The Air Force’s new B-21 Raider nuclear stealth bomber takes its first test flight in Palmdale

• November 10, 2023

By TARA COPP

WASHINGTON — The B-21 Raider took its first test flight on Friday, moving the futuristic warplane closer to becoming the nation’s next nuclear weapons stealth bomber.

The Raider flew in Palmdale, California, where it has been under testing and development by Northrop Grumman.

The Air Force is planning to build 100 of the warplanes, which have a flying wing shape much like their predecessor the B-2 Spirit but will incorporate advanced materials, propulsion and stealth technology to make them more survivable in a future conflict. The plane is planned to be produced in variants with and without pilots.

“The B-21 Raider is in flight testing,” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said.

Such testing is a critical step in the campaign to provide “survivable, long-range, penetrating strike capabilities to deter aggression and strategic attacks against the United States, allies, and partners,” Stefanek said.

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The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber aircraft in more than 30 years, and almost every aspect of the program is classified. Both Northrop Grumman and the Air Force have tried to protect the program’s details to prevent China from gaining access to the weapon’s technology and building a similar version, as it has with other U.S. advanced weapons systems like the F-35 joint strike fighter.

The B-21 is part of the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize all three legs of its nuclear triad, which includes silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, as it invests in new weapons to meet China’s rapid military modernization.

Northrop Grumman Corp. is based in Falls Church, Virginia.

​ Orange County Register 

Veterans Day: Honoring those who serve, by the numbers

• November 10, 2023

Veterans Day is a time to honor those who fought in the Revolutionary War to the men and women who are serving in the military now.

Here’s a look at some facts about Veterans Day:

Famous veterans

There are many famous veterans, but how many were born on Veterans Day? Gen. George S. Patton was, on Nov. 11, 1885, in San Gabriel, California.

General George S. Patton (Keystone/Getty Images)

Patton’s family was wealthy from his mother’s side and his father was the first district attorney of Pasadena and mayor of San Marino. Patton graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1909.

He married the daughter of a wealthy tycoon in 1910 and represented the U.S. in the Olympics in 1912. He competed in the modern pentathlon.

Patton saw his first combat in pursuit of Pancho Villa in 1916. The following year, he joined Gen. John J. Pershing in World War I in the fight in France.

He became the first officer for the U.S. Tank Corps. Patton was wounded in the war and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery under fire.

Patton was made commander of the 2nd Armored Division. Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he organized the Desert Training Center near Indio to simulate combat and maneuvers in the harsh North African climate. Patton led his army in battle in Italy, France and Germany. After the war, on Dec. 9, 1945, Patton sustained serious injuries in a low-speed car accident; after 12 days of terrible pain, he died.

The Gen. Patton Museum is located at Chiriaco Summit, east of Indio, California.

Learn more at generalpattonmuseum.com.

A few notable others

Imagine taking orders from Darth Vader. James Earl Jones voiced one of most notorious sci-fi villains. Jones served with the Army during the Korean War. A member of the University of Michigan’s Reserve Officer Training Corps, Jones was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army and assigned to Headquarters Company, 38th Regimental Combat Team.

Actor James Earl Jones attends the “The Gin Game” Broadway opening night after party at Sardi’s on October 14, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Jimmy Stewart entered the Army as a private and at the end of World War II was a colonel in the Army Air Corps, fully decorated as the result of the 20 combat missions he flew over Germany as leader of a squadron of B-24s. Among his medals were two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Croix de Guerre. Stewart continued his military career after World War II by serving in the Air Force Reserves and rose to the rank of brigadier general.

Colonel James Stewart (1908 – 1997), an American film star serving in the US army, leaves Southampton on board the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth, bound for home August 27, 1945. With him are 16,000 US servicemen returning to America after World War II. (Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images)

During World War II and long before they were Golden Girls, Bea Arthur and Betty White served in the U.S. military. Arthur enlisted with the Marine Corps’ Women’s Reservists, becoming one of the first people to do so. She served as a typist at Marine headquarters. White served with the American Women’s Voluntary Services, an organization dedicated to providing support to the war effort. She also worked as an exchange truck driver delivering military supplies.

Actress Betty White (L) and Bea Arthur signs copies of “The Golden Girls Season 3” DVD at Barnes & Noble on November 22, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images)

Veterans and PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder may be caused by many events including violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, combat and other forms of violence.

Thousands of veterans returning from combat encouraged the VA to create the nation’s largest research center for the treatment of PTSD. In 2017, the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder began studying the relationship between genetics, metabolics and neuronal markers and PTSD.

The center is telling veterans that trauma-focused psychotherapy is the first-line treatment for PTSD.

Sources: National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics, Reperes, The Associated Press, The American Legion, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

​ Orange County Register 

Colorado at No. 23 UCLA: Who has the edge?

• October 27, 2023

Colorado (4-3 overall, 1-3 Pac-12) at No. 23 UCLA (5-2, 2-2)

When: 4:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Rose Bowl

TV/radio: ABC (Ch. 7)/570 AM

Line: UCLA by 17

Notable injuries: COLORADO: OUT: TE Louis Passarello (knee); QUESTIONABLE: OT Savion Washington (ankle). UCLA: QUESTIONABLE: WR Titus Mokiao-Atimalala (undisclosed), LB Ale Kaho (undisclosed); PROBABLE: QB Collin Schlee (upper body)

What’s at stake?: While the Bruins are a heavy favorite against Colorado, the opportunity to host coach Deion Sanders and Colorado helps the stars align for what would’ve already been a busy homecoming weekend. The game has been declared a sellout at the Rose Bowl and is expected to have an increase in viewership by playing the Buffs in a notable time slot. A good showing on the field could serve well from the point of marketing for the university and with fans and recruiting for the program.

Who’s better?: UCLA is the more talented of the two teams as Colorado is in Year 1 of a rebuild following Sanders’ arrival. The Buffaloes overhauled the roster as Coach Prime brought along his sons, quarterback Shedeur Sanders and safety Shilo Sanders, as well as two-way player Travis Hunter upon leaving Jackson State for Boulder.

Matchup to watch: Colorado’s offensive line vs. UCLA’s defensive front. The Bruins will look to bring pressure and attack Shedeur Sanders. The Buffaloes’ offensive line has allowed Sanders to be sacked 34 times (129th in the nation) this season, including seven times each against Nebraska and Oregon. The Bruins are ranked eighth in the nation with 24 sacks. It could be a long night for Sanders if UCLA builds a lead and forces Colorado to pass while playing from behind.

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UCLA wins if: Running back Carson Steele must lead the Bruins’ rushing attack like last week. The Bruins should be able to run against a Colorado defense that ranks near the bottom of the conference. UCLA’s defense must also create turnovers to control the clock and limit Sanders’ opportunities to lead the Buffaloes downfield.

Prediction: UCLA 31, Colorado 18. The Bruins’ defense will overwhelm Colorado while the offense pulls away in the second half to secure the victory.

​ Orange County Register 

Here are special foods and deals at restaurants for Halloween 2023

• October 27, 2023

From pumpkin-shaped pizza at Papa John’s to Scooby Doo doughnuts at Krispy Creme and Chipotle’s ever-popular Booritos, restaurant chains are dressing up their menus for Halloween.

Pizza has joined candy as a Halloween tradition, and several pizza chains are taking advantage of it with holiday promotions.

Most holiday promotions from restaurant chains require membership to loyalty programs these days. Check the chains’ websites for details.

Here are some of the special foods and deals that are out there.

Pizza

7-Eleven: 7Rewards members can buy one large pizza and get another one for free Oct. 30-31, according to a news release. The convenience store chain also has a Mountain Dew Pitch Black Slurpee with a citrus flavor on tap for a limited time. 7-eleven.com

Blaze Pizza: The Pasadena-based chain is offering new Blaze Rewards members a $5 reward for an online order of $15, according to a news release. Its pizza of the month is roasted garlic and sausage. blazepizza.com

California Pizza Kitchen: Dine-in guests who buy a pizza through Oct. 31 can get a free take-home pizza on their next visit with a minimum $25 purchase, according to the chain’s website. cpk.com/npm/pizza

Chuck E. Cheese: Boo-tacular, running through Oct. 31. Fun for kids includes pumpkin-shaped pizza, daily dance parties and free game play, according to a news release. chuckecheese.com/bootacular

Marco’s Pizza: A limited time flavor called Hot Honey Pepperoni Magnifico features pepperoni and Mike’s Hot Honey. It costs $10.99 at participating locations. The code is HHMAG. Also new is Pizzoli, a handheld with meats and cheeses rolled in pizza dough. They cost $.5.99 with promo code PIZZOLI. marcos.com

MOD Pizza: Customers who visit a MOD store wearing a Halloween costume will receive 31% off their in-store purchase on Oct. 31, according to a news release. modpizza.com

Mountain Mike’s Pizza: New on the menu are Cinnamon Not-Knots, a dessert made with pizza dough, cinnamon, brown sugar and mozzarella cheese. mountainmikespizza.com

Papa John’s: Jack-O’-Lantern Pizza is back. It has a thin pumpkin shaped crust served unsliced with pepperoni slices that form a face. papajohns.com/jack-o-lantern-pizza

Pieology Pizzeria: There’s a treasure hunt on the Pie Life rewards app inviting members to “find Boo” for a reward, according to a Facebook post. pieology.com

Round Table Pizza: Guests can get two medium one-topping pizzas for $14.99 each, according to a news release. roundtablepizza.com

Quick service

Baskin-Robbins: An array of Halloween cakes includes the cute yet creepy Zombie Unicorn Cake, made to look like a winking green animal with an Oreo-coated ice cream cone for a horn. Flavor of the month is Apple Cider Donut. baskinrobbins.com

Burger King: The chain is bringing back its Ghost Pepper Whopper with an orange bun covered with black sesame seeds from last year. And it is  introducing Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries, available in four, eight or 12 pieces with choice of dipping sauce. There’s also a paper crown covered with ghosts. Through Halloween, Members of the Royal Perks program can get a meal with the scary Whopper and chicken fries, plus small french fries, a Hershey Sundae Pie and small drink for $13, according to a news release. bk.com

Chipotle Mexican Grill: This year’s Boorito offer is for loyalty members. They can get an entrée for $6 on digital orders made between 3 p.m. and closing time. That will be a couple of hours later than usual at 53 of its restaurants near college campuses that will stay open until midnight on Halloween. Two are in Southern California, at 1077 Broxton Ave. in Westwood Village, near UCLA, and 1800 Ximeno Ave., near Cal State Long Beach. Chipotle will be giving away an exclusive bottle of Tabasco Scorpion Sauce for the first 100 orders placed after 10 p.m. at those locations, according to a news release. chipotle.com/boorito

Cold Stone Creamery: Boo Batter Ice Cream, a black-colored version of its Cake Batter Ice Cream, is back for October and can be ordered with Halloween candies mixed in. coldstonecreamery.com

Duck Donuts: The Spooky Box assortment includes 12 eerie flavors, from Ants Marching, a glazed doughnut with chocolate sprinkles, to Werewolf, a maple bacon doughnut with raspberry drizzle. duckdonuts.com

Dunkin’: The Massachusetts-based chain is not only bringing back its Spider Donut, it has created a 6-foot inflatable version of it on sale for $99.99 at shopdunkin.com. It’s also decorating its classic frosted doughnuts with orange and chocolate sprinkles. dunkindonuts.com

Fatburger: Customers get a free cookie with any purchase through Oct. 31, according to the chain’s website. fatburger.com

McDonald’s: The fast food giant is handing out Boo Buckets with Happy Meals for a limited time. The treat-or-treat containers come in four designs for 2023: an orange skeleton, a white mummy, a green monster and a purple vampire. mcdonalds.com

Rubio’s Coastal Grill: Rewards members can get any burrito on the menu  for $8.99 on Oct. 31, according to a news release. rubios.com

Wendy’s: The chain will kick off five days of deals on Friday, Oct. 27 with a buy-one-get-one offer on premium sandwiches, including its Loaded Nacho Cheeseburger, according to a news release. The offer wraps up Oct. 31 with free six-piece chicken nuggets with any purchase. www.wendys.com

Full service

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Applebee’s: To-go or delivery customers can get a free 10-piece order of boneless wings with any purchase of $40 on the chain’s website or app on Oct. 31, according to a news release. The chain is also offering “Spooky Sips” for $5, including Dracula’s Juice, made with Jose Cuervo and Bacardi Superior, and Tipsy Zombie, also with Bacardi Superior. https://www.applebees.com

BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse: The chain has a new Spooky Pizookie, a Cookies ‘N’ Cream cookie topped with Oreo crumbs, Halloween sprinkles and orange-tinted Vanilla Bean ice cream. bjsrestaurants.com

Chili’s Grill & Bar: Margarita of the month is a $6 Trick or Treat-A-Rita, made with Lunazul Blanco Tequila and Tito’s Handmade Vodka and topped with Halloween candy. chilis.com

Red Lobster: The seafood chain’s Tuesday deal with be a pound of snow crab legs over crispy potatoes and choice of side for $20. redlobster.com

​ Orange County Register 

How a single year of Elon Musk turned Twitter into a husk of its former self

• October 27, 2023

New York  — It’s been one year to the day since Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion and set the company, along with its employees and users, off on a whiplash-inducing series of twists and turns.

Twelve months on, the company barely resembles its former self — and not only because Musk renamed it “X” and did away with its iconic blue bird branding. Through a dizzying and haphazard barrage of changes, Musk has transformed a profitable company once regarded as the world’s go-to source for breaking news and political commentary into a widely ridiculed platform that’s fighting just to break even and crippled by debt; that’s struggling to manage spam and disinformation; that’s alienated some of its biggest advertisers and users; and that’s casting about for purpose.

Even as Musk — and new CEO Linda Yaccarino — push their vision for X as an “everything app,” the company has seemingly no clear path back to prominence or respectability, or to recouping Musk’s massive investment.

Driving the transformation has been a relentless stream of layoffs, resignations and policy reversals, as well as messy product rollouts and unfulfilled promises. The company faces a series of legal challenges brought by everyone from former employees to company contractors and landlords that have further complicated its outlook. X is also the subject of multiple regulatory investigations by the US Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and EU officials that could potentially lead to penalties, both for the company as well as Musk himself.

X claims engagement is up, but the company appears to use different metrics than it did prior to the Musk takeover, making a true comparison difficult. Visits to the company’s website are down 14% compared to last September, far outstripping the 3.7% decline industrywide over the same period, according to a report this month by the internet monitoring firm Similarweb.

Yaccarino said in a statement Thursday that she is “incredibly proud of the work our team has been doing to accelerate the future of X.” The X CEO highlighted some of the new products and features launched over the past year, including the ability for companies to post job listings, longer posts, and audio and video calls for Premium users, which rolled out this week. She said that X is “a place where everyone can freely express themselves, so long as they do so within the bounds of the law,” and added that safety remains a “critical priority” for the platform.

“If we can achieve all of this in just 12 months, just imagine the scope of our ambition for next year,” Yaccarino said.

X is now facing perhaps its biggest test yet under new ownership amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war — and numerous tech watchdogs and civil society groups have raised alarms about false claims and propaganda linked to the conflict on the platform. And as next year’s elections in the United States and elsewhere raise fears about the further spread of misinformation campaigns, X’s value to the public conversation appears increasingly in doubt.

All of this unfolded over the course of just 365 days. But for many, likely including beleaguered users who have decamped for alternatives such as Threads, Mastodon and BlueSky, it’s felt more like a decade. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) account of how Musk has fundamentally changed Twitter since he made one of the most consequential acquisitions of the social media age.

Heads rolling

In a series of rolling layoffs in the months after his takeover, Musk axed what he would later describe as roughly 80% of the company’s headcount.

Few departments were left untouched by the layoffs. They affected positions in some of the company’s most critical areas: policy, trust and safety, communications, ethical AI, search and more. The result was a hollowed-out workforce charged with maintaining rickety systems that had already been described as brittle, and which Musk further shrunk in an effort to cut costs. Under Musk, the company’s technical infrastructure proved increasingly prone to meltdowns, resulting in a series of glitches earlier this year affecting users’ ability to use the site.

Along the way, Musk fired — or accepted the resignations of — key members of Twitter’s old guard, including its former CEO and CFO, as well as its general counsel, policy chief, chief privacy officer, chief information security officer, director of product management and head of trust and safety. Even some of the people who rose to become Musk’s trusted lieutenants at the company have already left.

The workforce cuts have prompted repeated questions, including from US lawmakers and regulators, about the platform’s ability to respond to threats to security and privacy, along with elections, misinformation and hate speech. And thousands of former employees have accused Musk of providing fewer severance benefits than they were promised, and some also allege he’s delayed severance benefits and payments to cover executives’ work-related legal fees.

Product and policy overhauls

In his zeal to restore what he describes as “free speech” to X, Musk has made numerous policy and product decisions that have altered what users can see on the platform.

He reversed Twitter’s ban on former President Donald Trump based on an unscientific poll of his followers, after previously saying the decision would be up to a “content moderation council” that never materialized. He also reinstated the suspended accounts of white supremacists and conspiracy theorists. He temporarily suspended several journalists from Twitter for their reports on a third-party account devoted to tracking Musk’s private jet (despite previously criticizing the platform’s suspension practices).

Under Musk’s leadership, the company removed specific protections for transgender people from Twitter’s hateful conduct policy. X made it easier for politicians and political candidates to qualify for newsworthiness exemptions from Twitter’s rules, when they would otherwise have their content restricted or removed. The platform overturned a 2019-era ban on political and issue advertising, and issued an updated, “zero-tolerance” policy on violent speech that was nevertheless vaguer and more subjective than what it replaced. And it updated Twitter’s privacy policies to say the company may allow users to opt-in to having their biometric information and job and education history collected by the platform.

But perhaps no change has been as significant as Musk’s move to replace Twitter’s legacy verification (“blue check”) badges with a new form of verification that no longer carries the explicit assurance of authenticity.

Days after his takeover, Musk debuted — then un-debuted, and later revived — a subscription feature that granted any user a blue verification badge if they paid for the platform’s $8 per month subscription plan. Critics warned that the system would lead to impersonation on a massive scale, and undermine a feature that once helped users to trust what they saw on the platform.

Sure enough, when the feature was first launched, Twitter faced a wave of verified impostors pretending to be everyone from Nintendo to LeBron James. After the platform revoked the badges of accounts who’d been verified under the old system, Musk offered to personally pay for verification for James and several other frustrated, high-profile users.

Under the new system, users who paid for verification have their posts boosted by the platform’s algorithm. And more recently, X rolled out an advertising revenue share program for verified users, rewarding those that drive engagement with payouts — creating potential financial incentives for engagement farmers and misinformation peddlers who share inflammatory or misleading claims.

As it dismantles old ways of thinking about content moderation, X leaders have repeatedly touted “Community Notes,” an expanded version of the “Birdwatch” user-generated moderation system that Twitter launched in 2021. X said this week that Community Notes now has more than 100,000 volunteer user-moderators in 44 countries who are participating in adding contextual labels to content on the platform.

But numerous reports have suggested that Community Notes is struggling to meet its mission, burdened by issues like delays in users adding labels and bad actors attempting to game the system. (Yaccarino said in Thursday’s statement that Community Notes are getting faster, and that “this product is not perfect, but it is improving rapidly.”)

In the meantime, Musk has also antagonized and pushed away many journalists who previously contributed to the spread of reliable information on the platform. Most notably, NPR and PBS abandoned the platform entirely in April after X labeled them as “state-affiliated media,” a designation the broadcasters said misleadingly implied they receive substantial backing from government entities or are not editorially independent. The platform later changed the label to “government-affiliated media” and then did away with it altogether, but the outlets have not returned.

Many of Musk’s content and product decisions have also led to what civil society groups have reported as a troubling spread of hateful speech on the platform.

Sluggish business

In the early days of Musk’s takeover, many of Twitter’s largest advertisers — including the likes of General Mills and the Volkswagen Group — paused their spending over concerns about X’s layoffs, content moderation capabilities and general uncertainty about the platform’s future.

The mass advertiser pullback tanked the company’s revenue, and it still has yet to fully recover. Musk has lashed out over the brand revolt, accusing his critics of deliberate sabotage and even going so far as to sue one watchdog group, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, and threatening to sue the Anti-Defamation League, alleging they damaged the brand with claims about surging hate speech on X.

For its part, X has claimed hate speech is down and has touted new brand safety controls that purport to allow advertisers to restrict what kinds of content their ads can run next to. But even those safety offerings appeared to run into some early road bumps.

The company’s leaders have offered conflicting views on the state of its finances — making it unclear when and if X’s business can be revived.

Musk said in July that the company remained cash flow negative because of a 50% decline in ad revenue and heavy debt load. A month later, Yaccarino said many top advertisers had returned and the company was “close to breakeven.” The next month, Musk said US advertising revenue was “still down 60%.” Weeks later, Yaccarino said the company could return to profitability early next year.

Meanwhile, the banks that lent to Musk to finance his takeover are still struggling to offload the debt due in part to the billionaire’s chaotic leadership, the Wall Street Journal reported this week.

Yaccarino’s ascension to CEO in June signaled Musk’s commitment to winning back advertisers; her track record as an NBCU ad executive, along with the cheery persona she projected on X, seemed to foretell a brighter future for the company. But as Musk has continued to make off-hand announcements about the company’s roadmap, at times seemingly taking Yaccarino by surprise, outsiders have widely wondered about the true extent of Yaccarino’s authority and influence within the company.

In an interview last month, Yaccarino stressed that she does have autonomy from Musk as CEO. “Elon works on the technology and dreams up what’s next,” she said. “I bring it to market.”

Musk’s erratic behavior

Through it all, Musk has become the platform’s most consistent main character, weighing in on the largest issues of the day whether he is informed about them or not. When Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked in his own home, Musk baselessly amplified fringe conspiracy theories about the assault. He recommended that X users monitor the Israel-Hamas conflict by following an account known for spreading disinformation, before later deleting his post. He has obliquely defended “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams over racist comments and has condemned the financier George Soros, a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Musk appears to harbor an obsession with his own popularity on the platform, reportedly pressuring engineers to boost his own posts in users’ feeds after complaining his posts got fewer views than President Joe Biden’s during the Super Bowl.

In other contexts, Musk has leveraged his ownership of Twitter to promote politicians he personally favors, such as by helping to launch Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign by way of a live Spaces event plagued by technical glitches. A week after that event, Musk held another Spaces event to promote Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the vaccine skeptic and another presidential hopeful, and he promoted an interview between former Fox host Tucker Carlson and another republican contender, Vivek Ramaswamy. He has also hosted Benjamin Netanyahu, the conservative Israeli prime minister for a live discussion on X.  Musk has said he’s willing to host candidates from across the ideological spectrum, but so far few if any politicians whom Musk disagrees with have been promoted in similar events.

And, in an attempt to prove that former Twitter executives deliberately discriminated against conservatives on the platform, Musk provided a handpicked group of journalists with selective access to company records. The resulting reports, known as The Twitter Files, purported to reveal a nefarious campaign of suppression. However, the internal communications actually corroborated existing accounts of how Twitter struggled to handle a 2020 New York Post article involving Hunter Biden and his laptop. Musk’s own lawyers later would go on to dispute the insinuations and allegations in The Twitter Files as they tried to prevent Trump from pursuing a case against the company in court.

Musk has also used the platform to promote his other companies and to hit back at his detractors — everyone from former employees to various regulatory bodies scrutinizing his ownership of the platform.

It is perhaps Musk’s all-consuming presence that has most undermined what users used to love about Twitter. The platform was once a place to hear from lots of different kinds of voices; where any given user might be leading the day’s “discourse” with the newsiest, most entertaining or controversial bit of content; where there was indeed sometimes toxicity, but it was generally overpowered by useful, up-to-the-minute news and commentary. Now, it’s the Musk show, and users increasingly seem inclined to tune out.

The-CNN-Wire & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

​ Orange County Register 

‘It’s not a possum, it’s a person’: Man missing for a month is found dead in chimney

• October 27, 2023

A month after a tenant reported frantic yelling in his Nebraska apartment building, a missing man was found dead in a chimney.

1414 S. Third St., Norfolk, Nebraska. (Google Maps image)

Police in Norfolk announced on Wednesday, Oct. 25, that the body recovered the previous week was that of Zachariah A. Andrews, 29. The Norfolk man had been officially reported missing on Oct. 3, and the last sighting of him was Sept. 15, the police said.

On the afternoon of Sept. 16, a resident called police to report somebody yelling for help, apparently inside the two-story apartment building. “It was someone saying, ‘Dear Jesus, help me. Dear Jesus, help me,’” another tenant later told the Norfolk Daily News.

By the time officers responded, the yelling had stopped, and three other residents said they hadn’t heard anything. The police suggested that the noise might have come from a loud television on the first floor.

Within about a week of the incident, tenants reported a foul smell. A maintenance worker initially attributed it to dampness in the 110-year-old brick building, the landlord told the Daily News.

The landlord said he asked the man to investigate further, and on Oct. 18 the worker cut a hole in the basement ceiling. Seeing what he believed to be an opossum tail, he told the landlord the odor was from a dead animal and that he would remove it the next day.

On Oct. 19, he called the landlord with startling news: “It’s not a possum, it’s a person.” The tail was actually the lace of a shoe on somebody who was wedged in an out-of-use chimney.

The body was removed by police, who had to break through a wall in a first-floor apartment. In announcing the identification, the department said a parking warning had been placed on Andrews’ car, near the building, on Sept. 20, and that officers had spoken with the missing man’s family.

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The police said the preliminary finding is that the death was accidental. They did not provide any information on why or how Andrews is thought to have entered the chimney.

The landlord told the Daily News that it would have been difficult to enter the chimney either from inside the building or from the roof. He said the opening of the chimney is about 10 inches wide at the bottom and perhaps a little wider at the top, which extends 7 feet above the roof. When workers need access to the roof, he said, they use a 20-foot ladder from the roof of the adjoining one-story building, Hank & Snook’s Mint Bar.

The case is similar to that of Harley Dilly, a 14-year-old Ohio boy who went missing after leaving for school on Dec. 20, 2019. He was found dead more than three weeks later in the chimney of a vacant house across the street from his family’s. It is believed that he got on the roof and descended the chimney, then hit a blockage in the shaft and was unable to climb out.

​ Orange County Register 

Boos!Letter: Horror-themed escape rooms that elevate the scare factor

• October 27, 2023

Happy Friday, Ghosties!

While there are dozens of walk-thru attractions with plenty of pop-out scares to enjoy throughout Southern California this haunting season, if you truly want to immerse yourself into the terror, an escape room just might be the ticket.

There are several horror-themed escape rooms now open with a variety of backstories from zombies being created in a lab to being trapped in the home of a serial killer. These timed experiences are designed for small groups and put individuals in charge of certain tasks.

Can you work with your crew find all of the clues to move forward? Will you be brave enough to step up to the monsters in an effort to find your way out?

Check out reporter Richard Guzman‘s list of 10 Halloween-themed escape rooms here.

Here’s more frightfully fun news.

Ariana Madix and Harvey Guillen at Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights on October 6, 2023. (Photo by Hamilton Pytluk, Universal Studios Hollywood)

Photos: Stars at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights

Even celebrities like a good scare.

Since Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights opened on Sept. 7, stars have been showing up for a screaming good time.

From actors and actresses like Vince Vaughn, Abigail Breslin and Pedro Pascal to rockers and pop stars like Billie Eilish, Blink-182’s Travis Barker and Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, they’ve all turned out to experience walk-thru attractions based on films like “The Exorcist: Believer” and “Evil Dead Rise” and television shows including “Stranger Things” and “Chucky.”

Take a spin through a photo slideshow of all of the horror-loving talent here.

View of the atmosphere during a spine-chilling soirée in celebration of the launch of Disney+ and Hulu’s “Goosebumps,” the new series inspired by R.L. Stine’s books, at Chelsea Factory on October 13, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)

Hulu’s free Halloween pop-up brings its latest offerings to life

Hulu’s “Huluween: Now Screaming” pop-up experience at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood will feature several scare zones based on films like “Annabelle,” “The Boogeyman,” “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and TV shows like “American Horror Story” and “Goosebumps.”

There will also be photo-ops and exclusive Huluween merchandise.

It’s all free, too, and runs from 4-10:45 p.m. Oct. 29-31. Richard has more on the event here.

Long Beach based 562 LIVE Radio is using a cast of local actors for its Halloween-themed radio show dubbed Haunted Radio 2023, which will air online from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 31.(Photo courtesy Alex Exum)

Tune into Haunted Radio via Long Beach’s 562 LIVE

On Halloween night, Long Beach’s 562 LIVE Radio will flip its programming to become Haunted Radio online with voice actors sharing family-friendly campfire ghost stories from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

It’s a homage to classic radio dramas, where friends and families would gather around the home radio to listen to plays that also include music and other sound effects.

Find out how to tune in and what goes into creating the broadcast here.

 Until next week, happy haunting!

 Get previous online editions of the Boos!Letter

Boos!Letter: Halloween concerts, cocktails and a haunted car wash

Boos!Letter: Pomona Fairplex transforms into the Fearplex for Halloween

Boos!Letter: Delusion provides the scares, but is Phillips Mansion in Pomona really haunted?

Boos!Letter: Where to celebrate Halloween in Southern California

Boos!Letter: Pumpkin patches and kid-friendly Halloween events

Boos!Letter: Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights: Tips for survival

Boos!Letter: How Knott’s Scary Farm is celebrating its 50th anniversary

Boos!Letter: Halloween Horror Nights and Oogie Boogie Bash launch next week

 Want more spooky fun? The Boos!Letter newsletter includes exclusive content you won’t find on our websites. Get it sent directly to your inbox by subscribing to our Holiday Events newsletter here.

​ Orange County Register 

Candy prices are up. Here’s why, and how to save on Halloween

• October 27, 2023

By Cara Smith | NerdWallet

Forget the ghouls and ghosts — inflation is spooky enough. And it’s coming for your Halloween candies.

Candy and gum prices rose 7.5% between September 2022 and September 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For context, the broader category of grocery prices increased 3.7% over that time frame.

Why is candy so expensive?

Beyond overall inflation, which rose 3.7% year over year since September 2023, there are a few more reasons why candy is so expensive right now. The cost of raw sugar reached an 11-year high in April, per CNBC, due to the effects of extreme weather on the crop, as well as rising demand.

And a U.S. agricultural policy that requires 85% of sugar purchases to come from domestic processors is further tightening an already strained supply, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Consumers are taking notice. In a survey of 1,000 U.S. households that celebrate Halloween, 41% of respondents said that inflation has impacted how much they plan to spend on Halloween candy this year, according to Advantage Solutions, an e-commerce analytics firm.

Go for this cheap Halloween candy in 2023

Thankfully, there are some candies whose prices actually fell year over year, according to a new report from Pattern, an e-commerce analytics firm. So you can still indulge in some sweet treats without exceeding your budget.

Pattern tracked the price changes of more than 30 types of candy on Amazon every day for one year. First, Pattern data scientists calculated a baseline price for specific candies — such as Twix, Milky Way or Skittles — by taking the average of the 10 most popular versions of those candies.

For example, Milky Way’s 10 most popular products may include a two-pack of candy bars, a 36-pack of candy bars and a bag of Milky Way “Fun Size” minis. Those prices, as well as the prices of the seven other most popular products, would then be averaged. That average would represent the Milky Way baseline price.

Then, Pattern compared that initial baseline cost from October 2022 with each candy’s baseline price one year later.

By measuring how each candy’s baseline price changes over time, a picture emerges of how each candy’s price rose or fell over a given time period — regardless of product.

In the 12 months leading up to Oct. 9, 2023, the analysis found that prices fell on Amazon for these candies:

Hot Tamales (-44.90%).
Mounds (-13.23%).
Heath (-10.24%).
Rolos (-9.83%).
Milk Duds (-7.58%).
Whoppers (-6.9%).
Reeses (-5.13%).
Milky Way (-4.28%).
Nerds (-2.96%).
Kit Kat (-1.63%).

Those percentages translate to significant real-world savings. Last year, Hot Tamales’ baseline cost on Amazon was $45.69 on Amazon. Today, that figure is 44.9% less, at $25.32, per Pattern. Even Milky Way’s much smaller percentage change of -4.28% means the candy’s average price dropped from $21.70 in 2022 to $19.01 in 2023.

To avoid inflation’s hardest-hit treats, stay away from these candies, whose prices rose the most dramatically over that time period: Airheads (+26.34%), Baby Ruth (+13.51%), candy corn (+13.24%), PayDay (+12.0%) and Tootsie Rolls (+11.36%). Airheads’ average cost was $10.15 in 2022; today, that figure is $15.32.

How to save money on Halloween

With expensive winter holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah just around the corner, here’s how to spend less on Halloween, beyond avoiding the priciest treats.

Avoid buying your favorite candy. Seems counterintuitive, right? But, as Fortera Credit Union notes, you’re more likely to munch on your favorite treats before Halloween, leaving you in a pinch on the big night. Stock up on sweets you won’t be tempted to eat.

Make your own costume. You can also ask friends if they want to trade costumes, recommends Farmers Trust & Savings Bank. If you’re responsible for kids’ costumes, reach out to other families in your social circle and see if any parents would be interested in a costume swap.

Trade home and yard decor with friends and family. For decorations, buy art supplies from a dollar store, per Advisors Management Group, an investment firm in Wisconsin.

The article Candy Prices Are Up. Here’s Why, and How to Save on Halloween originally appeared on NerdWallet.

​ Orange County Register