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Dozens of flights in and out of Washington-area airports were canceled over the holiday weekend. Flight cancellations continued Monday, but those weren’t the only issues travelers ran into.

Even in the early morning hours, lines at the check-in counters at both Delta and American Airlines stretched the halls of Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday. Still, most of the flyers WTOP spoke with had no issues with their travel experience, except waiting to check a bag.

Jean, who was headed back to Fort Myers, Florida, said there were no issues with the check-in process and she was “very confident” that her flight would not be one of the flights canceled.

“I take this fight about every other week,” she told WTOP.

But other flights from Reagan National to Chicago, Minneapolis and Phoenix, among others, were scrapped Monday morning. And even more inbound flights had been canceled for the airport closest to D.C.

These local experiences contributed to the massive list of cancellations that travelers saw nationwide over the Christmas weekend.

FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, said nearly 1,000 flights entering, leaving or inside the U.S. were canceled Saturday, up from 690 flights scrapped on Friday. Sunday saw the worst spate of cancellations, with over 1,500 flights canceled in the U.S.

As of midmorning Monday, there were already 788 flight cancellations.

Delta, United and JetBlue have all said that the omicron variant of COVID-19 was causing staffing problems leading to flight cancellations.

According to FlightAware, those three airlines canceled more than 10% of their scheduled Saturday flights. American Airlines also canceled more than 90 flights Saturday, about 3% of its schedule, according to FlightAware.

But along with canceled flights, travelers ran into other problems — specifically COVID testing delays.

Anne from Fredericksburg and her family were headed to Antigua for a little fun in the sun post-Christmas. To enter the Caribbean island, you have to have a negative COVID test.

“We had to get them three days ago, because that’s the timeline,” said Anne. “We were supposed to have our COVID testing results by yesterday and two people in our family their tests aren’t back yet. So they’re not allowing you to get on the plane.”

Anne said it was frustrating to follow all the protocols that were required and still not get the tests back in time.

“We are going to try to get a flight for them tomorrow. Yeah … they were all booked, but we’ll see.”

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With the Christmas weekend over, you may be getting ready to toss out all the holiday greenery to make a clean start for the new year. But not all of those plants should be put in a pile by the road.

During the holidays, a good number of plant-made decorations include boxwood. While the decoration looks good, it may be harboring boxwood blight, a disease that can spread to other plants in your yard if you don’t dispose of it properly.

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“If you discard it — especially near boxwood plants in your yard — when the temperatures warm up again, the fungus could potentially spread to those susceptible boxwood [plants],” said Mary Ann Hansen, an extension plant pathologist with Virginia Tech.

One woman told Hansen a story about disposing of a holiday boxwood wreath on the compost pile.

“They had a long hedge of susceptible English boxwood that went right up to the compost pile. She could see the disease ultimately spreading down that hedge and destroying the whole hedge,” said Hansen.

There are signs for spotting boxwood blight. If the disease is active, you should be able to see  circular tan leaf spots with a dark border.

But the disease also causes leaves to drop off, so the infected leaves might have already fallen off the stems.

“Often, on infected plants, you’ll see black streaks on the young green stems. So, if you see those black streaks, those are definitely a red flag for boxwood blight. Sometimes you can see the symptoms,” Hansen said.

But it’s better safe than sorry, she said. Discard any greenery containing boxwood in a double bag — with one bag inside the other — and make sure that it gets to the landfill with the rest of your household trash.

Don’t leave it lying around the yard in cull piles from which the fungus could spread.

“You want to make sure you are not discarding your greenery with your Christmas tree on the side of the road open to the air, because the spores could spread. But, more importantly, the dead infected leaves could spread from that,” said Hansen.

Source

Howard University in D.C. is delaying the start of its spring semester citing, among other things, a rising surge in coronavirus infections.

Classes will start Jan. 18 instead, with face-to-face courses scheduled to begin on that date. Formal classes had originally been scheduled to start Jan. 10.

The university’s most recent weekly positivity rate has increased to 19%, which is the highest number the school has seen throughout the pandemic, the university said in a news release.

We have seen a concerning increase in percentage and the number of positive cases over the past three weeks. To protect our community, we are delaying the start of the semester to January 18th.

Posted on 2021-12-29

Alex Jones Turns on Trump Over COVID Vaccine Support: Either “Ignorant” or, Worse, “The Most Evil Man Who Ever Lived” – “Ultimate Head-Fake”

AUSTIN, TX – Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Saturday issued a warning to former President Donald Trump over his recent support for the COVID-19 vaccines that his administration assisted in developing, saying that he was either “ignorant” or “the most evil man who has ever lived” for advocating the jab.

On the December 25 episode of his InfoWars show, Jones – a staunch opponent of vaccination – thoroughly blasted his one-time ally, referring to statements that Trump had made during a recent interview with Candace Owens.

“This is an emergency Christmas Day warning to President Trump,” Jones said. “You are either completely ignorant about the so-called vaccine gene therapy you helped ram through with Operation Warp Speed, or you are the most evil man who has ever lived to push this toxic poison on the public and to attack your constituents when they simply try to save their lives and the lives of others. What you told Candace Owens is nothing but a raft of dirty lies.”

Jones apparently changed his tune on Trump due to statements he has been making lately, where the former Commander-in-Chief has publicly praised COVID-19 vaccines – admitting during a recent tour that he was fully vaccinated and boosted – and has been encouraging his followers who may be on the fence to get inoculated.

During Trump’s interview with Daily Wire host Owens – which took place on December 22 – the scene turned slightly confrontational when the former president directly contradicted her claims that COVID vaccines do not work.

Hey Meghan— did you know that the overwhelming majority of people dying and/or being hospitalized from Covid-19 are clinically obese?
People like you love the vaccine because it allows you to pretend that you care about health.
People like me see right through that bullshit. https://t.co/fbtt2OVCJj

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) December 24, 2021

Trump schooling Candace Owens with facts and logic regarding getting the vaccine is really a sight to behold. Credit where credit is due and I hate the guy.

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) December 23, 2021

“And yet more people have died under COVID this year, by the way, under Joe Biden than under you. And more people took the vaccine this year, so people are questioning how…” Owens said, before being cut off by Trump.

“Oh, no. The vaccine worked. But some people aren’t taking it. The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine,” Trump said. “But it’s still their choice, and if you take the vaccine, you’re protected. Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it’s a very minor form. People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.”

Mr Trump has long been proud of the role his administration played in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine; during the final stop of his “The History Tour” with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in Texas earlier this month, Trump boldly proclaimed that the vaccines have saved up to a “hundred million people.”

“Look, we did something that was historic. We saved tens of millions of lives worldwide. We together, all of us — not me, we — we got a vaccine done, three vaccines done, and tremendous therapeutics that have saved a lot of lives,” Trump said. “I think this would have been the Spanish Flu of 1917 where up to a hundred million people died. This was going to ravage the country far beyond what it is right now.”

Owens would later claim that Trump was supporting vaccines because he was “too old” to understand how to use the internet to conduct “independent research” on alternative COVID treatments.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden Administration’s chief medical adviser, stated Monday on MSNBC that it would be “reasonable to consider” a requirement for full vaccination against COVID-19 for people looking to take domestic air flights as a new surge in the pandemic –driven by the new Omicron variant – disrupts travel in the United States and worldwide.

In addition to suggesting that full vaccination should be mandatory for air travel, Fauci also suggested during a second interview later that day on CNN that people should weight the possibility of avoiding mass gatherings during this weekend’s upcoming New Year’s Eve celebrations.

“When you make vaccination a requirement, that’s another incentive to get more people vaccinated,” Fauci said. “If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that’s something that seriously should be considered.”

Fauci also said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been weighing the possibility of shortening isolation time requirements for front-line workers; later on Monday, the CDC officially rolled out amended procedures, shortening quarantine time for essential workers exposed to COVID-19 from 10 days to just five.

These announcements come in the face of a massive spike in COVID-19 infections across the country, driven by the new Omicron variant, which experts say is typically less severe than previous variants but far more transmissible.

Nonetheless, hospitals around the U.S. have been overwhelmed by new Omicron cases – New York alone reported 49,708 new cases on December 24 – thus prompting the CDC’s updated guidelines for frontline workers in an attempt to address shortages.

Air travel over the Christmas weekend was severely impacted by Omicron, causing widespread shortages of airline personnel and the subsequent cancellation of approximately 2,800 flights, leaving countless travelers essentially stranded until alternate flights could be booked.