“The existing Mission Boulevard Bridge was identified as seismically deficient, no longer meeting current safety standards,” according to a Riverside County Transportation & Land Management Agency statement. “The structure will be fully replaced with a modern 1,100-foot bridge, featuring two traffic lanes in each direction, added shoulders and a raised center median to improve overall safety for drivers.”

The current span, which crosses the Santa Ana River, has been in place since 1958, though the original bridgework foundation was established in the early 1920s, undergoing major modifications between then and the late 1950s due to storm-related impacts.

TLMA is supervising the project, but both the cities of Riverside and Jurupa Valley are invested in it.

Officials said demolition and reconstruction will occur in stages, impacting travel between Crestmore Road on the Jurupa Valley side and Mt. Rudidoux Drive at the Riverside city limits. The first stage will start Monday, when contractors initiate the process of removing the center median, requiring two of four lanes to be shut down all next week.

The following week, a long-term traffic shift will be implemented, with one lane available going into Jurupa Valley and both eastbound lanes open going into Riverside, according to TLMA. Those lane closures will result in slower traffic along the span daily.

The bridge is already a traffic chokepoint during various parts of the day, particularly early weekday mornings and late afternoons.

“Motorists are encouraged to allow extra travel time and follow posted signage in the work zone,” TLMA stated, adding that no “long-term full closures of Mission Boulevard are planned.”

The next stage of the project is anticipated in the spring of 2028, when a second significant traffic shift is planned, though specific details have not been announced.

Completion of the new span is expected in the latter half of 2029.

Funding for the project budget includes direct allocations from Jurupa Valley and Riverside, as well as California Proposition 1B grants and Federal Highway Bridge Program infusions, according to TLMA.

Additional information about the overall project, lane closures, planned detours and timelines can be found at missionblvdbridge.com/.

The post RivCo $91M Bridge Replacement Begins Monday appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

U.S. border czar Tom Homan told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday the effort was about “helping TSA do their mission and get the American public through that airport as quick as they can while adhering to all the security guidelines and the protocols.”

“We’re simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise, such as screening through the X-ray machine,” he said. “Not trained in that? We won’t do that. But there are roles we can play to release TSA officers from the non-significant roles, such as guarding an exit so they can get back to the scanning machines and move people quicker.”

Various media outlets reported Monday morning that ICE agents were being deployed to 14 airports across the nation — none of them in California.

Officials at Palm Springs International Airport did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Sunday.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump said he would order ICE agents to assist with airport security if Congress did not immediately reach an agreement to fund TSA officers.

In a social media post, Trump said ICE agents could also be tasked with making immigration arrests at airports.

“If the radical left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our country, in particular, our airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE agents to the airports where they will do security like no one has ever seen before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The proposal comes as a partial government shutdown has left roughly 50,000 TSA employees working without pay, contributing to increased absenteeism and staffing shortages at airports nationwide.

Administration officials said about 10% of TSA workers failed to report for duty on some recent days, compared to typical rates of under 2%.

The post IE Airports Will Not Be Affected By ICE Agents In The Immediate Future appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

After deciding her next home would be outside the U.S., she narrowed down her choices based on tax burdens (Spain was out with its wealth taxes), climate (no Costa Rica, too hot) and ease of travel within Europe, one of her favorite parts of the world. She then toured Portugal with a relocation company, Expatsi, and found her new home, Aveiro. It’s a striking city on the country’s west coast with lovely canals that earned it the nickname the Venice of Portugal.

It’s all logistics from there. Taylor signed a year lease on an apartment (a requirement for moving forward), hired the company Viv Europe to navigate bureaucracies and paperwork, signed up for the necessary FBI background check and has an appointment in late September to move ahead with visas.

Her youngest child gave her the idea to leave the country.

“After our current president was elected, my 18-year-old transgender daughter came to me and said, ‘I want to get out of this country ASAP,’” Taylor recalled. “That was just fine with me.”

Her oldest daughter, who’s 20, will stay in the U.S. to complete college.

“None of this means I have to live there forever,” Taylor said. “I’ll use this as my jumping-off point to do more deeper dives, explore the rest of the region. I want to buy a place, but I’m not going to do that until I’m living there and spend more time in different communities.”

According to aging and relocation experts, Taylor has made the right decisions.

Relocating for retirement

The number of people who relocate upon retirement fluctuates, based on such factors as politics, home affordability and cost-of-living rates. While older adults are less likely to move than younger populations, more than 3 million people age 65 and older relocated within the U.S. in the five years before the coronavirus pandemic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

As for moving abroad, U.S. politics is now the No. 1 reason cited by people who use Expatsi, the company’s co-founder Jen Barnett said.

“The one downside is that a lot of countries retirees are interested in don’t want retirees, and that is to say wealthy, English-speaking countries, because they want laborers,” Barnett said.

While most U.S. retirees stay put in existing homes and locales, those who want to age in place face mounting challenges, said AARP Vice President Rodney Harrell, who focuses on housing and livable communities.

Challenges include rising rents or mortgages, costs for home modifications, and a lack of community support services like adequate health care, reliable utilities and safe environments.

“One of the biggest challenges that we have is making sure that we take the future us into account, and not just look at our needs today,” Harrell said. “Are we driving today? Is our income where it is? Is our spouse and myself healthy right now? How able are we to walk around and use steps, etc.? Things can change.”

All of the above is crucial as the U.S. heads into a gray bubble.

“We’re going to have more people over 65 than under 18 by 2034. For the first time in U.S. history, we have more older adults than children,” Harrell said.

It’s not just about weather or grandkids

Do you want mountains, an ocean, to be closer to grandkids? Would you like a university town or city, a particular religious institution? Harrell suggests setting clear priorities when planning a relocation. And they should go well beyond those specifications.

Taking housing costs into consideration is generally universal, he said, but he urged a more subtle consideration.

“What are the neighbors like? Is it an active community, if that’s what you want. Do people keep to themselves more? That social connection is really important, too,” Harrell said.

The AARP’s livability index scores neighborhoods and communities across the U.S. for the services and amenities that impact older people. It’s easily searchable by address, city, state or ZIP code.

“Think about all of the things that you might want collectively, and know that there’s no perfect place,” Harrell said. “Once you have those things in mind, you’ll get to the best possible outcome. Every place has trade-offs.”

If being close to children and grandchildren is high on the list, set clear expectations about how involved you want to be in such things as child care, said retirement transition planner Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons. Also, chat with adult children before making a move to determine how settled they are themselves.

Casey Bowers and her husband, Dave Bowers, recently relocated to Ericeira, northwest of Lisbon on Portugal’s beachy Silver Coast. They love it, but it’s not all ocean and sun.

“We have three adult children and their partners, and one grandbaby with another on the way,” Casey said. “We’re very close to our children. Learning the grocery store, getting new cellphones, those are just procedural things, but being away from family — that’s the hardest part.”

Sarah Friedell O’Connell, a retirement coach in Boston, looks at relocation this way: “You’re going to get a lot of hours back when you stop your full-time job. What are you going to do with that time?”

Take a good look at your lifestyle

As a wealth manager, Chad Harmer has helped dozens of retirees relocate, from Ontario, Canada, to Arizona’s High Desert, from the Boston suburbs to the Carolinas. And he’s dealt with some “boomerang” moves back home after grandchildren arrived.

“Start with a ‘lifestyle audit,’ not a tax table,” he said. “I ask clients to write a perfect Thursday five years from now. Where are they walking? Who are they meeting for coffee? How long is the drive to the grandkids? That exercise surfaces climate preferences, social networks, volunteer hobbies and healthcare priorities long before we argue over property tax millage rates.”

He also recommended budgeting for hidden inflators — such as higher insurance premiums in disaster-prone areas and frequent flights to see family — and considering less obvious weather complications, like pollen levels.

Parsons, who wrote “Encore: A High Achiever’s Guide to Thriving in Retirement,” is a staunch supporter of taking a short-term rental before deciding on a permanent move.

“It’s tempting to retire where you vacation, but that may not be the greatest idea,” she said.

Harmer’s rule of thumb: When 80 % of your desired daily routine is achievable in a new location for at least 80 % of the year, you’re in the right ZIP code.

“Anything less and you’re probably chasing an Instagram fantasy rather than a retirement reality,” he said.

The post Retiring and relocating? Take a holistic approach appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The Trump administration gave the work a thumbs up at the same time it announced an investigation into California’s controversial high-speed rail project between Los Angeles and San Francisco. One major difference: the billionaire behind the Las Vegas high-speed rail project co-founded the investment firm that loaned Donald Trump $130 million to help build Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, and then forgave the loan.

The Las Vegas to IE rail project, named Brightline West, has been embraced from the start. During an April 22 groundbreaking ceremony with a large gathering of VIPs in Nevada, then President Joe Biden’s U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg praised the project.

“People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in the U.S. for decades. Thanks to the President’s leadership and that of members of Congress like those here, as well as our state partners in Nevada and California, the men and women of organized labor, and the terrific work of Brightline West, it’s happening,” Buttigieg said.

“So, on behalf of the Biden Administration, it is my great honor to help break ground on what will be the first high-speed rail in American history,” Buttigieg continued. “It’s really happening this time.”

In total, the Brightline West project will see 218 miles of new track laid between a to-be-constructed terminal just south of the Las Vegas Strip and another new facility in Rancho Cucamonga.

With its trains traveling up to 200 mph, Brightline West is slated to be in service in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. In addition to the Rancho Cucamonga station, two other Inland Empire stations are planned along the Brightline West route: Hesperia and the Victorville area. Additionally, Rancho Cucamonga offers connections to existing Metrolink routes.

The project’s current construction work includes geotechnical borings and sampling, utility potholing, and land surveying in San Bernardino County.

The project has received billions in federal funding, and unlike the fate of another California high-speed rail project, there are no signs of trouble brewing with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, current U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy announced that the Federal Railroad Administration has launched a review of the California High-Speed Rail Authority and its proposed bullet train project. If completed, the long-promised and costly endeavor would shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Trump appears to be done with it, as are many Californians.

“For too long, taxpayers have subsidized the massively over-budget and delayed California High-Speed Rail project,” Duffy said last week. “President Trump is right that this project is in dire need of an investigation. That is why I am directing my staff to review and determine whether the CHSRA has followed through on the commitments it made to receive billions of dollars in federal funding. If not, I will have to consider whether that money could be given to deserving infrastructure projects elsewhere in the United States.”

Conversely, the Brightline West project received approval from Duffy. It was the only other infrastructure project named in the secretary’s remarks.

“The slow progress by CHSRA contrasts with the impressive work of Brightline West to build a high-speed rail system,” Duffy said.

Besides taxpayer dollars, Brightline West has big money behind it. Wes Edens founded the Brightline company. The venture currently operates a rail system in Florida, with dozens of passenger trains running between Miami and Orlando.

In addition to being a private equity investor and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team, Edens is co-founder of New York City-based Fortress Investment Group.

The billionaire businessman also has complex financial ties to Trump.

Fortress was spotlighted after New York Attorney General Letitia James launched an investigation in 2019 into Trump’s finances. Court documents revealed the president received a multi-million-dollar loan during the aughts from Fortress for his Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, project.

Fortress issued the Trump Organization a $130 million loan for the project, but Trump did not repay the bulk of the loan, according to the complaint filed by James in 2020.

Trump subsequently defaulted on the loan and sued Fortress, according to a 2020 New York Times report.

Fortress forgave more than $100 million in debt owed by the Trump Organization, court documents show.

The A.G.’s office wanted to know if Trump documented the loan forgiveness as income, as required by the Internal Revenue Service, and paid taxes on the money. It was part of a much broader investigation into Trump’s business dealings that ultimately led to a Feb. 16, 2024, court ruling against Trump and his company. In total, the defendants were ordered to pay more than $450 million.

Neither Edens nor Fortress were accused of any wrongdoing.

In addition to loaning Trump’s company money, Fortress reportedly made at least one multi-million-dollar loan to the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The post The Convoluted Financial History Between Billionaire Behind SoCal Rail Project And Trump appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Chain, a recent darling of social media and beneficiary of articles that speak of its nostalgia-fueled good times, promises the in-the-know somewhat exclusive access to the latest celebrity chef creations, specifically those from Tim Hollingsworth of the late, great Otium. The hook: The food is themed around dishes found in popular franchise-focused eateries, only this is fast food reimagined.

Chain is designed to rekindle memories in a way that excites your now-sophisticated taste buds. At past events, you could try an elevated Blooming Onion-inspired appetizer, a wagyu beef-enchanced Taco Bell dish or a Pizza Hut-like pan pizza with 24-month aged Vacche Rosse parmigiano — all with the help of a Michelin-starred chef.

At a Chain event, which has taken place in New York and L.A., and often at one-off pop-ups at its buzzy headquarters in Virgil Village, you enter a fantasy world where fast food is haute cuisine. The food of the common person — the meals scarfed down when everyone is too tired to cook, money is tight or the kids just need to be placated — is, in actuality, the food of the elite.

To the Chain, fast food is marketed as a uniter, a bridge between classes, as long as you sign up to receive a text message notifying you of its next not-so-secret event and rush to buy tickets. (And a Chain event isn’t cheap — I balked at a recent pizza night that topped $100.)

I was, I admit, drawn to Chain. I have fond memories of late nights working on the high school newspaper when we would debate who would make the McDonald’s run. Plus, I live within walking distance of Otium, a special occasion place that I found many excuses to visit (does stress count as a special occasion?). And just as the first season of “The Bear” documented how one can build a better Italian beef, I trusted Chain to craft a superior hot dog.

That’s why I bought a ticket to this past weekend’s ChainFest, Chain’s big-time festival. It was a bust, an uncomfortable gathering of trash food scattered among scorching-hot asphalt grounds. The event failed so drastically in its understanding of food culture that it essentially mocked the lower class. It’s the rich and their influencer pals cosplaying as commoners who eat fast food not because it’s the only restaurant available in their food desert of a neighborhood but because, hey, White Castle is good, actually. Surprise, it’s not.

This should have been a celebration for the company, which recently received a smattering of glowing press when the B.J. Novak-founded operation brought in Chrissy Teigen as an adviser. Chain also brags its association with the likes of Hollingsworth ensures only the highest quality food ingredients are used.

That wasn’t evident at Saturday. Held at the Row DTLA, a retail and shopping complex in downtown Los Angeles, ChainFest was an embarrassment, a marketing charade masquerading as a nostalgia party. A sample text from a friend: “I should have eaten my money rather than this mediocre food.”

Agree that cash would have literally tasted better than anything to sample at ChainFest. I knew I made a mistake as soon as I entered. It was clear I would not be getting the value of my $109 general admission ticket (VIP offerings topped $300).

The Chain Instagram had presented itself in a colorful, Disneyland-like map — a tiki drink over here, a fresh take on Domino’s pizza over there, an artsy interpretation of Panda Express up ahead and a resurrection of Koo Koo Roo in the VIP area — but what I was greeted with was chintzy off-the-shelf signs leading to food stands where uninterested workers juggled half-open cardboard boxes of food. It was cheap, crass and cruel, a place where food was treated as disposable. Just like at many of the eateries Chain champions.

And then there was this realization: Chain doesn’t know what it’s nostalgic for. Low quality food high in grease and fat? Companies that traffic in minimum wage jobs? It was fast food firms, after all — some of which have been propped up at past Chain events — that spoke out against California’s Assembly Bill 1228, which sought to raise salaries for their barely-surviving employees.

Romanticism for fast food isn’t an anomaly ‘round these parts. Southern California is arguably the birthplace of the modern chain restaurant — this is where McDonald’s got its start, after all — but what was once a cheap meal dedicated to a car-based, drive-through culture has today become generally associated with poor ingredients, low wages, obesity and the sort of restaurants that populate low-income neighborhoods.

While I understand the appeal of an In-N-Out burger now and then, Chain seeks to cute-ify the sort of food that so much of the population relies on not by choice but out of necessity. Instead of using their resources for good — to, say, reimagine comfort food as something not just affordable but as inventive dishes made with fresh ingredients — Novak, Teigen and Hollingsworth at ChainFest instead opted to glorify the likes of Panda Express, Cracker Barrel, White Castle, Domino’s and more.

Perhaps they can do fast fashion or Big Oil next?

There’s been no shortage of big-name chefs attempting to tackle everyday foods. Our own city has been in the midst of a decade-plus long pizza renaissance since Nancy Silverton launched Pizzeria Mozza. My favorite restaurant, Little Goat Diner in Chicago, is Stephanie Izard’s reinvention of the casual hangout spot, where a menu of chili crunch burgers, crab-enhanced cheesy dip, and peanut butter and bacon pancakes generally all falls under $20 per item. It’s also proof high-quality diner food can be done without cozying up to Johnny Rockets.

I expected a similar flair from ChainFest. What I got was an expo dedicated to small bites of chain food staples. The White Castle slider was, for all intents and purposes, a White Castle slider. Sure, it came with a “Chain Castle Crave” sauce but there was not much difference between this and the frozen White Castle burgers I ate in college. Except the latter didn’t come with a $100 entry fee.

While social media opinions on ChainFest were mixed, many, such as local digital creator Luis Marin, had a less than positive experience:

View this post on Instagram

The mini waffles and chicken strips of Kentucky Fried Chicken was my next stop. This was a revival of an older recipe, we were told, but the chicken was a blob of blubber with the consistency of paper. Chain created multiple sauces to pair with them, but these little bombs of dryness needed more than a splash of dressing to become edible. I tried to wash it down with a $20 tropical rum drink that was Trader Vic’s branded, but it was all watered-down melted ice.

I did eagerly stop by Portillo’s. A Chicago-native, I have admittedly fond memories of post-Little League hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches, and have pilgrimaged to Buena Park to sample the SoCal outpost. But here? Forget it. A tiny dog littered with potato chips that obscured any taste and dominated the texture. A bite and a half and all I was left with was a bundle of relish.

I thought, too, of recent news reports surrounding fast food companies and their workers — efforts by some food preparation staffers at Portillo’s to unionize, and a report last year, documented in The Times, which found that “current and recent fast-food workers … make up 11% of all homeless workers in California.”

But that’s the core of the problem. No one involved, if Saturday is to be the judge, has shown a desire for critical thinking. Does Chain want to make a statement regarding the restaurants it heralds? And can it even do so while also marketing them, as it did in helping Panda Express launch a spicy chicken item?

As I pondered leaving Chain — there was a McDonald’s down the street and a Pane Bianco inside the Row, both of which were cheaper and would have offered better experiences, one upscale and one low — I put on my headphones and queued up Pulp’s anthemic song “Common People.” It’s a screed against the worst kind of rich, those who fetishize the working class to pander to them. “You think that poor is cool,” sneers Jarvis Cocker in the tune.

And ultimately ChainFest felt cynically opportunistic. There are, according to their official websites, around 20 outposts of Panda Express in L.A., and at least that many Domino’s within a short drive of my place.

So, then, why, exactly does this company exist? The Chain team seemed outmatched at its signature event. Instead of reimagining Panda Express, we were reminded of why Panda Express is a last resort.

At a Chain event, you are buying more than a dish. You are buying a myth, albeit a tantalizing one, that the chain restaurants that are so ubiquitous across the country are actually good for us, the real heroes of the American food industry. As I looked down at the smoked salmon-topped slice of admittedly livened-up Domino’s pizza, I couldn’t help but wish it had a base more inviting than the franchise’s weighty mess of chewy dough. It all left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

The post I went to ChainFest for the nostalgia. What I saw was a crass glorification of trash food appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

San Diego International, along with El Cajon’s Gillespie Field, San Diego’s Brown Field and Oceanside’s Bob Maxwell Memorial Airfield were among 56 California airports receiving more than $219 million from the FAA through its Airport Improvement Program.

“Californians and the millions of visitors we get each year deserve a safer, smoother airport experience,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, who announced the grants Monday. “By modernizing our airport infrastructure, these investments will not just make travel easier for passengers, but will reduce noise and air pollution in neighboring communities.”

SAN will receive its funding for four projects:

— acquiring and installing noise mitigation for 201 residences near the airport;

— construction of a 127,578 square yard apron — where the planes are parked — at Terminal 1 and an 8,640 square yard overnight apron;

— construction of a new 6,300-foot-long taxiway; and

— shifting a taxiway south by 37.5 feet.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is funding projects across the country that are making airports safer and more efficient for the passengers who travel through them and for the airport and airline employees who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make these complex systems run as smoothly as possible,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The grants we’re announcing today will improve airfield operations for dozens of airports and help ensure the U.S. retains its global leadership in aviation.”

The grants awarded Monday also include $5.1 million for Gillespie Field to rehabilitate its runway, $540,000 for Brown Field to install perimeter fencing and $136,260 for Bob Maxwell Memorial Airfield to install a runway visual guidance system and to rehabilitate runway lighting.

San Diego International is undergoing a massive project to rebuild Terminal 1. In late August, the airport opened the first phase of its parking plaza, providing 2,834 parking spots. The second phase of the parking plaza and first phase of the terminal itself is scheduled to open in summer 2025, with all construction slated to finish by early 2028.

The post San Diego International Granted $26.3M For Infrastructure Improvements appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft was set to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday (March 28), but the company called off the attempt before beginning to fuel the vehicle. SpaceX is now targeting to earlier than Friday at 10:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 p.m. Pacific time or 0230 GMT on March 30).

When the launch occurs, you can watch it live via SpaceX‘s account on X. Coverage will begin about five minutes before the liftoff. 

If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth for a vertical touchdown about 8.5 minutes after launch. That landing will occur on the deck of the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean. 

It will be the 15th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.

The Falcon 9’s upper stage will continue hauling the 22 Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit (LEO), where they will be deployed about 62 minutes after liftoff.

The rescheduled launch will be the 30th Falcon 9 flight of 2024, and the 20th dedicated to building out the Starlink megaconstellation. To date, SpaceX has lofted 6,077 Starlink satellites, 5,610 of which are currently operational, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

The post SpaceX delays launch of 22 Starlink satellites from California appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The late crush of holiday travelers picked up steam Wednesday, with about 2.7 million people expected to board flights and millions more planning to drive or take the train to Thanksgiving celebrations.

Airline officials say they are confident they can avoid the kind of massive disruptions that have marred past holiday seasons, such as the meltdown at Southwest Airlines over last Christmas. As of Wednesday evening that appeared to be the case.

U.S. airports reported 59 flight cancellations into, out of or within the U.S. Wednesday and 2,750 flight delays, according to FlightAware, a tracking service. FlightAware said anything less than 300 cancellations and 4,000 delays per day is considered very good.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York said it was checking all vehicles arriving at the airport and performing additional security screenings after a car crashed and exploded at a nearby checkpoint on the U.S.-Canada border. But the airport said it remained open and fully operational. All four border crossings in the area were closed, the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission said.

Snow showers could snarl traffic in other parts of the country. The National Weather Service was predicting accumulating snow in northern New England Wednesday, including up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of snowfall in northern Maine. Snow was also expected to hit the northern Rocky Mountains on Thanksgiving Day, bringing up to 1 foot of snow to parts of Wyoming by Friday.

Security lines at airports could be long. Delta Air Lines is telling passengers to arrive at the airport at least two hours before their flight if they are traveling within the United States, three hours early if they’re flying overseas — and maybe earlier on Sunday and Monday.

Jordan Sessions heeded that advice and got to the airport early Wednesday for a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Oakland, California. But the Portland airport wasn’t crowded and the check-in lines were short, so he wound up waiting a bit for his flight.

That wasn’t the case for Brittany Dandridge, who found lines out the door when she arrived for her flight from Dallas to Oakland.

“Luckily I was traveling with my dog and they allowed me to skip the line,” she said.

The Transportation Security Administration said it screened more than 2.6 million passengers Tuesday and it expected another 2.7 million passengers to come through airport security on Wednesday. On Sunday, it expects to screen 2.9 million passengers, which would surpass a previous record set on June 30.

Lines ebbed and flowed all morning Wednesday at Moynihan Train Hall in New York. Some travelers said they opted to travel by train for convenience or lower prices. Others said they just wanted to avoid any chaos at the airport.

Matthew Hudnall and Abby Greenbaum were traveling from Atlanta to New York to Boston to visit family with their 5-year-old daughter. By the time they reach Boston, they will have taken a total of nine trains, they said.

“I think we thought it would be calmer and less stressful than flying. So, far that’s true,” Greenbaum said.

Amtrak said it was expecting 750,000 passengers between Nov. 19 and Nov. 26. The company said travelers could see some boarding delays this weekend because of high passenger volumes.

The holiday will also test the Federal Aviation Administration, which faces shortages of air traffic controllers at key facilities that caused reductions in flights to the New York City area this summer and fall.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a news conference Monday that the government prepared for holiday travel by hiring more air traffic controllers, opening new air routes along the East Coast and providing grants to airports for snowplows and deicing equipment.

Airlines have also added tens of thousands of employees in the last couple of years, and Southwest says it bought more winter equipment to keep planes moving even during sub-freezing temperatures.

AAA predicts that 55.4 million people will travel at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home between Wednesday and Sunday, the third-highest forecast ever by the auto club. AAA says most of them — 49.1 million — will drive.

Drivers will get a break from last year on gasoline prices. AAA says the nationwide average for gas was down to $3.28 a gallon on Wednesday, compared with $3.63 a year ago.

Charging stations — not gas prices — were on the mind of Guy Maughan as he set out last week in his Tesla on a 13-day Thanksgiving road trip that will take him from his home near Seattle to his brother’s home in Los Angeles and then to his parents in Phoenix.

Maughan said he and his travel companion — a 7-month-old golden doodle named Nala — expect to spend only about $150 to charge the car along the 3,000-mile (4,800-kilometer) route.

“I love driving, I love road trips, and the car takes care of all the heavy lifting,” said Maughan, who is a real estate agent. “I just put in the destinations and it tells me where we’re going to stop. I’m thoroughly enjoying it.”

Air travelers will enjoy lower prices too. Airfares in October were down 13% from last year, according to government figures, and fares around Thanksgiving have been about 14% lower than a year ago, according to the travel site Hopper.

Even so, the high cost of rent, food, health care and other expenses were weighing on people’s travel plans.

Jason McQueary, a 25-year-old social worker and graduate student, said rent and other essentials eat up most of his paycheck and he was grateful for his credit card points, which brought down the cost of his roundtrip flight from Denver to Chicago from $450 to $150.

“I was just like, ‘Man, I’m glad I only come home once a year,’” said McQueary, who was waiting to get picked up Tuesday after arriving to Chicago O’Hare International Airport to spend Thanksgiving with family in his hometown of Byron, Illinois.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Record Thanksgiving travel rush off to a smooth start despite snowy forecast appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

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 more than 2.6 million travelers on Monday, surpassing the 2.5 million screened the Monday before Thanksgiving in 2019. The 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.”

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Thanksgiving travel rush is back with some new habits appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating more cruise ships due to new cases of COVID-19 as the omicron variant drives extremely high infection levels in the industry hub of Florida.

The CDC said 88 vessels are now either under investigation or observation, but it did not specify how many COVID-19 cases have been reported. Four other vessels are also being monitored by the CDC as well.

Florida hit a new record for daily cases on Tuesday with 46,900 new cases in a day. Since Christmas, the state’s 7-day average of daily cases has surpassed previous records set during last summer’s surge, rising to 29,400 infections.

Coronavirus hospitalizations in the state have also risen from about 1,200 patients two weeks ago to about 3,400 on Wednesday. But that is still less than one-fifth the number of hospitalizations reported in late August due to the delta wave.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling for the CDC and cruise lines to again halt cruise travel, six months after the industry mounted its comeback.

“Our warnings have proved sadly prescient and continuously compelling. Time for CDC and cruise lines to protect consumers, again pause — docking their ships,” the Connecticut senator posted on Twitter.

Cruise lines have not announced any plans to halt cruising. And the CDC did not say it would adopt any changes, adding it still had plans to allow for the expiration of a set of rules that cruises must follow to sail during the pandemic. The regulation, called a conditional sailing order, is scheduled to expire on Jan. 15 to become a voluntary program.

“CDC acknowledges that it is not possible for cruising to be a zero-risk activity,” CDC spokesperson Jasmine Reed said in an emailed statement.

Most lines require adult passengers to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19. Cruise ships are allowed to relax measures such as mask use if at least 95% of passengers and 95% of crew are fully vaccinated.

The federal agency recommends that people avoid cruise travel if they are at increased risk of severe illness, regardless of vaccination status.

None of the ships so far appear to have so many cases that they would overwhelm medical resources on board and require a return to port. But some have been denied entry at some foreign ports.

Several Florida-based ships have reported outbreaks. The Carnival Freedom was denied entry to Aruba and Bonaire after an undisclosed number of passengers and crew aboard caught the virus.

Some cruise ships have not been allowed to disembark in Mexican ports due to cases reported, bringing to memory the early days of the pandemic when cruise lines negotiated docking plans as ships were being turned away by officials worried about the virus’s spread.

The Mexican government said Tuesday it would allow cruise ships with reported coronavirus cases to dock. The country’s Health Department said passengers or crew who show no symptoms will be allowed to come ashore normally, while those with symptoms or a positive virus test will be quarantined or given medical care.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post More cruise ships under CDC investigation due to COVID cases appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.