Funeral services in Georgia and in Washington, D.C., have been announced for former President Jimmy Carter. A North Carolina county struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene is dealt another blow. And a warning against giving raw food to cats over a bird flu risk.
Here’s what to know today.
Funeral services announced for Jimmy Carter
Former President Jimmy Carter’s official state funeral is set for Thursday, Jan. 9. President Joe Biden declared it a national day of mourning and ordered federal offices be closed. The Supreme Court also announced it would be closed, and the New York Stock Exchange will halt close trading.
The state funeral will be held at 10 a.m. 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 pause 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 repose at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta until Jan. 7 for mourners to pay their respects.
Then, his remains will be taken to Washington, D.C., where he will lie in state until Jan. 9. After the state funeral, Carter will make his final journey back to Georgia for a private funeral service at Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday school for many years, and a private interment at the Carter family home. The public is invited to line the route to his final resting place.
Carter, the 39th U.S. president and the first to reach the age of 100, died on Sunday.
More on Jimmy Carter’s legacy:
- Carter, a Southern Democrat and devout Baptist, was the first president to move the needle on gay rights.
- Carter’s single term in office was a springboard for Black women in politics.
- Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders look back on the historic contribution Carter made to the community with its first heritage week.
New laws taking effect in 2025
When the new year begins tomorrow, a slew of new laws will take effect, touching on issues like artificial intelligence and personal data. For example:
→ Illinois and California are placing guardrails on how AI can be used, with California’s laws tackling 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 take effect, dealing with how businesses handle your personal data. Maryland’s is the most restrictive of the new laws, prohibiting the sale of sensitive data and limiting businesses to collect personal data only when it is “reasonably necessary.”
→ And a new rule taking effect in May will require anyone 18 or older to carry a Real ID-compliant driver’s license and identification card. If this law sounds familiar, it’s because the deadline for enforcement has been pushed back multiple times because of a lack of full state compliance and the Covid pandemic.
Other laws about college admissions and gender transition care for minors are also slated to take effect. Read more about the changes in store for the new year.
More politics news:
- The U.S. Treasury Department said it was hacked by a state-sponsored Chinese operation in what it called “a major incident.”
- President-elect Donald Trump backed Mike Johnson for House speaker, even 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 was a noticeably bad year for incumbents — not just in the U.S., but also around the world.
- The 43-year-old son of North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer 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 suffers another blow
Nearly a dozen foot bridges washed away last weekend in Avery County, North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene flattened the landscape earlier this year. More than three inches of rain swept away the pedestrian bridges built by volunteers to provide emergency access after Helene swept away bridges that once carried vehicles over rivers, county manager Phillip Barrier said. Now, more than 20 residents have been left unreachable in the rural, mountainous county with a population of around 18,000.
Recovery in Avery County from Hurricane Helene since late September has been “super slow,” Barrier said. Many displaced residents are either staying in hotels, with family or in campers on their properties.
Experts caution against raw pet food over bird flu risk
A cat’s death in Oregon from a product contaminated by bird flu has experts and some public health officials warning against giving raw foods to pets. The FDA is currently investigating cases of cats with bird flu in several Western states, and experts fear there 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 foods can be contaminated with bacteria and viruses, said Dr. Jane Sykes, a professor of small animal internal medicine at the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Commercial pet foods, by comparison, have been processed so that viruses and bacteria are eliminated from the foods.
There were no bird flu cases among cats in the U.S. until 2022, experts said. And by late this year “there had been over 25 cases reported,” Sykes said. Here’s what to know about bird flu symptoms and how to keep cats safe.
Read All About It
- Five people — one friend and four hotel employees — have been charged in connection to One Direction member Liam Payne’s fatal fall from a Buenos Aires hotel in October.
- Concerns are growing for the safety of a prominent hospital director in Gaza 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 turned up in Chile.
- More women have voiced interest in traveling solo in 2025. Travel operators are paying attention.
- Ohio State University’s Ryan Day is one of college football’s most successful coaches, but his inability to rally his team to a win against its biggest rival has fans unhappy.
Year in Review: The craziest Congress in recent memory
Kevin McCarthy still feels anger toward “sociopath” former Rep. Matt Gaetz for ousting him as House speaker. Gaetz says he “knew how to play the hand that was dealt.”
Speaker Mike Johnson defends his work with President Joe Biden and Democrats.
And Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the New York Democrat who was ousted in the most expensive House primary in history, said he only has one regret during his four years in Washington.
The power struggles of the 118th year in Congress will reverberate for years to come. Take a look back, through photos and interviews.
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