Puslinch, Ontario, voted to change the name of the street Swastika Trail to Holly Trail.

    Next month, the Oregon Geographic Names Board, which supervises the naming of geographic features within the state, is set to vote to rename Swastika Mountain, a 4,197-foot butte in the Umpqua National Forest. Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society, said although its name can only be found on a map, it made news in January when two stranded hikers were rescued from the mountain.

    “A Eugene resident saw that news report and asked why on earth was this mountain called that in this day and age,” said Tymchuk. He said the mountain got its name in the 1900s from a neighboring ranch whose owner branded his cattle with the swastika.

    Tymchuk said the names board is set to rename Mount Swastika as Mount Halo after Chief Halito, who led the Yoncalla Kalapuya tribe in the 1800s.

    “Most people we’ve heard from associate it with Nazism,” Tymchuk said.

    ———

    For the Navajo people, the symbol, shaped like a swirl, represents the universe and life, said Patricia Anne Davis, an elder of the Choctaw and Dineh nations.

    “It was a spiritual, esoteric symbol that was woven into the Navajo rugs, until Hitler took something good and beautiful and made it twisted,” she said.

    In the early 20th century, traders encouraged Native artists to use it on their crafts; it appeared often on silver work, textiles and pottery. But after it became a Nazi symbol, representatives from the Hopi, Navajo, Apache and Tohono O’odham tribes signed a proclamation in 1940 banning its use.

    Davis views the original symbol that was used by many Indigenous people as one of peace, healing and goodness.

    “I understand the wounds and trauma that Jewish people experience when they see that symbol,” she said. “All I can do is affirm its true meaning — the one that never changed across cultures, languages and history. It’s time to restore the authentic meaning of that symbol.”

    ———

    Like Nakagaki, Jeff Kelman, a New Hampshire-based Holocaust historian, believes the hakenkreuz and swastika were distinct. Kelman who takes this message to Jewish communities, is optimistic about the symbol’s redemption because he sees his message resonating with many in his community, including Holocaust survivors.

    “When they learn an Indian girl could be named Swastika and she could be harassed in school, they understand how they should see these as two separate symbols,” he said. “No one in the Jewish community wants to see Hitler’s legacy continue to harm people.”

    Greta Elbogen, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor whose grandmother and cousins were killed at Auschwitz, says she was surprised to learn about the symbol’s sacred past. Elbogen was born in 1938 when the Nazis forcibly annexed Austria. She went into hiding with relatives in Hungary, immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 and became a social worker.

    This new knowledge about the swastika, Elbogen said, feels liberating; she no longer fears a symbol that was used to terrorize.

    “Hearing that the swastika is beautiful and sacred to so many people is a blessing,” she said. “It’s time to let go of the past and look to the future.”

    ———

    For many, the swastika evokes a visceral reaction unlike any other, said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism who for the past 22 years has maintained the group’s hate symbols database.

    “The only symbol that would even come close to the swastika is the symbol of a hooded Klansman,” he said.

    The ADL explains the sanctity of the swastika in many faiths and cultures, and there are other lesser-known religious symbols that must be similarly contextualized, Pitcavage said. One is the Celtic cross – a traditional Christian symbol used for religious purposes and to symbolize Irish pride – which is used by a number of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.

    Similarly, Thor’s hammer is an important symbol for those who follow neo-Norse religions such as Asatru. But white supremacists have adopted it as well, often creating racist versions of the hammer by incorporating hate symbols such as Hitler’s hakenkreuz.

    “In the case of the swastika, Hitler polluted a symbol that was used innocuously in a variety of contexts,” Pitcavage said. “Because that meaning has become so entrenched in the West, while I believe it is possible to create some awareness, I don’t think that its association with the Nazis can be completely eliminated.”

    ———

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Asian faiths try to save sacred swastika corrupted by Hitler

    Asian faiths try to save sacred swastika corrupted by Hitler

    [ad_1]

    Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.

    “My decoration said ‘Happy Diwali’ and had a swastika on it,” said Deo, a physician, who was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights.

    The equilateral cross with its legs bent at right angles is a millennia-old sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism that represents peace and good fortune. Indigenous people worldwide used it similarly.

    But in the West, this symbol is often equated to Adolf Hitler’s hakenkreuz or the hooked cross – a symbol of hate that evokes the trauma of the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany. White supremacists, neo-Nazi groups and vandals have continued to use Hitler’s symbol to stoke fear and hate.

    Over the past decade, as the Asian diaspora grew in North America, calls to reclaim the swastika as a sacred symbol became louder. These minority faith communities are being joined by Native Americans whose ancestors used it in healing rituals.

    Deo believes she and people of other faiths shouldn’t have to sacrifice or apologize for a sacred symbol simply because it is often conflated with its tainted version.

    “To me, that’s intolerable,” she said.

    Yet to others, redeeming the swastika is unthinkable.

    Holocaust survivors could be re-traumatized by the symbol that represents a “concept that stood for the annihilation of an entire people” and the horrors they experienced, said Shelley Rood Wernick, managing director of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Center on Holocaust Survivor Care. Her grandparents met at a displaced persons’ camp in Austria after World War II.

    “I recognize the swastika as a symbol of hate,” she said.

    Steven Heller, author of “Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?”, said it is “a charged symbol for so many whose loved ones were criminally and brutally murdered.” Heller’s great-grandfather perished during the Holocaust.

    “A rose by any other name is a rose,” he said. “For many, it creates a visceral impact.”

    The symbol itself dates back to prehistoric times. The word “swastika” has Sanskrit roots and means “the mark of well being.” It has been used in Hindu prayers, carved into the Jains’ emblem, marked Buddhist temple locations, and represented the four elements for Zoroastrians.

    The symbol is ubiquitous in India today. It also has been found in the Roman catacombs as well as various places in Greece, Iran, Ethiopia, Spain and Ukraine.

    The symbol was revived during the 19th century excavations in the ancient city of Troy by a German archaeologist, who connected it to Aryan culture. Historians believe this is what made it appealing to the Nazi Party, which adopted it in 1920.

    In North America, in the early 20th century, swastikas made their way into architectural features, military insignia and team logos. Coca-Cola issued a swastika pendant. The Boy Scouts awarded badges with the symbol until 1940.

    The Rev. T.K. Nakagaki said he was shocked when he heard the swastika referred to as a “universal symbol of evil” at an interfaith conference. The New York-based Buddhist priest thinks of swastikas as synonymous with temples.

    In his 2018 book titled “The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate,” Nakagaki posits that Hitler referred to it as the hooked cross or hakenkreuz.

    “You cannot call it a symbol of evil or (deny) other facts that have existed for hundreds of years, just because of Hitler,” said Nakagaki, who believes more dialogue is needed.

    The Coalition of Hindus of North America is among several faith groups leading the effort to differentiate the swastika from the hakenkreuz. They supported a new California law that criminalizes the public display of it, making an exception for the sacred swastika.

    Pushpita Prasad, a spokesperson for the Hindu group, called it a victory, but said the legislation unfortunately labels both the sacred symbol and Hitler’s as swastikas.

    It’s led to self-censorship. Vikas Jain, a Cleveland physician, said his family hid images containing the symbol when they had visitors because of the lack of understanding. Jain says he stands in solidarity with the Jewish community, but is sad that he cannot freely practice his Jain faith.

    Before WWII, the name “Swastika” was popular in North America, including for housing subdivisions in Miami and Denver, an upstate New York hamlet and a street name in Ontario. Some have been renamed while others continue to carry it.

    The Oregon Geographic Names Board will soon vote to rename Swastika Mountain in Umpqua National Forest.

    The mountain’s name, taken from a nearby ranch that used a swastika cattle brand, made news in January when hikers were rescued off the butte, said Kerry Tymchuk, the Oregon Historical Society’s director. A Eugene resident questioned the name, spurring the vote, he said.

    For the Navajo people, the symbol represents the universe and life, said Patricia Anne Davis, an elder of the Choctaw and Dineh nations. She said Hitler took a spiritual symbol “and made it twisted.”

    In the early 20th century, traders encouraged Native artists to use it on their crafts. After it became a Nazi symbol, several tribes banned it.

    “I understand the wounds and trauma that Jewish people experience when they see that symbol,” Davis said. “All I can do is affirm its true meaning. …It’s time to restore the authentic meaning.”

    Jeff Kelman, a New Hampshire-based Holocaust historian, believes the hakenkreuz and swastika were distinct. Kelman, who takes this message to Jewish communities, is optimistic about the symbol’s redemption.

    “When they learn an Indian girl could be named Swastika and she could be harassed in school, they understand how they should see these as two separate symbols,” he said. “No one in the Jewish community wants to see Hitler’s legacy continue to harm people.”

    Greta Elbogen, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor whose family members were killed at Auschwitz, said learning the swastika is sacred to so many is a blessing and feels liberating. Elbogen, born in 1938 when the Nazis forcibly annexed Austria, went into hiding in Hungary before immigrating to the U.S.

    Elbogen said she no longer fears the symbol: “It’s time to let go of the past and look to the future.”

    For many, the swastika evokes a visceral reaction unlike any other, said Mark Pitcavage, an Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism researcher who maintains the group’s hate symbols database.

    The ADL explains the sanctity of the swastika in many faiths and cultures, but Pitcavage said Hitler polluted the symbol: “While I believe it is possible to create some awareness, I don’t think that its association with the Nazis can be completely eliminated.”

    ———

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Asian faiths try to save swastika symbol corrupted by Hitler

    Asian faiths try to save swastika symbol corrupted by Hitler

    [ad_1]

    Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.

    “My decoration said ‘Happy Diwali’ and had a swastika on it,” said Deo, a physician, who was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights.

    The equilateral cross with its legs bent at right angles is a millennia-old sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism that represents peace and good fortune, and was also used widely by Indigenous people worldwide in a similar vein.

    But in the West, this symbol is often equated to Adolf Hitler’s hakenkreuz or the hooked cross – a symbol of hate that evokes the trauma of the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany. White supremacists, neo-Nazi groups and vandals have continued to use Hitler’s symbol to stoke fear and hate.

    Over the past decade, as the Asian diaspora has grown in North America, the call to reclaim the swastika as a sacred symbol has become louder. These minority faith communities are being joined by Native American elders whose ancestors have long used the symbol as part of healing rituals.

    Deo believes she and people of other faiths should not have to sacrifice or apologize for a sacred symbol simply because it is often conflated with its tainted version.

    “To me, that’s intolerable,” she said.

    Yet to others, the idea that the swastika could be redeemed is unthinkable.

    Holocaust survivors in particular could be re-traumatized when they see the symbol, said Shelley Rood Wernick, managing director of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Center on Holocaust Survivor Care.

    “One of the hallmarks of trauma is that it shatters a person’s sense of safety,” said Wernick, whose grandparents met at a displaced persons’ camp in Austria after World War II. “The swastika was a representation of the concept that stood for the annihilation of an entire people.”

    For her grandparents and the elderly survivors she serves, Wernick said, the symbol is the physical representation of the horrors they experienced.

    “I recognize the swastika as a symbol of hate.”

    New York-based Steven Heller, a design historian and author of “Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?”, said the swastika is “a charged symbol for so many whose loved ones were criminally and brutally murdered.” Heller’s great-grandfather perished during the Holocaust.

    “A rose by any other name is a rose,” he said. “In the end it’s how a symbol affects you visually and emotionally. For many, it creates a visceral impact and that’s a fact.”

    ———

    The symbol itself dates back to prehistoric times. The word “swastika” has Sanskrit roots and means “the mark of well being.” It has been used in prayers of the Rig Veda, the oldest of Hindu scriptures. In Buddhism, the symbol is known as “manji” and signifies the Buddha’s footsteps. It is used to mark the location of Buddhist temples. In China it’s called Wàn, and denotes the universe or the manifestation and creativity of God. The swastika is carved into the Jains’ emblem representing the four types of birth an embodied soul might attain until it is eventually liberated from the cycle of birth and death. In the Zoroastrian faith, it represents the four elements – water, fire, air and earth.

    In India, the ubiquitous symbol can be seen on thresholds, drawn with vermillion and turmeric, and displayed on shop doors, vehicles, food packaging and at festivals or special occasions. Elsewhere, it has been found in the Roman catacombs, ruins in Greece and Iran, and in Ethiopian and Spanish churches.

    The swastika also was a Native American symbol used by many southwestern tribes, particularly the Navajo and Hopi. To the Navajo, it represented a whirling log, a sacred image used in healing rituals and sand paintings. Swastika motifs can be found in items carbon-dated to 15,000 years ago on display at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine as well as on artifacts recovered from the ruins of the ancient Indus Valley civilizations that flourished between 2600 and 1900 BC.

    The symbol was revived during the 19th century excavations in the ancient city of Troy by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who connected it to a shared Aryan culture across Europe and Asia. Historians believe it is this notion that made the symbol appealing to nationalist groups in Germany including the Nazi Party, which adopted it in 1920.

    In North America, in the early 20th century, swastikas made their way into ceramic tiles, architectural features, military insignia, team logos, government buildings and marketing campaigns. Coca-Cola issued a swastika pendant. Carlsberg beer bottles came etched with swastikas. The Boy Scouts handed out badges with the symbol until 1940.

    ———

    The Rev. T.K. Nakagaki said he was shocked when he first heard the swastika referred to as a “universal symbol of evil” at an interfaith conference. The New York-based Buddhist priest, who was ordained in the 750-year-old Jodoshinshu tradition of Japanese Buddhism, says when he hears the word “swastika” or “manji,” he thinks of a Buddhist temple because that is what it represents in Japan where he grew up.

    “You cannot call it a symbol of evil or (deny) other facts that have existed for hundreds of years, just because of Hitler,” he said.

    In his 2018 book titled “The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate,” Nakagaki posits that Hitler referred to the symbol as the hooked cross or hakenkreuz. Nakagaki’s research also shows the symbol was called the hakenkreuz in U.S. newspapers until the early 1930s, when the word swastika replaced it.

    Nakagaki believes more dialogue is needed even though it will be uncomfortable.

    “This is peace work, too,” he said.

    ———

    The Coalition of Hindus of North America is one of several faith groups leading the effort to differentiate the swastika from the hakenkreuz. They supported a new California law that criminalizes the public display of the hakenkreuz — making an exception for the sacred swastika.

    Pushpita Prasad, a spokesperson for the Hindu group, called it a victory, but said the legislation unfortunately labels both Hitler’s symbol and the sacred one as swastikas.

    This is “not just an esoteric battle,” Prasad said, but an issue with real-life consequences for immigrant communities, whose members have resorted to self-censoring.

    Vikas Jain, a Cleveland physician, said he and his wife hid images containing the symbol when their children’s friends visited because “they wouldn’t know the difference.” Jain says he stands in solidarity with the Jewish community, but is sad that he cannot freely practice his Jain faith “because of this lack of understanding.”

    He noted that the global Jain emblem has a swastika in it, but the U.S. Jain community deliberately removed it from its seal. Jain wishes people would differentiate between their symbol of peace and Hitler’s swastika just as they do with the hateful burning cross symbol and Christianity’s sacred crucifix.

    ———

    Before World War II, the name “Swastika” was so popular in North America it was used to mark numerous locations. Swastika Park, a housing subdivision in Miami, was created in 1917, and still has that name. In 2020, the hamlet of Swastika, nestled in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, decided to keep its name after town councilors determined that it predated WWII and referred to the prosperity symbol.

    Swastika Acres, the name of a Denver housing subdivision, can be traced to the Denver Swastika Land Company. It was founded in 1908, and changed its name to Old Cherry Hills in 2019 after a unanimous city council vote. In September, the town council in Puslinch, Ontario, voted to change the name of the street Swastika Trail to Holly Trail.

    Next month, the Oregon Geographic Names Board, which supervises the naming of geographic features within the state, is set to vote to rename Swastika Mountain, a 4,197-foot butte in the Umpqua National Forest. Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society, said although its name can only be found on a map, it made news in January when two stranded hikers were rescued from the mountain.

    “A Eugene resident saw that news report and asked why on earth was this mountain called that in this day and age,” said Tymchuk. He said the mountain got its name in the 1900s from a neighboring ranch whose owner branded his cattle with the swastika.

    Tymchuk said the names board is set to rename Mount Swastika as Mount Halo after Chief Halito, who led the Yoncalla Kalapuya tribe in the 1800s.

    “Most people we’ve heard from associate it with Nazism,” Tymchuk said.

    ———

    For the Navajo people, the symbol, shaped like a swirl, represents the universe and life, said Patricia Anne Davis, an elder of the Choctaw and Dineh nations.

    “It was a spiritual, esoteric symbol that was woven into the Navajo rugs, until Hitler took something good and beautiful and made it twisted,” she said.

    In the early 20th century, traders encouraged Native artists to use it on their crafts; it appeared often on silver work, textiles and pottery. But after it became a Nazi symbol, representatives from the Hopi, Navajo, Apache and Tohono O’odham tribes signed a proclamation in 1940 banning its use.

    Davis views the original symbol that was used by many Indigenous people as one of peace, healing and goodness.

    “I understand the wounds and trauma that Jewish people experience when they see that symbol,” she said. “All I can do is affirm its true meaning — the one that never changed across cultures, languages and history. It’s time to restore the authentic meaning of that symbol.”

    ———

    Like Nakagaki, Jeff Kelman, a New Hampshire-based Holocaust historian, believes the hakenkreuz and swastika were distinct. Kelman who takes this message to Jewish communities, is optimistic about the symbol’s redemption because he sees his message resonating with many in his community, including Holocaust survivors.

    “When they learn an Indian girl could be named Swastika and she could be harassed in school, they understand how they should see these as two separate symbols,” he said. “No one in the Jewish community wants to see Hitler’s legacy continue to harm people.”

    Greta Elbogen, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor whose grandmother and cousins were killed at Auschwitz, says she was surprised to learn about the symbol’s sacred past. Elbogen was born in 1938 when the Nazis forcibly annexed Austria. She went into hiding with relatives in Hungary, immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 and became a social worker.

    This new knowledge about the swastika, Elbogen said, feels liberating; she no longer fears a symbol that was used to terrorize.

    “Hearing that the swastika is beautiful and sacred to so many people is a blessing,” she said. “It’s time to let go of the past and look to the future.”

    ———

    For many, the swastika evokes a visceral reaction unlike any other, said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism who for the past 22 years has maintained the group’s hate symbols database.

    “The only symbol that would even come close to the swastika is the symbol of a hooded Klansman,” he said.

    The ADL explains the sanctity of the swastika in many faiths and cultures, and there are other lesser-known religious symbols that must be similarly contextualized, Pitcavage said. One is the Celtic cross – a traditional Christian symbol used for religious purposes and to symbolize Irish pride – which is used by a number of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.

    Similarly, Thor’s hammer is an important symbol for those who follow neo-Norse religions such as Asatru. But white supremacists have adopted it as well, often creating racist versions of the hammer by incorporating hate symbols such as Hitler’s hakenkreuz.

    “In the case of the swastika, Hitler polluted a symbol that was used innocuously in a variety of contexts,” Pitcavage said. “Because that meaning has become so entrenched in the West, while I believe it is possible to create some awareness, I don’t think that its association with the Nazis can be completely eliminated.”

    ———

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Suspect arrested in fatal shooting at Houston home

    Suspect arrested in fatal shooting at Houston home

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    AUSTIN, Texas — A 38-year-old man has been arrested in connection to a Thanksgiving day shooting at a Houston-area home that left two people dead and two wounded, according to the Houston Police Department.

    A man believed to be a former spouse of one of the victims entered the home through the back door as the families were finishing dinner Thursday and shot four people, Houston Police Department Assistant Chief Patricia Cantu said earlier Friday. The suspect has been questioned and is facing two counts of capital murder and two counts of aggravated assault, according to a Friday statement from the Houston Police Department.

    “There were four other people inside the house. As soon as they heard the shooting, they ran to the rooms for safety,” Cantu said. “The suspect discharged multiple rounds and even reloaded his weapon at the scene.”

    A woman and a man were pronounced dead. A second man was in critical condition and a 15-year-old boy was in stable condition at a hospital, Cantu said.

    Police have not identified the suspect and formal charges are pending, according to the Friday statement by Houston police.

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  • Sober or bright? Europe faces holidays during energy crunch

    Sober or bright? Europe faces holidays during energy crunch

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    VERONA, Italy — Early season merrymakers sipping mulled wine and shopping for holiday decorations packed the Verona Christmas market for its inaugural weekend. But beyond the wooden market stalls, the Italian city still has not decked out its granite-clad pedestrian streets with twinkling holiday lights as officials debate how bright to make the season during an energy crisis.

    In cities across Europe, officials are wrestling with a choice as energy prices have gone up because of Russia’s war in Ukraine: Dim Christmas lighting to send a message of energy conservation and solidarity with citizens squeezed by higher utility bills and inflation, while protecting public coffers. Or let the lights blaze in a message of defiance after two years of pandemic-suppressed Christmas seasons, illuminating cities with holiday cheer that retailers hope will loosen people’s purse strings.

    “If they take away the lights, they might as well turn off Christmas,” said Estrella Puerto, who sells traditional Spanish mantillas, or women’s veils, in a small store in Granada, Spain, and says Christmas decorations draw business.

    Fewer lights are sparkling from the centerpiece tree at the famed Strasbourg Christmas market, which attracts 2 million people every year, as the French city seeks to reduce public energy consumption by 10% this year.

    From Paris to London, city officials are limiting hours of holiday illumination, and many have switched to more energy-efficient LED lights or renewable energy sources. London’s Oxford Street shopping district hopes to cut energy consumption by two-thirds by limiting the illumination of its lights to 3-11 p.m. and installing LED bulbs.

    “Ecologically speaking, it’s the only real solution,’’ said Paris resident Marie Breguet, 26, as she strolled the Champs-Elysees, which is being lit up only until 11:45 p.m., instead of 2 a.m. as in Christmases past. “The war and energy squeeze is a reality. No one will be hurt with a little less of the illuminations this year.”

    It’s lights out along Budapest’s Andrassy Avenue, often referred to as Hungary’s Champs-Elysees, which officials decided would not be bathed in more than 2 kilometers (1.5 miles) of white lights as in years past. Lighting also is being cut back on city landmarks, including bridges over the Danube River.

    “Saving on decorative lighting is about the fact that we are living in times when we need every drop of energy,’’ said Budapest’s deputy mayor, Ambrus Kiss.

    He doesn’t think economizing on lighting will dissuade tourists from coming to the city, which holds two Christmas markets that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

    “I think it’s an overblown debate,’’ he said.

    Festive lights, composed of LEDs this year, also will be dimmed from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. in the old city center of Brasov in central Romania and switched off elsewhere, officials said.

    The crisis, largely spurred by Russia cutting off most natural gas to Europe, is sparking innovation. In the Italian mountain town of Borno, in Lombardy, cyclists will provide power to the town’s Christmas tree by fueling batteries with kinetic energy. Anyone can hop on, and the faster they pedal, the brighter the lights. No holiday lighting will be put up elsewhere in town to raise awareness about energy conservation, officials said.

    In Italy, many cities traditionally light Christmas trees in public squares on Dec. 8, the Assumption holiday, still allowing time to come up with plans for festive street displays. Officials in the northern city of Verona are discussing limiting lighting to just a few key shopping streets and using the savings to help needy families.

    “In Verona, the atmosphere is there anyway,’’ said Giancarlo Peschiera, whose shop selling fur coats overlooks Verona’s Piazza Bra, where officials on Saturday will light a huge shooting star arching from the Roman-era Arena amphitheater into the square.

    The city also will put up a Christmas tree in the main piazza and a holiday cake maker has erected light-festooned trees in three other spots.

    “We can do without the lights. There are the Christmas stalls, and shop windows are decked for the holidays,” Peschiera said.

    After two Christmases under COVID-19 restrictions, some are calling “bah humbug” on conservation efforts.

    “It’s not Christmas all year round,’’ said Parisian Alice Betout, 39. “Why can’t we just enjoy the festive season as normal, and do the (energy) savings the rest of the year?”

    The holiday will shine brightly in Germany, where the year-end season is a major boost to retailers and restaurants. Emergency cutbacks announced this fall specifically exempted religious lighting, “in particular Christmas,’’ even as environmental activists called for restraint.

    “Many yards look like something out of an American Christmas film,’’ grumbled Environmental Action Germany.

    In Spain, the northwestern port city of Vigo is not letting the energy crisis get in the way of its tradition of staging the country’s most extravagant Christmas light display. Ahead of other cities, Vigo switched on the light show Nov. 19 in what has become a significant tourist attraction.

    Despite the central government urging cities to reduce illuminations, this year’s installation is made up of 11 million LED lights across more than 400 streets — 30 more than last year and far more than any other Spanish city. In a small contribution to energy savings, they will remain on for one hour less each day.

    The lights are Mayor Abel Caballero’s pet project. “If we didn’t celebrate Christmas, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would win,” he said.

    Caballero says the economic return is vital, both for commerce and for businesses in Vigo. Hotels in the city and the surrounding area were completely full for the launch of the lighting and are expected to be close to 100% every week.

    Germany’s Christmas markets have crunched numbers that could make any lighting Grinch’s heart grow at least three sizes.

    The market exhibitor’s association said a family Christmas market visit consumes less energy than staying home. A family of four spending an hour to cook dinner on an electric stove, streaming a two-hour film, running a video console and lighting the kids’ rooms would use 0.711 kilowatt-hour per person vs. 0.1 to 0.2 kilowatt-hour per person to stroll a Christmas market.

    “If people stay at home, they don’t sit in the corner in the dark,’’ said Frank Hakelberg, managing director of the German Showmen’s Association. “The couch potatoes use more energy than when they are out at a Christmas market.”

    ———

    Associated Press reporters Thomas Adamson in Paris; David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany; Ciaran Gilles in Madrid; Justin Spike in Budapest; Giovanna Dell’Orto in Granada, Spain; Courtney Bonnell in London; and Stephen McGrath in Brasov, Romania, contributed.

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  • Inflation hovers over shoppers seeking deals on Black Friday

    Inflation hovers over shoppers seeking deals on Black Friday

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    NEW YORK — Cautious shoppers hunted for the best deals at stores and online as retailers offered new Black Friday discounts to entice consumers eager to start buying holiday gifts but weighed down by inflation.

    Due to elevated prices for food, rent, gasoline and other essentials, many people were being more selective, reluctant to spend unless there was a big sale. Some were dipping more into savings, turning to “buy now, pay later” services that allow payment in installments, or running up their credit cards at a time when the Federal Reserve is hiking rates to cool the U.S. economy.

    Sheila Diggs, 55, went to a Walmart in Mount Airy, Maryland early Friday looking for a deal on a coffee maker. To save money this year, she said the adults in her family are drawing names and selecting one person to shop for.

    “Everything’s going up but your paycheck,” said Diggs, who manages medical records at a local hospital.

    This year’s trends are a contrast from a year ago when consumers were buying early for fear of not getting what they needed amid supply-network clogs. Stores didn’t have to discount much because they were struggling to bring in items.

    Early shopping turned out to be a fleeting trend, said Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of retail at Salesforce, which tracks online sales. People this year are holding out for the best bargains, and retailers responded this week with more attractive online deals after offering mostly lackluster discounts earlier in the season.

    Online discounts rates were 31% on Thanksgiving, up 7% from the previous year, according to Salesforce data. The steepest discounts were in home appliances, general apparel, makeup and luxury handbags.

    Macy’s Herald Square in Manhattan, where discounts included 60% off fashion jewelry and 50% off select shoes, was bustling with shoppers early Friday.

    The traffic was “significantly larger” on Black Friday compared to the previous two years because shoppers feel more comfortable in crowds, Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said.

    He said that bestsellers from Macy’s online sale, which started last weekend, included 50% off beauty sets. Last year Macy’s, like many other stores, had supply chain issues and some of the gifts didn’t arrive until after Christmas.

    “Right now we are set and ready to go, “ he said.

    Sophia Rose, 40, a respiratory specialist visiting Manhattan from Albany, New York, was heading into Macy’s with big plans to splurge after scrimping last year when she was still in school. She put herself on a budget for food and gas to cope with inflation but had already spent $2,000 for holiday gifts, and plans to spend a total of $6,000.

    “I am going to touch every floor,” she said. “That’s the plan.”

    Customer traffic was also higher than last year at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, according to Jill Renslow, executive vice president of business development of the shopping center. She said 10,000 people were at the sprawling mall during the first hour after the 7 a.m. opening, though inflation prompted many shoppers to figure out what to buy before showing up.

    “With the economy, people are planning a little more,” she said.

    Delmarie Quinones, 30, went to a Best Buy in Manhattan to pick up a laptop and printer she ordered online at $179, down from $379. Quinones, a health home aide, said that higher prices on food and other expenses are making her reduce her spending from a year ago, when she had money from government child tax-credit payments.

    “I can’t get what I used to get,” said the mother of five children, ages 1 to 13. “Even when it was back to school, getting them essentials was difficult.”

    Major retailers including Walmart and Target stuck with their pandemic-era decision to close stores on Thanksgiving Day, moving away from doorbusters and instead pushing discounts on their websites.

    But people are still shopping on Thanksgiving — online. Garf said Salesforce data showed online sales spiked in the evening during the holiday this year, suggesting people went from feasting to phone shopping. And with holiday travel up, he said a greater share of online shopping occurred on mobile devices this year.

    “The mobile phone has become the remote control of our daily lives, and this led to an increase in shopping on the couch as consumers settled in after Thanksgiving dinner,” Garf said.

    But with more shoppers visiting stores this year, growth in online sales slowed.

    Shoppers spent $5.3 billion online on Thanksgiving Day, up 2.9% from the holiday last year, according to Adobe Analytics, which monitors spending across websites. Adobe expects that online buying on Black Friday will hit $9 billion, up just 1% from a year ago.

    Black Friday saw some of the labor unrest that has rippled through the retail industry over the past year. A coalition of trade unions and advocacy organizations are coordinating strikes and walkouts at Amazon facilities in more than 30 countries under a campaign called “Make Amazon Pay.” Among other places, hundreds of workers at a facility near the German city of Leipzig staged a protest Friday, calling for better working conditions and higher pay.

    And at Walmart stores, some employees had Wednesday’s deadly shooting at a company store in Virginia in the back of their minds.

    Jude Anani, a 35-year-old who works at a Walmart store in Columbia, Maryland, said the company offers training on how to react in such circumstances but he would like to see more protection. He was happy to see police officer standing outside the store, as is typical on Black Friday, and wished that was the case “most of the time during the year.”

    Against today’s economic backdrop, the National Retail Federation — the largest retail trade group — expects holiday sales growth will slow to a range of 6% to 8%, from the blistering 13.5% growth of a year ago. However, these figures, which include online spending, aren’t adjusted for inflation, so real spending could even be down from a year ago.

    Analysts consider the five-day Black Friday weekend, which includes Cyber Monday, a key barometer of shoppers’ willingness to spend. The two-month period between Thanksgiving and Christmas represents about 20% of the retail industry’s annual sales.

    ——————

    Hadero reported from Mount Airy, Maryland. Olson reported from Arlington, Virginia. Associated Press Personal Finance Writer Cora Lewis in New York contributed to this report.

    ——————

    Follow Anne D’Innocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio

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  • Police: Ex-spouse fatally shoots 2, hurts 2 in Houston home

    Police: Ex-spouse fatally shoots 2, hurts 2 in Houston home

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    HOUSTON — A man believed to be a former spouse entered a Houston-area home and shot four people who were celebrating Thanksgiving, killing two and wounding two others Thursday evening.

    A woman and a man were pronounced dead at the scene. A second man was in critical condition and a 15-year-old boy was in stable condition at a hospital, Houston Police Department Assistant Chief Patricia Cantu said.

    Police did not identify the suspect and an arrest was not immediately made, but Cantu said the shooter was believed to be the former spouse of the woman who was killed.

    “The families were celebrating, they just finished eating. The suspect, who is known to be the ex-husband of the deceased female, came into the back door and just started firing at the people inside the house,” Cantu said.

    “There were four other people inside the house. As soon as they heard the shooting, they ran to the rooms for safety,” Cantu said. “The suspect discharged multiple rounds and even reloaded his weapon at the scene.”

    The shooting was a “domestic-related incident,” Cantu said.

    Friends were invited to the dinner, and police were unsure whether the victims were related or who owned the home, Cantu said.

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  • High-flying balloon characters star in Thanksgiving parade

    High-flying balloon characters star in Thanksgiving parade

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    NEW YORK — Throngs of spectators lined the streets of New York on Thursday as colorful, high-flying balloons helped usher in the holiday season during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

    The annual tradition, which dates back nearly a century, packed streets as a procession of giant inflatables and floats streamed for more than 40 blocks from Central Park to Herald Square.

    Children balanced atop metal barricades and hung from scaffolding to watch the balloons amid mostly sunny skies and a slight breeze.

    “Blue, Blue. There’s Blue,” yelled Divyam Kumar, 6, as his father helped balance him and his 4-year-old brother Aanu Aryan on a metal rail.

    The youngster was referring to the star of the animated show “Blue’s Clues” — not to be confused with the international cartoon sensation Bluey, an Australian cattle pup making her parade debut.

    Bluey’s balloon towered as tall as a four-story building and stretched as wide as seven taxi cabs.

    Stuart, the one-eyed Minion, was also there to thrill the crowd.

    But it was Snoopy that especially caught the eye of Brenner Chenenko, 8, even more so than the more contemporary pups.

    “It’s one of the classics,” said the youngster from Rochester, New York, who lined the parade route with his father Nate and grandfather John Wopperer.

    It was the first time the father and son had seen the parade in person. Wopperer last saw a parade live three years ago, before the pandemic sidelined the event for a year.

    Snoopy, dressed as an astronaut, was followed by another old-time favorite, Papa Smurf.

    This year’s parade featured 16 giant balloons, 28 floats, 40 novelty and heritage inflatables, 12 marching bands, 10 performance groups, 700 clowns and one Santa Claus.

    The procession of characters were joined by singer Paula Abdul, in her first parade appearance; indie pop band Fitz and the Tantrums; boy band Big Time Rush; “Blue’s Clues & You!” host Josh Dela Cruz; singer Gloria Estefan; gospel singer Kirk Franklin; actor Mario Lopez; reggae star Ziggy Marley; and Miss America 2022 Emma Broyles.

    Singers Joss Stone, Jordin Sparks and Betty Who were also part of the festivities, as were the stars of Peacock’s “Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin” — Adam Devine, Sarah Hyland and Flula Borg. Jimmy Fallon & The Roots were on a float celebrating Central Park.

    President Biden and Jill Biden called into the parade, as he did last year. Biden thanked firefighters, police officers and first responders, saying, “They never take a break.”

    They thanked the troops and Biden said he would be reaching out to speak to some today.

    Asked about their plans for the day in Nantucket, Massachusetts, the Bidens said it would involve family, and some time spent locally, thanking first responders.

    ———

    Associated Press reporter Deepti Hajela contributed to this story.

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  • ‘Bodies drop’ as Walmart manager kills 6 in Virginia attack

    ‘Bodies drop’ as Walmart manager kills 6 in Virginia attack

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    CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A Walmart manager pulled out a handgun before a routine employee meeting and began firing wildly around the break room of a Virginia store, killing six people in the nation’s second high-profile mass shooting in four days, police and witnesses said.

    The gunman was dead when officers arrived late Tuesday at the store in Chesapeake, Virginia’s second-largest city. Authorities said he apparently shot himself. Police were trying to determine a motive. One employee described watching “bodies drop” as the assailant fired haphazardly, without saying a word.

    “He was just shooting all throughout the room. It didn’t matter who he hit. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at anybody in any specific type of way,” Briana Tyler, a Walmart employee, said Wednesday.

    Six people were wounded in the shooting, which happened just after 10 p.m. as shoppers were stocking up ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. Police said they believe about 50 people were in the store at the time.

    The gunman was identified as Andre Bing, 31, an overnight team leader who had been a Walmart employee since 2010. Police said he had one handgun and several magazines of ammunition.

    Tyler said the overnight stocking team of 15 to 20 people had just gathered in the break room to go over the morning plan. She said the meeting was about to start, and one team leader said: “All right guys, we have a light night ahead of us.” Then Bing turned around and opened fire on the staff.

    At first, Tyler doubted the shooting was real, thinking that it was an active shooter drill.

    “It was all happening so fast,” she said, adding: “It is by the grace of God that a bullet missed me. I saw the smoke leaving the gun, and I literally watched bodies drop. It was crazy.”

    Police said three of the dead, including Bing, were found in the break room. One of the slain victims was found near the front of the store. Three others were taken to hospitals where they died.

    Tyler, who started working at Walmart two months ago and had worked with Bing just a night earlier, said she never had a negative encounter with him, but others told her he was “the manager to look out for.” She said Bing had a history of writing people up for no reason.

    “He just liked to pick, honestly. I think he just looked for little things … because he had the authority. That’s just the type of person that he was. That’s what a lot of people said about him,” she said.

    Employee Jessie Wilczewski told Norfolk television station WAVY that she hid under a table, and Bing looked and pointed his gun at her. He told her to go home, and she left.

    Police said the dead included a 16-year-old boy whose name was being withheld because of his age. The other victims were identified as Brian Pendleton, 38; Kellie Pyle, 52; Lorenzo Gamble, 43; and Randy Blevins, 70, who were all from Chesapeake; and Tyneka Johnson, 22, of nearby Portsmouth.

    It was not immediately clear whether they were workers or shoppers.

    Pyle was a “lovely, generous and kind person,” said Gwendolyn Bowe Baker Spencer, who said that her son and Pyle had plans to marry next year. Pyle had adult children in Kentucky who will be traveling to Virginia, Spencer said.

    “We love her,” Spencer said, adding: “She was an awesome, kind individual.”

    The attack was the second time in a little more than a week that Virginia has experienced a major shooting. Three University of Virginia football players were fatally shot on a charter bus as they returned to campus from a field trip on Nov. 13. Two other students were wounded.

    The assault at the Walmart came days after a person opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five people and wounding 17. Last spring, the country was shaken by the deaths of 21 when a gunman stormed an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

    Tuesday night’s shooting also brought back memories of another attack at a Walmart in 2019, when a gunman who targeted Mexicans opened fire at a store in El Paso, Texas, and killed 23 people.

    A database run by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University that tracks every mass killing in America going back to 2006 shows that the U.S. has now had 40 mass killings so far in 2022. That compares with 45 for all of 2019, the highest year in the database, which defines a mass killing as at least four people killed, not including the killer.

    According to the database, more than a quarter of the mass killings have occurred since Oct. 21, spanning eight states and claiming 51 lives. Nine of those 11 incidents were shootings.

    President Joe Biden tweeted that he and the first lady were grieving, adding: “We mourn for those who will have empty seats at their Thanksgiving table because of these tragic events.”

    Kimberly Shupe, mother of Walmart employee Jalon Jones, told reporters her 24-year-old son was shot in the back. She said he was in good condition and talking Wednesday, after initially being placed on a ventilator.

    Shupe said she learned of the shooting from a friend, who went to a family reunification center to learn Jones’ whereabouts.

    “If he’s not answering his phone, he’s not answering text messages and there’s a shooting at his job, you just kind of put two and two together,” Shupe said. “It was shock at first, but ultimately, I just kept thinking, ‘he’s going to be all right.’”

    Walmart said in a statement that it was working with law enforcement and “focused on doing everything we can to support our associates and their families.”

    In the aftermath of the El Paso shooting, the company made a decision in September 2019 to discontinue sales of certain kinds of ammunition and asked that customers no longer openly carry firearms in stores.

    It stopped selling handgun ammunition as well as short-barrel rifle ammunition, such as the .223 caliber and 5.56 caliber used in military style weapons.

    The company stopped selling handguns in the mid-1990s in every state but Alaska, where sales continued until 2019. The changes marked a complete exit from that business and allowed Walmart to focus on hunting rifles and related ammunition only.

    Many of its stores are in rural areas where hunters depend on Walmart to get their equipment.

    Tyler’s grandfather, Richard Tate, said he dropped his granddaughter off for her 10 p.m. shift, then parked the car and went in to buy some dish soap.

    When he first heard the shots, he thought it could be balloons popping. But he soon saw other customers and employees fleeing, and he ran too.

    Tate reached his car and called his granddaughter.

    “I could tell that she was upset,” he said. “But I could also tell that she was alive.”

    ———

    Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie in Chesapeake; Michael Kunzelman and Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland; Matthew Barakat in Falls Church, Virginia; Hannah Schoenbaum in Raleigh, North Carolina; Anne D’Innocenzio and Alexandra Olson in New York; news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York; and video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Chesapeake.

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  • Thanksgiving travel rush is back with some new habits

    Thanksgiving travel rush is back with some new habits

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    The Thanksgiving travel rush was back on this year, as people caught planes in numbers not seen in years, setting aside inflation concerns to reunite with loved ones and enjoy some normalcy after two holiday seasons marked by COVID-19 restrictions.

    Changing habits around work and play, however, might spread out the crowds and reduce the usual amount of holiday travel stress. Experts say many people will start holiday trips early or return home later than normal because they will spend a few days working remotely — or at least tell the boss they’re working remotely.

    The busiest travel days during Thanksgiving week are usually Tuesday, Wednesday and the Sunday after the holiday. This year, the Federal Aviation Administration expects Tuesday to be the busiest travel day with roughly 48,000 scheduled flights.

    Chris Williams, of Raleigh, North Carolina, flew Tuesday morning with his wife and two kids to Atlanta, Georgia, to spend the holiday with extended family.

    “Of course it’s a stressful and expensive time to fly,” said Williams, 44, who works in finance. “But after a couple years of not getting to spend Thanksgiving with our extended family, I’d say we’re feeling thankful that the world’s gotten to a safe enough place where we can be with loved ones again.”

    Although Williams said the family’s budget has been tight this year, he’s capitalized on the opportunity to teach his kids some personal finance basics. His youngest, 11, has been learning how to budget her allowance money since March and is excited to buy small gifts for her friends on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. “Probably slime,” she said, “with glitter.”

    The Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 2.3 million travelers on Tuesday, down from more than 2.4 million screened the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 2019. On Monday, the numbers were up versus 2019 — more than 2.6 million travelers compared with 2.5 million. That same trend occurred Sunday, marking the first year that the number of people catching planes on Thanksgiving week surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

    “People are traveling on different days. Not everyone is traveling on that Wednesday night,” says Sharon Pinkerton, senior vice president at the trade group Airlines for America. “People are spreading their travel out throughout the week, which I also think will help ensure smoother operations.”

    AAA predicts that 54.6 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home in the U.S. this week, a 1.5% bump over Thanksgiving last year and only 2% less than in 2019. The auto club and insurance seller says nearly 49 million of those will travel by car, and 4.5 million will fly between Wednesday and Sunday.

    U.S. airlines struggled to keep up as the number of passengers surged this year.

    “We did have a challenging summer,” said Pinkerton, whose group speaks for members including American, United and Delta. She said that airlines have pared their schedules and hired thousands of workers — they now have more pilots than before the pandemic. “As a result, we’re confident that the week is going to go well.”

    U.S. airlines plan to operate 13% fewer flights this week than during Thanksgiving week in 2019. However, by using larger planes on average, the number of seats will drop only 2%, according to data from travel-researcher Cirium.

    Airlines continue to blame flight disruptions on shortages of air traffic controllers, especially in Florida, a major holiday destination.

    Controllers, who work for the Federal Aviation Administration, “get tested around the holidays. That seems to be when we have challenges,” Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said a few days ago. “The FAA is adding another 10% to headcount, hopefully that’s enough.”

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has disputed such claims, saying that the vast majority of delays and cancellations are caused by the airlines themselves.

    TSA expects airports to be busier than last year and probably about on par with 2019. The busiest day in TSA’s history came on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2019, when nearly 2.9 million people were screened at airport checkpoints.

    Stephanie Escutia, traveling with four children, her husband and her mother, said it took the family four hours to get through checking and security at the Orlando airport early Tuesday. The family was returning to Kansas City in time for Thanksgiving after a birthday trip to Disney World.

    “We were surprised at how full the park was,” said Escutia, 32. “We thought it might be down some but it was packed.”

    She welcomed the sense of normalcy, and said her family would be gathering for Thanksgiving without worrying about keeping their distance this year. “Now we are back to normal and looking forward to a nice holiday,” she said.

    People getting behind the wheel or boarding a plane don’t seem fazed by higher gasoline and airfare prices than last year or the widespread concern about inflation and the economy. That is already leading to predictions of strong travel over Christmas and New Year’s.

    “This pent-up demand for travel is still a real thing. It doesn’t feel like it’s going away,” says Tom Hall, a vice president and longtime writer for Lonely Planet, the publisher of travel guides. “That’s keeping planes full, that’s keeping prices high.”

    ———

    Associated Press writers Hannah Schoenbaum in Raleigh, North Carolina, Margaret Stafford in Kansas City and AP video journalist Terence Chea in Oakland, California contributed to this report.

    ———

    David Koenig can be reached at twitter.com/airlinewriter

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  • Holiday cornucopia: NY produce market supplies the goods

    Holiday cornucopia: NY produce market supplies the goods

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    NEW YORK — It was the wee hours of the morning, and the docks at New York’s largest produce market were bustling in the cold. Thanksgiving was inching closer, and sacks of onions, potatoes and carrots were flying off the shelves.

    Amidst the whir, buyers and sellers were finalizing deals on tomatoes, mangoes and lettuce. Trucks stood ready to haul away the bounty — a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables destined for supermarket produce aisles, household refrigerators and, eventually, millions of mouths across the Northeast during the gluttonous holidays.

    “This time of year is our busiest. We have Thanksgiving, we have Christmas and New Year’s. All of these are very big family and big-eating holidays,” said Stefanie Katzman, the executive vice president of S. Katzman Produce, one of the country’s largest and oldest produce dealers, which operates at the Hunts Point Produce Market.

    The market is a sprawling collection of wholesalers that make it the nation’s busiest distribution center for fruits and vegetables, responsible for more than 60% of the daily stock for New York City and feeds over 30 million customers, according to another Hunts Point wholesaler, E. Armata Inc.

    Thanksgiving is especially busy time of year because the quintessentially American feast is widely celebrated across the United States.

    “Our market as a whole does about three times as much business as normal on a day like today,” Katzman said while leading a tour Tuesday morning of her company’s cavernous warehouse, which extends a quarter mile (0.4 kilometers) and room for produce across nearly two football fields.

    In one huge room, the whiff of onions filled the cold air. In another, the scent of berries wafted through the room — although Katzman’s biggest seller, strawberries, were in short supply because of inclement weather that wreaked havoc on the growing season.

    “Our market is really unique. It’s kind of like the stock market, but a little bit more intense. Because our ‘stocks’ are perishable, we can’t hold on to them for too long hoping they go up in value,” Katzman said.

    Not only can the place be likened as a stock market, but it is also a Grand Central station of sorts with delivery trucks in and out of the Bronx facility.

    In all, Hunts Point’s wholesalers distribute 2.5 billion pounds of produce a year, with about 30 million pounds having moved on Tuesday alone. The produce ends up at places like Whole Foods, high-end grocers and specialty markets, as well smaller mom-and-pop outlets.

    Michael Rubinsky, a buyer from Market Basket, a gourmet grocery, makes the hour’s drive from Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, three times a week to inspect the goods.

    “I come for the basics — everything like celery, lettuce, strawberries and potatoes — but quality is No. 1,” he said. “I check the quality and load everything on the truck.”

    Charlie Mule, one of Katzman’s produce salesmen, said consumers don’t realize where their produce comes from.

    “You’ve eaten our stuff without you even knowing you’ve eaten our stuff,” said Mule. “If you go to a restaurant or store you probably don’t realize the whole scope of how it got there before you put it in your refrigerator or on your plate.”

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  • Pope visits immigrant father’s hometown for birthday party

    Pope visits immigrant father’s hometown for birthday party

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    PORTACOMARO, Itatly — Pope Francis returned to his father’s birthplace in northern Italy on Saturday for the first time since ascending the papacy to celebrate the 90th birthday of a second cousin who long knew him as simply “Giorgio.”

    The two-day visit to Francis’ ancestral homeland to renew family ties touched on keystones of his papacy, including the importance of honoring the elderly and the human toll of migration. Francis’ private visit Saturday will be followed by public one Sunday to celebrate Mass for the local faithful, where he could well reflect on his family’s experience migrating to Argentina.

    The pope’s father, Mario Jose Francisco Bergoglio, and his paternal grandparents arrived in Buenos Aires on Jan. 25, 1929 to reach other relatives at the tail end of a mass decades-long emigration from Italy that the pope has honored with two recent saints: St. Giovanni Batista Scalabrini and St. Artedime Zatti.

    The future pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was born nearly eight years later in Buenos Aires, after the elder Bergoglio met and married Regina Maria Sivori, whose family was also of Italian immigrant stock, hailing from the Liguria region. Francis grew up speaking the Piedmont dialect of his paternal grandmother Rosa, who cared for him most days.

    The elder Bergoglio was born in the town of Portacomaro, 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of Asti, an agricultural town that lost population not only to emigration abroad but also to nearby Turin as it became an industrial center.

    Today, the town has 2,000 residents, but it numbered more than 2,700 a century ago, and dropped as low as 1,680 in the 1980s.

    The pope’s family emigrated after the peak, which saw 14 million Italians leave from 1876 to 1915 — a movement that made Italy the biggest voluntary diaspora in the world, according to Lauren Braun-Strumfels, an associate professor of history at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

    Often citing his own family story, Francis, now 85, has made the welcoming and integration of migrants a hallmark of his papacy, often facing criticism as Europe in general, and Italy in particular, are consumed with the debate over how to manage mass migration.

    The pope has recognized the historic significance of the emigrant experience with the recent canonizations of St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, an Italian bishop who founded an order to help Italian emigrants at the end of the 19th century, and Artemide Zatti, an Italian who emigrated to Argentina in the same period and dedicated his work to helping the sick.

    He used the occasion to again denounce Europe’s indifference toward migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea and what they hope will be better futures.

    Francis began his visit to Portacomaro on Saturday with lunch at the home of a cousin, Carla Rabezzana. Photographs released by the Vatican showed Francis clearly enjoying himself, hugging Rabezzana and sitting at the head of the table.

    “We have known each other forever,’’ Rabezzana told the Corriere della Sera newspaper in the runup to the visit. “When I lived in Turin, Giorgio — I always called him that — came to stay because I had an extra room. That is how we maintained our relationship.

    “We always would joke. When he told me he would come to celebrate my 90th birthday, I said it made my heart race. And in response I was told: ‘Try not to die.’ We burst out laughing.’’

    The pope has many more third and fourth cousins still in the area.

    “It was a large family, and in the area there are still many distant cousins,’’ said Carlo Cerrato a former mayor of Portacomoro. He said it was a “big surprise” for everyone in the town when Francis was elected pope nearly a decade ago.

    “Everyone knew there was a prelate who had become the cardinal of Buenos Aires, but it was something that the relatives knew, not everyone in town,’’ Cerrato said.

    After nearly 10 years as pope, Francis has yet to return to his own birthplace in Argentina . He hasn’t really explained his reasons for staying away. He recently confirmed that if he were to resign as pope, he wouldn’t go back to Buenos Aires to live but would remain in Rome.

    ———

    Barry reported from Milan.

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  • Smaller food cos. get set for a high-priced holiday season

    Smaller food cos. get set for a high-priced holiday season

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    NEW YORK — Holiday celebrants in Hilo, Hawaii, might notice something different about the traditional Yule Log cake from the Short ’N Sweet bakery this year.

    Maria Short typically makes her popular $35 bûche de Noël with two logs combined to look like a branch. This year, thanks to soaring prices for eggs and butter and other items, she’s downsizing to one straight Yule log.

    “It’s the same price, but smaller,” she said. “That cuts down on size and labor.”

    Higher prices are hitting everyone this holiday, but food vendors are seeing some of the biggest increases. Small businesses that count on food-centric holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are bracing for a difficult season.

    At the wholesale level, egg prices are more than triple what they were a year ago, milk prices are up 34% and butter is up 70%, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Businesses are also paying more for everything from packages to labor.

    Many owners are raising prices to offset the higher costs. But raising prices too much risks driving away the crucial holiday shopper. So, businesses are adapting: adjusting the way they make products, changing gift basket components and adding free gifts instead of giving discounts, among other steps.

    Maria Short says that even for Hawaii, where the cost of living is among the highest of any U.S. state, the price increases are “drastic.”

    For example, she says, the Short N Sweet Bakery is paying $123 for a case of eggs that cost $42 in October last year. A case of butter that was $91 in October ago; it’s $138 this year.

    Among the ways Short is cutting costs, she’ll use a generic box decorated with stickers instead of using a customized box for her desserts. And she ordered a cookie printer rather than having bakers hand-pipe frosting, to save on labor costs.

    Sarah Pounders, who co-owns Nashville-based Made in TN, a retailer of locally made food and gifts, says the local vendors who make the items she sells are facing higher prices. The cost of butter needed to make cookies is five times the price from a year ago and cardboard packaging is double.

    Made in TN has raised some prices and is selling other items for less profit. Customers are already paying more for things like gas, clothing and cars, as well as services like eating out and travel, so they’re not as quick to spend as they might have been in prior years. They’re noticing the price increases, she said.

    “If bread is up 50 cents you will still buy bread,” Pounders said. “But if it’s an impulse buy or luxury specialty item — if chocolate-covered cookies are up $1 — you might think twice.”

    Price increases aren’t an option for her popular gift basket business. Corporations often have a $50 cap and events at hotels like weddings can have a $20 sweet spot. So, Pounders has made adjustments. In some cases, she has replaced a $20 bag of coffee, which is up $3, with less expensive hot chocolate. Or she puts one less chocolate bar in the basket.

    She’s also buying more items that could sell throughout the year and less seasonal inventory like peppermint bark and hot chocolate on a stick.

    “Every year is a guess, and the economy makes it even more volatile,” she said.

    Eric Ludy, co-founder of Cheese Brothers, an online purveyor of Wisconsin cheese and gift baskets, faces a tricky task this holiday season as he tries to offset higher costs for packaging, labor — and cheese. Half of his business comes in the weeks between Black Friday and Christmas.

    Cheese Brothers has nominally raised prices for their cheese – a block of cheddar will cost customers $7.50 instead of $7, for example. Ludy says he’ll also rely less on discounts this year and more on gifts and other giveaways.

    A bit of a gamble that Ludy is taking is upping the spending limit for free shipping to $70 from $59.

    “People buy enough to get free shipping, it’s a huge motivator,” he said. He hopes raising the shipping price could push the average order up to $70. But it could also stop people from clicking the “Buy” button.

    “We might start to see people push back and not buy as much,” he said. “It’s a delicate balance.”

    Americans eat an estimated 40 million turkeys during the holidays, according to industry group The National Turkey Federation. But turkey purveyors are facing a double whammy this Thanksgiving: higher prices plus an avian flu epidemic that is shaping up to be one of the worst in history.

    Kevin Smith, owner of Beast and Cleaver, a butcher shop in Seattle, Washington, gets his turkeys from small, local farms. He says he’s paying $6 a pound for turkey this year, up from $3.80 to $4.20 last year. In addition, he only plans to sell 150 turkeys this year, down from 250 last year, due to shortages caused by the avian flu.

    Still, Smith doesn’t plan to charge more for turkey than he did last year: $9 a pound. He says he has a “solid base of customers” willing to pay for more local, sustainable turkeys, but there’s a limit.

    “We don’t want people to have to pay $12 a pound for turkey,” he said.

    He’s raising the price of other items, like ground sausage and pates, to offset the higher costs of poultry. And while the rush of panic-buying during the pandemic has subsided, he’s still expecting a good holiday season.

    “We’re still very busy,” he said. “It’s just a more stable busy.”

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  • Holiday arrival: Rockefeller tree ushers in Christmas season

    Holiday arrival: Rockefeller tree ushers in Christmas season

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    NEW YORK — An iconic sign of Christmas arrived in New York City on Saturday as a crane hoisted an 82-foot (25-meter) Norway spruce into place at Rockefeller Plaza, where the 14-ton tree will be festooned with thousands of lights and topped with a star encrusted with millions of crystals.

    The Christmas tree will be officially lit on Nov. 30.

    The approximately 90-year-old tree was cut Thursday then lifted onto a flatbed truck for its 200-mile (322-kilometer) trip from Queensbury, New York, to New York City.

    “We gave it with the expectation that everybody would enjoy it,” said Neil Lebowitz, whose family donated the tree.

    “For me, it was just a nice tree,” Lebowitz was quoted as saying by the New York Post. “Now it’s a special tree. Everybody around the world can enjoy it.”

    The tree, whose lower branches extend 50 feet (15 meters) in diameter, will be aglow with 50,000 multicolored lights and topped with a 900-pound (408-kilogram) star covered in 3 million crystals.

    After the holidays, the tree will be milled into lumber for donation to Habitat for Humanity, officials said.

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  • Stray bullet hits plane landing in Beirut, no casualties

    Stray bullet hits plane landing in Beirut, no casualties

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    BEIRUT — A stray bullet hit a Middle East Airlines jet while landing in Beirut on Thursday, causing some material damage. No one among the passengers or crew was hurt, the head of the Lebanese airline company said.

    The jet was landing on its way back from Jordan when the bullet hit the plane, said Mohamad El-Hout. He told reporters that Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport often faces such incidents, in addition to birds that fly in the area, endangering aviation.

    The bullet hit the roof of the jet and lodged inside the plane, airport officials said.

    Legislator Paula Yacoubian was apparently on the plane and tweeted that “illegal weapons” should be banned. She posted a photo from inside the plane showing a bullet hole over the baggage hold, adding that she will give further details during a TV talk show later in the evening.

    Shooting in the air is common in Lebanon, where people often open fire to celebrate passing schools or university exams, as well as during weddings and funerals. Such shootings also tend to follow when the country’s political leaders give speeches.

    It is also common for Lebanese to have pistols and automatic rifles at home, many of them left over from the country’s 1975-90 civil war.

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  • UK to declare bank holiday May 8 to honor King Charles III

    UK to declare bank holiday May 8 to honor King Charles III

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    LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom will have another reason to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, for the government has declared a special public holiday to mark the occasion.

    The holiday will be on Monday, May 8, capping a three-day weekend that will begin with the coronation. The coronation of Charles’ late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was also marked with what is known as a bank holiday in Britain.

    “The coronation of a new monarch is a unique moment for our country. In recognition of this historic occasion, I am pleased to announce an additional bank holiday for the whole United Kingdom next year,” new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. “I look forward to seeing people come together to celebrate and pay tribute to King Charles III by taking part in local and national events across the country in his honor.”

    Charles will be crowned on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London. His ceremony will be designed to preserve the historical traditions of the monarchy while looking to the future following the late queen’s 70-year reign. The coronation is expected to be shorter and less extravagant than the three-hour ceremony that installed Elizabeth in 1953, in keeping with Charles’ plans for a slimmed-down monarchy.

    The coronation holiday means May will have three long weekends next year, with traditional bank holidays already scheduled for May 1 and May 29.

    ___

    Follow all AP stories on British royalty at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii

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  • Fireworks injure 17 at Mexico town’s Day of Dead celebration

    Fireworks injure 17 at Mexico town’s Day of Dead celebration

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    MEXICO CITY — A fireworks explosion at a Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico injured 17 people, authorities said Sunday.

    The accident occurred Saturday in the township of Huejutla in Mexico’s Gulf coast region known as the Huasteca.

    The Huejutla municipal government said residents of the village of Tehuetlan were celebrating the end of Xantolo, which is the Huasteca regional variant of the Day of the Dead. Its celebrations last beyond the normal Nov. 1-2 observance.

    A pile of fireworks were set alight in the street and exploded, showering the surrounding crowd in sparks and explosions, the government said.

    The township said two pregnant women and three children were among the injured. One of the girls suffered second-degree burns.

    Fireworks accidents are not uncommon in Mexico.

    In September, one person died and 39 were injured when fireworks exploded during a festival in a town festival just west of Mexico City.

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  • UK to declare bank holiday May 8 to honor King Charles III

    UK to declare bank holiday May 8 to honor King Charles III

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    LONDON — The United Kingdom will have another reason to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, for the government has declared a special public holiday to mark the occasion.

    The holiday will be on Monday, May 8, capping a three-day weekend that will begin with the coronation. The coronation of Charles’ late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was also marked with what is known as a bank holiday in Britain.

    “The coronation of a new monarch is a unique moment for our country. In recognition of this historic occasion, I am pleased to announce an additional bank holiday for the whole United Kingdom next year,’’ new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. “I look forward to seeing people come together to celebrate and pay tribute to King Charles III by taking part in local and national events across the country in his honor.”

    Charles will be crowned on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London. His ceremony will be designed to preserve the historical traditions of the monarchy while looking to the future following the late queen’s 70-year reign. The coronation is expected to be shorter and less extravagant than the three-hour ceremony that installed Elizabeth in 1953, in keeping with Charles’ plans for a slimmed-down monarchy.

    The coronation holiday means May will have three long weekends next year, with traditional bank holidays already scheduled for May 1 and May 29.

    ———

    Follow all AP stories on British royalty at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii

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