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Oktoberfest 2023: 7 best festivals in the U.S.A., from Leavenworth to Stowe

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

Munich’s Oktoberfest is the stuff of legend, with nearly 6 million people heading to the Bavarian city each year to join the revelry, enjoy the carnival rides and eat and drink tasty fare and sudsy steins. But you don’t have to fly to Germany to enjoy the fun.The Bay Area alone hosts more than two dozen Oktoberfest gatherings, and there are epic festivals held from coast to coast. Viator, the tickets, tours and attractions wing of Tripadvisor, recently ranked seven of the biggest festivals in the U.S., complete with oompah bands, lederhosen and plenty of sudsy sipping options.The list includes Fredericksburg, the self-styled “Polka Capital of Texas,” where the Oktoberfest celebration includes five stages of oompah and polka music. In Ohio, Cincinnati’s Zinzinnati fest serves up tens of thousands of Bavarian pretzels and brats plus a dachshund race each year. And in Stowe, Vermont, the party is hosted by Von Trapp Brewing and Trapp Family Lodge, run by t...

San Francisco Fire Department honors 9/11 victims, first responders

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

(KRON) -- The San Francisco Fire Department is honoring the victims and first responders who tragically died 22 years ago today during the 9/11 terrorist attacks that shocked the nation. Every year the fire department holds a remembrance ceremony at all SFFD facilities. Fire personnel gathered at their respective station's flagpoles at 6:59 a.m., which is the time the south tower collapsed. A bell was rung three times, signifying the "last alarm" or the end of the last call for the firefighters who responded to the towers. Sailboat stuck at Stinson Beach must be removed today The flag was then lowered to half-staff for a moment of silence at 7 a.m. The names of each of the 343 firefighters and 8 medical personnel who died risking their lives to save others were read aloud. The flags will remain at half-staff for the rest of the day, SFFD said.Mayor London Breed was also in attendance at one of SFFD's 9/11 ceremonies located along the Embarcadero.Photo: Mayor BreedPhoto: Mayor Bre...

Piggly Wiggly owner buying 10 DC-area Harris Teeter stores

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

Harris Teeter owner Kroger will sell 10 D.C.-area Harris Teeter stores to C & Wholesale Grocers, owner of the storied Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain.The move is part of a larger plan to divest hundreds of stores in order to win regulatory approval of Kroger’s planned $24.6 billion merger with Albertsons. But whether that means a return of the Piggly Wiggly brand to the D.C. market remains to be seen.Keene, New Hampshire-based C & Wholesale owns hundreds of Piggly Wiggly and Grand Union supermarkets, as well as wholesale operations and private-label store brands.Albertsons and Kroger will sell a combined 413 stores, as well as distribution centers in 17 states and the District for a total of $1.9 billion.Albertsons, whose foothold in the D.C. market is its ownership of the Safeway grocery store chain, also owns Balducci’s Food Lovers Market, which has three stores in the D.C. area.The list of stores being sold does not include exact locations, but does list 10 Harris Teete...

Music Review: ‘Who’s Next/Life House’ is a dive into The Who’s masterpiece that mostly slipped away

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

“Who’s Next/Life House” — The Who’s massive new box set — dives deep down the archival rabbit hole to shed light on the development of one of the band’s greatest records — and one grandiose idea that (mostly) slipped away.The 10-disc, 155-track collection out Friday shows how Pete Townshend ’s self-described “mad idea” for a science fiction rock opera “Life House” project, which was abandoned and eventually became 1971’s “Who’s Next.” But the sprawling original concept from The Who’s songwriter, lead guitar player and vocalist never left his mind and got refashioned numerous times in various formats over the ensuing half century.At its most basic, Townshend’s original “Life House” concept foresees a future where an autocratic government, in a land ravaged by pollution, enforces a national lockdown where every person is hooked up to an entertainment grid to distract them. Music becomes an inconvenient diversion to the powers that be, while inhabitants se...

A new campaign ad from Poland’s ruling party features Germany’s chancellor in an unfavorable light

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s conservative ruling party unveiled a new campaign ad Monday that portrays German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an unfavorable light, drawing criticism from opposition parties and ridicule on social media. The Law and Justice party has governed Poland since 2015 and is seeking to keep power in parliamentary elections on Oct. 15. In the new campaign spot, party leader and Poland’s most powerful politician, Jaroslaw Kaczynski pretends to reject a call from Scholz suggesting that Poland should raise the retirement age, which is one of the topics of a voter referendum taking place at the same time as the election. The question targets the main opposition party, Civic Platform and its leader, Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister and European Union president who was on good terms with Germany. Civic Platform raised the retirement age before Law and Justice came to power. In the spot, Kaczynski speaks into a cellphone and tells a pretend employe...

Damar Hamlin not expected to play in the Bills’ opener against the Jets, AP source says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

Damar Hamlin is not expected to play in a regular-season game for the first time since going into cardiac arrest when the Buffalo Bills open the season against the New York Jets on Monday night, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.Hamlin, a safety who had to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati in January, played in three exhibition games this summer. He made the Bills’ roster as a backup after many doubted he would be able to take the field again.The decision not to activate him on Monday night, which was first reported by ESPN and NFL Network, was confirmed to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Bills did not announce their lineup ahead of the game.Listed as the fourth safety on Buffalo’s depth chart, Hamlin is expected to be limited to mostly special teams roles barring injuries to starters Jordan Poyer or Micah Hyde.Hamlin, 25, was starting in place of an injured Hyde against the Bengals on Jan. 2 when his heart stopped as a result of com...

Cease-fire declared after days of intense fighting in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — An “immediate and lasting cease-fire” was declared Monday after a top Lebanese general met with officials from rival Palestinian factions, following days of fighting in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, which left several people dead and dozens wounded.It was the latest in a series of cease-fires that only lasted for hours before fighting erupted again. It was not clear if this truce will hold and whether rival groups will abide by it. The announcement was made in Beirut.Gunfire and explosions were heard throughout the day inside the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, claiming the life of one person. Stray bullets and shells hit residential areas in the country’s third-largest city.The fighting that broke out Thursday night after nearly a month of calm in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the port city of Sidon between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah group and militant Islamist groups has left six people dead and more than 50 wounded according...

Disney, Charter settle cable dispute hours before ‘Monday Night Football’ season opener

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Hours before the fall’s first “Monday Night Football” game, Disney and Charter Communications have settled a business dispute that had left some 15 million cable TV customers without ESPN and other Disney channels.Disney said that because of the deal, the majority of its ESPN customers would have service restored to Charter’s Spectrum cable system right away. Charter confirmed the deal Monday.It comes before the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills were to debut their season on ESPN and ESPN2. It’s the first game for the Jets with Aaron Rodgers as quarterback, and many Spectrum customers are in the New York area.Source

Harris, DeSantis and Giuliani are among politicians marking Sept. 11 terror attacks at ground zero

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined New York politicians and mourners at a 9/11 memorial ceremony at ground zero Monday.The bipartisan group of politicians was not scheduled to speak at the ceremony, marking the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil. The solemn ceremony in lower Manhattan was instead focused on the hourslong reading of the names of the dead.The hijacked plane attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and upended American foreign policy and national security also created a sense of national unity across the political spectrum rarely seen in today’s U.S. politics.Monday’s ceremony brought political opponents to the same hallowed ground, though they did not appear to be interacting. Harris, who arrived with New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, passed not far from where DeSantis and his wife stood. Along with Ha...

Met Opera, Lincoln Center Theater commission work about detained Ukrainian children

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:59:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A Ukrainian composer has been commissioned to write an opera about mothers from that country going into Russia to rescue their forcibly detained children.The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater said Monday that 42-year-old Maxim Kolomiiets will compose the work to a libretto by George Brant, whose “Grounded” with composer Jeanine Tesori premieres at the Washington National Opera on Oct. 28 and travels to the Met in the autumn of 2024. Met general manager Peter Gelb hopes the company can present the new work by 2027 or ’28.The story is fictional but based on events in Ukraine and The Hague. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on March 17 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.Gelb said discussions began last fall with Ukraine first lady Olena Zelenska when she visited New York and Kolomiiets was picked from among 72 applicat...