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20081121

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"'Card check' best hope for auto workers union? Congress to vote on Employee Free Choice Act to make unionization easier." ... "Congress returns after Thanksgiving to decide whether to approve a $25 billion loan to General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford. The future of United Auto Workers members in Michigan and other states is at stake." ... "“It appears to me we possibly have one too many auto makers,” said [Tennessee Republican Senator] Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.[ Republican-Tennessee], who opposes the loan [and recommends Chapter 11 bankruptcy]." ... "But it will be an industry in which fewer workers are represented by the United Auto Workers. And that doesn’t cause Republicans like [Alabama Republican Senator] Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.[ Republican-Alabama], any regret." ... "One advantage the [Japanese and South Korean auto manufacturers] Honda and Hyundai plants in Alabama have over the General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford plants in Michigan is lower labor costs. That's because, in part, auto workers in Michigan are represented by the UAW and workers in Alabama aren’t." ... "But what if the UAW [United Auto Workers] could more easily organize workers at Honda and Hyundai? UAW-represented workers at Honda and Hyundai could then bargain for higher wages." ... "The Employee Free Choice Act, passed by the House of Representatives last year, but stymied in the Senate, aims to make unionization easier by allowing workers to join a union by signing a card rather than by going through a secret-ballot election. The bill is called “card check” for short." ... "A UAW ally, [Ohio Democratic Representative] Rep. Tim Ryan, D[Democratic]- Ohio, said enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act “would level the playing field. Each facility would be competing on the same playing field.”" ... "In the vote next year, Republicans up for re-election in 2010, such as [Ohio Republican Senator] Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio will be under pressure to vote for it." (1, 2) -By Tom Curry

-MSNBC

20071222

Families - Poverty - Agriculture - Christmas-Holidays - Thanksgiving - Gasoline - Households - Money - People - "Food Bank Shelves Going Bare At Holidays: High Living Costs Hurting Donations, While Increasing Demand By Needy Families." ... "The reports from across the country are dismaying: Food pantries are running short and cannot meet the needs of all those seeking help." ... "In the Department of Agriculture's most recent study of hunger in America, released in November, more than 35.5 million Americans, including 12.6 million children, were found to have "low" or "very low food security" (defined as households where hunger was prevalent, where there was not enough money to buy adequate food supplies, where food purchased did not last, or where family members had to cut down or skip meals - sometimes not eating for a day or longer)." ... "That's roughly 1 in 9 households. And the numbers are rising from last year." ... "Everywhere, people are feeling the crunch of rising gasoline and grocery prices, as well as utility bills, rent and mortgage payments." ... "Those factors also are cutting into people's ability to donate to food banks for others in need." ... "At Thanksgiving, the [America's Second Harvest] organization estimated that food banks nationally were short a total of 15 million pounds of food, or roughly 11.7 million meals. " -AP via -CBSNews

20071004

Noteworthy - US - Iraq - Religious - Freedom - Censorship - Military - Politics - Thanksgiving - "Are U.S. troops being force-fed Christianity? A watchdog group alleges that improper evangelizing is occurring within the ranks." ... "At Speicher base in Iraq, US Army Spec. Jeremy Hall got permission from a chaplain in August to post fliers announcing a meeting for atheists and other nonbelievers. When the group gathered, Specialist Hall alleges, his Army major supervisor disrupted the meeting and threatened to retaliate against him, including blocking his reenlistment in the Army." ... "Months earlier, Hall charges, he had been publicly berated by a staff sergeant for not agreeing to join in a Thanksgiving Day prayer." ... "On Sept. 17, the soldier and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) filed suit against Army Maj. Freddy Welborn and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, charging violations of Hall's constitutional rights, including being forced to submit to a religious test to qualify as a soldier." ... "The MRFF plans more lawsuits in coming weeks, says Michael "Mikey" Weinstein, who founded the military watchdog group in 2005. The aim is "to show there is a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense."" ... "For Mr. Weinstein – a former Air Force judge advocate and assistant counsel in the Reagan White House – more is involved than isolated cases of discrimination. He charges that several incidents in recent years – and more than 5,000 complaints his group has received from active-duty and retired military personnel – point to a growing willingness inside the military to support a particular brand of Christianity and to permit improper evangelizing in the ranks. More than 95 percent of those complaints come from other Christians, he says." ... "Weinstein insists, however, that there are improper actions at high levels that not only infringe on soldiers' rights but, at a very dangerous time, also send the wrong message to people in the Middle East that those in the US military see themselves engaged in Christian warfare." -By Jane Lampman -CSMonitor

20051125

Texas - Thanksgiving - US - Iraq - Military - Politics - Cindy Sheehan - "Sheehan Back in Texas for War Protest." ... "The mother of a fallen soldier whose vigil against the war in Iraq outside President Bush's ranch returned to Texas, saying she is "heartbroken" that the troops are not home." ... "[Cindy] Sheehan asked protesters to return to Crawford this week during Bush's family Thanksgiving gathering. She was unknown when she set up camp outside Bush's ranch during his August vacation, but as the vigil drew thousands, she attracted national attention." -AP via -CBSNews

20051123

Texas - Thanksgiving - Politics - "Protesters Arrested Near President Bush's Texas Ranch." ... "A dozen war protesters were arrested Wednesday for setting up camp near President Bush's [Texas'] ranch in defiance of new local bans on roadside camping and parking." ... "The protest was set to coincide with Bush's Thanksgiving ranch visit." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

20051119

Massachusetts - Thanksgiving - Food - Business - "Mass. warns Whole Foods on Thanksgiving." ... "There'll be no last-minute shopping for turkeys or trimmings on Thanksgiving Day in Massachusetts." ... "The state has warned the upscale Whole Foods supermarket chain that it will risk criminal charges under the state's centuries-old "blue laws" if it goes ahead with plans to open on the holiday." ... "The office of Attorney General Thomas Reilly issued a legal opinion after officials at a Whole Foods competitor, Shaw's Supermarkets, wrote him a letter asking him to block the opening, The Boston Globe reported." -AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource

20031127
Thanksgiving 2003 November 27

- - - "Bush Makes Secret Thanksgiving Visit to Iraq." ... "President Bush secretly traveled to Baghdad and paid a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to U.S. troops on Thursday in a bid to boost the morale of forces in Iraq amid mounting casualties." ... "In an elaborate plan to ensure his security in the tense Iraqi capital, Bush slipped away from his Texas ranch on Wednesday night, arrived in Iraq on Thursday and spent 2-1/2 hours with the troops before flying back to the United States." -By Steve Holland -Reuters via -Wired

20031126

"Experts Predict Busy Thanksgiving Travel: Improving National Economy and Flat Gas Prices Have Travel Officials Bracing for Busy Thanksgiving." ... "The AAA travel group expected 36 million people nationwide would travel 50 miles or more from their homes over the Thanksgiving weekend the highest number of travelers since the 2001 terror attacks." ... ""Number one, it's the economy. Whenever people feel more confident about their own personal finances, usually you see a little jump in travel," AAA spokesman Mantill Williams said." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

20021128
Thanksgiving 2002 November 28

- "Thanksgiving travel puts new security to the test: Thanksgiving holiday travelers took to the skies Wednesday in the biggest test of airport security since the federal government took it over last week, while drivers in the Northeast faced heavy, wet snow." ... "Around the country, only a handful of flights were delayed. Travelers were waiting an average of less than 10 minutes at major airports' checkpoints, said Robert Johnson, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration." ... "Just last week, the government finished placing more than 47,000 security workers at 424 airports nationwide. The TSA was created after the [September 11] attacks prompted concern about inefficient and inattentive private security workers." -AP via -CNN

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"Marines Celebrate Thanksgiving in Kuwait: Marines Make Their Own Thanksgiving in the Deserts of Kuwait." ... "As the United States prepares for a possible war with Iraq, the Marines have established Camp Commando on the edge of a Kuwaiti military base to act as their command headquarters. From here, they will be able to control the tens of thousands of Marines who could arrive in Kuwait." ... "A few weeks ago, the base was virtually sand." ... "For these soldiers mostly from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. it was yet another Thanksgiving away from home." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

20021127

"The first Thanksgiving: In the fall of 1621, 90 Wampanoag Indians and 52 English colonists gathered for a three-day harvest feast. How did Americans get from that celebration to the Thanksgiving 'traditions' we observe today?" ... "Everyone knows about the Pilgrims and the Indians, right? How the two groups gathered peacefully in Plymouth, Mass., to feast on juicy turkeys and colorful pumpkin pies." ... "The trouble is, almost everything we've been taught about the first Thanksgiving in 1621 is a myth. The holiday has two distinct histories - the actual one and a romanticized portrayal." ... "... Everything historians know today is based on two passages written by colonists." -By Elizabeth Armstrong -CSMonitor