Lake Tahoe tourists stranded in the California resort town share images and videos of what conditions look like after a massive winter storm dumped several feet of snow throughout the Sierra Nevada.
Monthly Archives: December 2021
‘Suspicious’: Dallas Detectives Seize $100k from Woman at Airport Without Charging Her With a Crime
Niara Savage
Tue, December 28, 2021, 6:00 PM
Two Dallas detectives searched a 25-year-old Chicago woman’s suitcase at Dallas Love Field Airport on Dec. 2 and seized more than $100,000 from the bag.
Detectives say they smelled a drug odor before they searched the woman’s luggage without her permission but did not arrest her and haven’t charged her with a crime. The woman was flying domestically and had a layover at the Dallas airport.
Civil asset forfeiture allows police to seize, then keep or sell the property they allege was involved in a crime, leaving someone whose property was seized to go to court to try to get it back.
A police K-9 alerted two detectives with the Dallas Police Department to a black, checked-in suitcase secured by a lock.
The dog, named Ballentine, is trained to pick up the scent of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine.
A police report does not name what city the suitcase was headed for, The Dallas Morning News reported.
However, the bag was set to be transferred to another plane. According to the report, detectives felt they had to act quickly with a search warrant because it “would not be obtained in time and could cause an undue burden to the passengers and or airlines,” the report says.
According to the report, detectives found shipping bags wrapped in blankets containing $100, $50, $20, $10, $5 and $1 bills inside the suitcase. There were no clothes or other items in the luggage.
When detectives found the woman in the airport terminal, she told them she was a dancer who worked in real estate and that she had sold a house.
Convinced the woman obtained the money through an illegal drug deal, detectives seized the cash. The woman signed a property receipt for the money, police say. Police did not arrest the woman or charge her with a crime.
The Dallas Police Department celebrated the seizure on social media. A post to the department’s Facebook page showed Ballentine posing beside the cash.
“We need to get him some treats! K-9 Officer Ballentine does it again! On 12/2/21, the Love Field Interdiction Squad seized over $100,000 with the help of Ballentine. Good job, Ballentine!” the caption read.
The FBI has confirmed it took possession of the money.
Under Texas law, authorities can seize assets without charging a person with a crime. Black Americans are disproportionately searched and targeted for seizure, a South Carolina study found.
Up to 80 percent of people whose assets are seized by authorities are never charged with a crime.
Institute for Justice attorney Dan Alban told CBS11 that, while it’s legal to travel with any amount of money domestically, agencies consider flying with large amounts of cash suspicious.
“Unfortunately, both TSA and DEA have policies that treat what they consider to be large amounts of money as presumptively suspicious and indicative of criminal activity,” Alban said.
Travelers leaving or flying into the U.S. must declare amounts of cash of at least $10,000.
Since 2000, $68 billion in civil assets have been seized by the government, according to the Institute for Justice.
A spokesperson for the police department told CBS11, “Detectives assigned to Love Field are thoroughly trained and experienced in various criminal interdiction techniques and tactics, many of which were utilized during this incident. Due to the nature of this seizure, as well as where it occurred, it will be subject to follow up investigation with our Federal partners.”
Woman arrested in air rage incident
A woman arrested and charged in an alleged assault aboard a Delta Air Lines flight on Thursday hit a passenger in the face and spat on him after an argument over her remark about Rosa Parks, according to federal court records.
Patricia Yannet Cornwall is charged with assault while aboard an aircraft, according to the criminal complaint released Monday and filed in U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Georgia.
It’s not just you — vacations are impossible to book right now. Here’s what experts say you need to know.
- After staying home for nearly 2 years, many people are ready to take a long-awaited vacation.
- Pent-up demand has travelers eager to book, but flights and hotels are often expensive or booked up.
- Here’s why that’s happening and what experts say you can do about it.
After spending two years at home, Los Angeles-based event producer Kate Mazzuca was vaccinated, vacation-starved, and ready to travel again. But even though she started searching months ahead of her proposed travel dates this winter, she was shocked by the results.
“I set my sights on a sunny locale and thought Hawaii would be ideal, but it was unbelievably cost-prohibitive,” she told Insider. “It was $1,000 a night for a hotel 10 minutes from the beach.” She next looked into the Caribbean, but found prices also in the thousands.
If you’ve tried to book a trip recently, you might recognize your own experience in Mazzuca’s search, either from a lack of availability or eye-popping prices that translate to total nonstarters.
Here’s why and where travel and hospitality experts say that’s happening, and what you can do to get around it.
Travel demand is highly concentrated right now around domestic, warm-weather destinations
Recent research from travel insurance company Allianz Partners, which reviewed four million round-trip itineraries from US airports for a period in December, found that 87 percent of them were for domestic travel, compared with just 13 percent for international travel.
It’s a trend that Willis Orlando, the senior product operations specialist at Scott’s Cheap Flights, is seeing as well. Orlando spends his days analyzing flight prices and told Insider that domestic airfare is still down slightly in price from pre-pandemic levels overall, even in the face of rising inflation. But he acknowledges that for the most popular destinations, airfare can feel very expensive.
“Demand is highly concentrated at the moment,” he said. “It has surged on domestic and short-haul international leisure routes. If you’re traveling at a peak time [such as the holiday season], you’re going to be fighting with a lot of other folks for those tickets, which can result in higher prices.”
Specifically, travelers are very interested in places like Miami, Maui, Disney, or the Caribbean, and are prepared to pay for it
Brandon Berkson helms the trip-planning service HAP Concierge, which customizes boutique and unique travel itineraries for generally affluent Americans between ages 25 and 44. He told Insider many of his clients want to travel to New York City, Miami, Maui, Sedona, and Disney parks.
“Domestic destinations with year-round appeal for families who are not ready for international travel, or have kids who are unable to get vaccinated, are seeing the highest rates,” he said. “The focus is on outdoor or beach destinations, Disney, and a high desire for escapism.”
Additionally, many popular, close-to-home locations in the Caribbean and Mexico that are easily accessible by nonstop flights are seeing high prices and low availability.
“Anything that’s less than a five-hour flight from major US metros, in particular, places with a beach, will be particularly challenging this winter,” warned Henley Vazquez, travel advisor and co-founder of Fora, a tech-driven startup travel agency.
Face mask row sparks mass brawl on a train
A FACE mask row on a train sparked a massive brawl between furious passengers and left kids in tears. The fight broke out after a man wearing a white face mask started shouting at other passengers, “wear a mask”.
In footage of the scuffle, others start shouting back over the seats “You’re an embarrassment, you’re a f****** embarrassment.”
Fellow passengers on the train from York try to calm down the situation and saying “let’s think of the children” but the argument escalates to the point where people can be seen grappling over the train seats.
The man who went up and down the carriage then swings a punch towards a non-face mask-wearing passenger.
The US is getting 7 new international routes in 2022, including St. Louis’ first transatlantic service in nearly 2 decades — see the full list
- An airline alliance with carriers like British Airways and Aer Lingus is launching 4 new routes in 2022.
- The partnership will offer service to Finland, Germany, England, and Spain from the US.
- Lufthansa is also launching two new routes with a historic flight to St. Louis in June.
Airlines are anticipating a busy summer 2022 season and carriers are preparing with new and returning routes and increased flight frequencies to popular destinations.
In a press release on Monday, British Airways revealed its “Aviation Joint Business” partnership is launching four new routes next summer, streamlining travel between the US and Europe via a combined network of flights. AJB started in 2010 between Oneworld partners British Airways, American Airlines, and Iberia, with Finnair joining in 2013 and Spain-based LEVEL joining in 2017.
Aer Lingus is the newest addition after the Department of Transportation approved its membership in December 2020, despite not being part of the Oneworld alliance, according to Simple Flying. The Irish flag carrier’s UK arm, known as Aer Lingus UK, will also operate under the partnership as an affiliate of Aer Lingus. It will connect the US to Manchester after receiving permission from the DOT in September.
Aer Lingus UK was an important addition because it adds Manchester to the alliance’s larger network, which is where the carriers lack a strong presence, according to Simple Flying. Both of the planned routes between the US and Manchester started this month, with flights to New York launching December 1, and service to Orlando beginning last Saturday.
Between Frankfurt and St. Louis
Between Munich and San Diego
Between Helsinki and Dallas
Between Helsinki and Seattle
Between Barcelona and Los Angeles
Between London and Portland, Oregon
Between Munich and Las Vegas
Grandma Says She Was Kicked Out of Hotel After Posting Review
A woman and her granddaughter were kicked out of their hotel room in their pajamas after giving a bad review on Hotels.com. Dr. Susan Leger says she checked into the Baymont Hotel with her 6-year-old granddaughter for what was supposed to be a three-night stay.
They were settling down for the night, when Leger says she got an email asking her to rate the hotel, and she wrote a 3-star review. Within minutes, Leger says she got a call from the furious hotel manager telling her to leave.
Las Vegas traffic: Vegas drive time to improve under 15 Freeway project, Newsom says | ABC7
Drivers from L.A. to Vegas will get some relief from the jammed 15 Freeway when a new project will allow use of an additional lane during the busiest times.
Madeira travel guide: 2021 three-day travel itinerary
WITH my nose inches from the ground, I breathe in clean, dewy air and break the dawn silence with laboured panting. It is just after sunrise on the Portuguese island of Madeira and I am midway through a forest yoga class.
Madeira is about 500 miles off the coast of West Africa and boasts shorts-and-T-shirt weather all year round. With a flight time of just three hours from London, you could be basking in brilliant sunshine in the time it takes to watch the latest Bond movie. Watch the video to find out what there is to do on this island paradise
. Read more: https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/16792… The Sun newspaper brings you the latest breaking news videos and explainers from the UK and around the world
Adele Announces Las Vegas Residency Beginning in January
Wait time at the Colosseum has been extended.
Fans in line, online, to purchase tickets Tuesday to the “Weekends With Adele” residency at Caesars Palace have been informed they need to wait until Wednesday to make the purchases. A widespread web crash is the reason.
Ticketmaster has messaged ticket-buyers waiting in the online queue: “Due to an Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage impacting companies globally, all Adele Verified Fan Presales originally scheduled for today have been moved to tomorrow. Impacted fans will receive an email with updated info on their new presale time.”
Ticketmaster has directed fans to return to the site at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Wednesday, depending on when they were originally scheduled to check in.
Ticketmaster had planned to open sales to Adele’s high-demand series on Tuesday morning. But as the first set of fans were ready to enter the ticket buying link at 10 a.m., the ticket seller reported the Amazon web problems. Originally, the pause was to last four hours. Now it is a day.