Services for Jimmy Carter and Caution Against Raw Pet Foods: Morning Rundown

Funerals for former President Jimmy Carter have been announced in Georgia and Washington, DC. A North Carolina county struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene takes another hit. And a warning against giving raw food to cats due to the risk of bird flu.

Here’s what you need to know today.

Jimmy Carter funeral services announced

Former President Jimmy Carter’s official state funeral is scheduled for Thursday, January 9. President Joe Biden declared it a day of national mourning and ordered federal offices to close. The Supreme Court also announced its closure and the New York Stock Exchange will suspend its closing operations.

The state funeral will be held at 10 am at the National Cathedral. Biden, who had a close friendship with Carter for many decades, is expected to deliver a eulogy.

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Services for Carter begin this Saturday and will include a brief break at the family farm in Plains, Georgia, where he grew up, as well as a stop at the Georgia State Capitol for a moment of silence. Carter will lie in state at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta until Jan. 7 for mourners to pay their respects.

His remains will then be taken to Washington, DC, where he will remain at the funeral until January 9. After the state funeral, Carter will make his final trip back to Georgia for a private funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught. Sunday school for many years and private burial at the Carter family home. The public is invited to walk the route to his final resting place.

Carter, the 39th president of the United States and the first to turn 100, died on Sunday.

Read the full story here.

More on Jimmy Carter’s legacy:

• Carter, a Southern Democrat and devout Baptist, was the first president in move the needle on gay rights.
• Carter’s only term in office was a springboard for black women in politics.
• Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders look back at the historical contribution Carter made the community its first heritage week.

New laws that will come into force in 2025

When the new year begins tomorrow, a series of new laws will come into force that will address issues such as artificial intelligence and personal data. For example:

→ Illinois and California are putting up barriers on how AI can be used, and California laws address how the technology is used in Hollywood.

→ Eight states (Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maryland, Minnesota and Tennessee) will have new privacy laws in place that will address how companies handle your personal data. Maryland’s is the most restrictive of the new laws, prohibiting the sale of sensitive data and limiting companies to collecting personal data only when “reasonably necessary.”

→ And a new rule going into effect in May will require anyone over 18 to carry a Real ID-compliant driver’s license and identification card. If this law sounds familiar, it’s because the deadline for its application has been delayed several times due to the state’s lack of full compliance and the Covid pandemic.

Other laws on college admissions and gender transition care for minors are also scheduled to go into effect. Read further about the changes that await us for the new year.

More political news:

• The US Department of the Treasury he said he was hacked by a state-sponsored Chinese operation in what he called “a major incident.”
• President-elect Donald Trump endorsed Mike Johnson for speaker of the House of Representativeseven as Johnson faces backlash from some within the Republican Party.
• A federal appeals court upheld writer E. Jean Carroll’s $5 million civil judgment against Trump.
• this year It was a notably bad year for headlines. – not only in the United States, but also around the world.
• The 43-year-old son of North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer He was sentenced to 28 years in prison in connection with the death of a sheriff’s deputy during a police chase.

North Carolina county hit hard by Helene takes another hit

Nearly a dozen pedestrian bridges were washed away last weekend in Avery County, North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene devastated the landscape earlier this year. More than three inches of rain washed away pedestrian bridges built by volunteers to provide emergency access after Helene washed out bridges that once carried vehicles over rivers, County Administrator Phillip Barrier said. Now, more than 20 residents have been left unreachable in a rural, mountainous county with a population of about 18,000.

Recovery in Avery County from Hurricane Helene since late September has been “super slow,” Barrier said. Many displaced residents are staying in hotels, with relatives or in caravans on their properties.

Experts warn against raw pet food due to bird flu risk

The death of a cat in Oregon from a bird flu-tainted product has experts and some public health officials warning against raw feeding pets. The FDA is currently investigating cases of cats with bird flu in several Western states, and experts fear there may have been more bird flu deaths among cats that have gone undetected.

The problem with feeding raw milk and meat to pets is that the food can be contaminated with bacteria and viruses, said Dr. Jane Sykes, professor of small animal internal medicine at the University of California-School of Veterinary Medicine. Davis. In comparison, commercial pet foods have been processed to remove viruses and bacteria from the food.

There were no cases of bird flu among cats in the US until 2022, experts said. And by the end of this year “more than 25 cases had been reported,” Sykes said. This is what you should know about bird flu symptoms and how to keep cats safe.

read all about it

• Five people (a friend and four hotel employees) have been accused in relation to the fatal fall of One Direction member Liam Payne from a Buenos Aires hotel in October.
• Concerns grow for the safety of a prominent Gaza hospital director after the Israel Defense Forces took him into custody and forced the closure of one of the last functioning medical facilities in the enclave.
• An engraved Rolex watch belonging to actor Keanu Reeves, which was stolen in 2023. has appeared in chile.
• More women have expressed interest in traveling alone in 2025. Travel operators they are paying attention.
• Ohio State University’s Ryan Day is one of the most successful college football coaches, but his inability to get his team to win against its biggest rival has unhappy fans.

Summary of the year: The craziest Congress in recent times

Kevin McCarthy still feels anger toward “sociopathic” former Rep. Matt Gaetz for ousting him as House Speaker. Gaetz says he “knew how to play the hand he was dealt.”

President Mike Johnson defends his work with President Joe Biden and Democrats.

And Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the New York Democrat who was unseated in the most expensive House primary in history, said he has only one regret during his four years in Washington.

The power struggles of 118 in Congress will reverberate for years to come. take a look backthrough photographs and interviews.

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