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Weird Barbie among most popular Halloween costumes in US, according to experts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

LONGMEADOW, Mass. (WWLP) - Weird Barbie, Wednesday Adams and Harley Quinn are among the most popular Halloween costumes in the US, according to new research from fashion retailer Boohoo. The company analyzed Google Trends data to identify the top pop culture-inspired and traditional costumes that people are searching for in each state. The analysis revealed that Barbie is the most popular character to dress up as this spooky season when it comes to pop culture references. This is probably unsurprising to many, seeing as it was a big year for the brand. Warner Bros. Discovery's "Barbie" film has generated at least $1.36 billion at the global box office, making it the highest-grossing movie in the world in 2023 so far, Variety reported."With many states choosing to dress up as Barbie, it proves that one of Margot Robbie's biggest films to date is continuing to take over and dominate the fashion world," a Boohoo spokesperson said in a press release. The ‘most hated’ Halloween ca...

Central Texas economist speaks on potential economic impact with Israel-Hamas war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

WACO, Texas (FOX 44) -- The Israel-Hamas War is causing strife in the Middle East and has the potential to directly impact us.The Middle East is a mass producer of oil, and prices are starting to increase.Dr. Rob Tennant with A&M Central Texas says this is a typical situation that can happen in an oil-producing region.With Israel currently locked in a conflict with Hamas, Dr. Tennant says it's causing uncertainty for how much oil will be produced."In the current situation with the with the invasion of Israel by Hamas. What that does is in the short run, it's created some uncertainty in the speculative market, which has caused the price of oil to go up approximately four percent a barrel," said Dr. Tennant.Dr. Tennant says we're through the summer peak for oil production and gas usage.Normally gas prices go down in the fall and Tennant says this trend should continue despite conflict."When costs go up, the gas prices reflect it pretty quickly. However, gas prices have been coming...

Family Dollar recalls dozens of products sold in 23 states

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) - Family Dollar has issued a voluntary recall for a long list of over-the-counter drugs, medical devices, and other personal health products at stores nationwide.According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, these items were "stored outside of labeled temperature requirements" and sold at certain Family Dollar stores between June 1, 2023, and Oct. 4, 2023.This recall only applies to 23 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.List-of-Recalled-ProductsDownloadThe affected stores have been asked to check their stock immediately and to quarantine and discontinue the sale of the products.Family Dollar has not received any complaints or reports of illness at this time. This recall has been issued out of an abundance of caution.Anyone who may have experienced any adverse...

A 'nightmare': California woman hid under bodies during Israel festival attack

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

Warning: the following contains graphic descriptions of violence.(NewsNation) — For seven hours, Lee Sasi hid in a bomb shelter and under dead bodies following an attack on an Israeli music festival Saturday when Hamas militants tore through the crowd, killing at least 260 people.Sasi described it as a "nightmare." “Everybody was dying in front of me,” Sasi, an American woman from California, told NewsNation's Chris Cuomo, who was reporting live from Israel on Tuesday.She was among the survivors who were attending the Supernova music festival, where some 3,500 people gathered in the Re’im kibbutz in southern Israel, only a few miles from the border with Gaza. Many are still missing, possibly captured and taken to Gaza.When the attack first began Saturday morning with a barrage of rockets flying overhead, Sasi says she didn't know what was happening. "We arrived to the party and we were dancing and we were taking pictures and then we just saw, up in the sky, it looked like fireworks,...

Why are jack-o'-lanterns made from pumpkins?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — Jack-o'-lanterns are easily one of the most recognizable parts of Halloween, with their carved faces bringing cheer to every spooky celebration. But not everyone knows that pumpkins weren't always the de facto product of choice when it came to making the iconic decoration.But where did the first jack-o'-lanterns come from — and why did the switch to pumpkins happen? If you want to find out, then grab some Halloween candy and read the tale of "Stingy Jack," one of Ireland's most spooktacular folktales and the (supposed) father of the jack-o'-lantern as we know it today.A man and the Devil walk into a bar...Though the exact period in which Stingy Jack's story was first told is unclear, the tale itself is a centuries-old Irish myth with several iterations that vary from telling to telling. However, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History estimates that the tale of Stingy Jack first began surfacing around the 1600s, right when indigenous peopl...

Child sex assault suspect brought back to Bell County from Williamson County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

BELTON, Texas (FOX 44) - Bond has been set at $1 million for a former firefighter charged with sexually abusing four separate children after he was brought back to Bell County to face the charges.Kyle Steven Setterlund was held in the Williamson County Jail and was brought back and booked into the Bell County facility on Thursday.Setterlund was originally charged on September 26 with two counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault out of Bell County, stemming from an investigation triggered when Bell County deputies were dispatched to the McLane Children's Hospital. It was there that the parents of the victims reported the abuse. They said Setterlund was a "friend of the family" who was living on the same property as his victims where the incidents occurred. After Bell County investigators reviewed additional evidence, they were able to identify two additional victims and more charges were added.During forensic interviews, the victims were able to describe what was done to them. The Bell C...

Eclipse viewing challenged by cloudy and cool weather

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- Cloudy, cool, windy and somewhat damp conditions for today. This will not make for good viewing of the annular eclipse. Northwesterly winds will gust to around 30 mph and temperatures will struggle to make it to 60 degrees. We could also have some drizzle or very light rain showers at times this weekend, especially this evening through Sunday morning. It was still breezy overnight, with temperatures falling into the 40s to near 50. Sunday will actually be a few degrees cooler, with highs in the mid to upper 50s and mostly cloudy skies. Still breezy, but not quite as windy as today. Temperatures stay below normal into the next work week, climbing to the low 70s by midweek. Rain chances also return Wednesday night through Thursday night.

Opinion: Denver’s spiking rent requires a bold increase in funding for this crucial program

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

This year, Denver will see 12,000 eviction filings, the largest number in our city’s history. Since 2000, housing prices have skyrocketed, and displacement and homelessness have spiraled out of control.Now, with eviction filings and first-time homelessness at all-time highs, we’ve reached a tipping point. Unless we tackle eviction and displacement while simultaneously addressing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness, we will continue to see the number of people without a home increase.As a former caseworker and courthouse tenant advocate, we know working people are doing everything they can to keep their homes. The city must also do everything it can; urgent services to unhoused people must be paired with a concerted effort to slow the flow of Denverites into homelessness.Increasing rental assistance directly supports the mayor’s broader plan, and ensures that progress is lasting, particularly while more affordable housing is built.Twelve City Council members voted to i...

Powered by AI, company aims to make selling easier for retailers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

When Danielle Schmelkin went shopping online for something special to wear to her niece’s wedding in 2021, she was looking for “a very specific type of dress based on trends I had seen recently.”To her delight, Bloomingdales.com came through like a personal shopper. The menu filter for “formal dresses” prompted her to choose from 15 criteria like dress length, color, neckline, sleeve length and embellishments. Moments later, she was sorting through 200 desirable options. “It was quick and really focused,” she said. “I had no problem going from one page to the next, because there were meaningful results for me.” She found “the perfect dress,” and bought it.Months later, Schmelkin — in her role as the chief information officer at J. Crew Group — was introduced to Lily AI, an artificial intelligence-powered platform that began working with fashion retailers in 2019. Bloomingdale’s, she learned, was already a client. Intrigued, Schmelkin did a test run on its product catalog from ...

Smartphone photos are getting faker. Uh-oh?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:42 GMT

Smartphone cameras became extremely powerful over the last five years. Their leap in quality was largely driven by advancements in computational photography, a technology that uses algorithms, artificial intelligence and sensors to produce sharp, lifelike pictures. Now we all can shoot stunning images that rival the work of professionals.So what’s next? I hate to say it: faker photos.Google, which has long been an industry leader in smartphone photography, will on Thursday start shipping the Pixel 8, a $700 handset with a suite of AI-powered photo-editing tools. The phone software does much more than adjust the sharpness and brightness of a photo — it uses AI to generate imagery or to remove elements to give you exactly the photo you want.Imagine, for instance, a photo in which a person’s shoulder is cut off. With Google’s software, you can now tap the Magic Editor button and scoot that person over in the frame. From there, the software will use AI to produce the rest of that ...