45+ min ago (283+ words) Faith leaders in the Stockton area planned an afternoon vigil Sunday to honor the dead and pray for the 11 people who were wounded. The victims who died ranged in age from eight to 21, said Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County sheriff's office. Early indications "suggest this may have been a targeted incident," Brent said during a news conference at the scene. Local officials said the suspected shooter has not been caught and pleaded with the public for help. Detectives were still working to identify a possible motive. "If you have any information as to this individual, reach out immediately. If you are this individual, turn yourself in immediately," San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas said. The shooting occurred just before 6 p.m. inside the banquet hall, which shares a parking lot with other businesses. Stockton is a city…...

1+ day, 2+ hour ago (588+ words) For more than a half century, Tom Stoppard was one of the most acclaimed playwrights in the English-speaking theater. He has died at age 88. Stoppard won a Laurence Olivier Award and five Tony Awards for Best Play. His work, including Travesties, The Real Thing and The Invention of Love was known for its language, wit and intellectual curiosity. Stoppard's death was reported by his agent. Stoppard wrote erudite plays that touched on a broad range of topics " from his 1966 absurdist comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead about two minor characters from Hamlet " to his 1993 drama Arcadia which included dialogue about Chaos Theory and Garden Landscaping. But when Arcadia opened in New York, Stoppard told me his plays were always about people, not abstract ideas. "I'm not some kind of intellectual who's importing very special ideas into the unfamiliar terrain of…...

2+ day, 3+ hour ago (137+ words) After over two decades in law enforcement, Wade Milyard Jr. retired as a K-9 police officer for Maryland's Frederick department. He took up a different kind of service to his community, becoming the ... Ex-police officer helps homeless people do laundry After over two decades in law enforcement, Wade Milyard Jr. retired as a K-9 police officer for Maryland's Frederick department. He took up a different kind of service to his community, becoming the founder of Fresh Step Laundry, a nonprofit that offers free laundry services to people experiencing homelessness. In his bus, nicknamed Lucy, retrofitted with washers and dryers, he offers a free laundry service to those in his neighborhood. Host Scott Tong speaks to Milyard Jr. about the work he is doing now. This article was originally published on WBUR.org....

2+ day, 10+ hour ago (912+ words) PITTSBURGH " Katie Thomas notices everything in her local mall: How clothes in the window display of an athleisure store switched from blues to browns overnight. How Nordstrom aisles are spaced so they seem quiet, but spawn swarms of people carrying the branded bags. How many teenagers " a gaggle of boys! " are here on a school night, actually shopping, loaded with bags. As a teen, Thomas had worked and hung out at Ross Park Mall. Now it's where she does reconnaissance as a retail expert. Part anthropologist and part oracle, Thomas leads the Kearney Consumer Institute, a think tank inside a consulting firm used by some of the biggest retailers and brands. Her job is to divine what our shopping habits tell us about our economy and our future. "Are you shopping today just for fun? Holiday shopping?" Thomas asks a…...

2+ day, 15+ hour ago (912+ words) PITTSBURGH " Katie Thomas notices everything in her local mall: How clothes in the window display of an athleisure store switched from blues to browns overnight. How Nordstrom aisles are spaced so they seem quiet, but spawn swarms of people carrying the branded bags. How many teenagers " a gaggle of boys! " are here on a school night, actually shopping, loaded with bags. As a teen, Thomas had worked and hung out at Ross Park Mall. Now it's where she does reconnaissance as a retail expert. Part anthropologist and part oracle, Thomas leads the Kearney Consumer Institute, a think tank inside a consulting firm used by some of the biggest retailers and brands. Her job is to divine what our shopping habits tell us about our economy and our future. "Are you shopping today just for fun? Holiday shopping?" Thomas asks a…...

3+ day, 3+ hour ago (436+ words) Thanksgiving is supposed to be a day of gratitude and connection, but for many of us, it's anything but that. It's a holiday that can be stressful; complex family dynamics often become a powder keg when we gather around the table for turkey and stuffing. So, what do you do if you think you just can't handle another Thanksgiving with your family? How do you prepare for it? "A lot of these people that you see at Thanksgiving are people that you love," said Jeff Guenther, a licensed therapist based in Portland, Oregon, who goes by Therapy Jeff on TikTok and Instagram. "So, if somebody says something to you and you feel like it's provoking you and you don't want to get into it, then you should plan different things to say like, "I love you too much to argue…...

3+ day, 5+ hour ago (87+ words) The average eighth grader's math skills are now a full school year behind where they were in 2013. America's students are getting much worse at math The average eighth grader's math skills are now a full school year behind where they were in 2013, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks with The Atlantic's Rose Horowitch about the possible reasons behind the dramatic decline in math proficiency. This article was originally published on WBUR.org....

4+ day, 13+ hour ago (349+ words) SANGER, Calif. " Nearly two weeks after the federal government shutdown ended and safety net benefits were restored, many social service organizations in the San Joaquin Valley that were inundated with requests for assistance are still struggling. That includes small food pantries operated by churches within the Catholic Diocese of Fresno, like Father Hannibal House run by St. Mary's Parish in Sanger. Amanda Luperena, one of the center's managers, says the need for food surged when the federal government temporarily withheld food stamps from recipients during the shutdown that lasted 43 days. "The government shutdown made it increase to where we hardly had anything to give anybody " where our shelves just went empty," she said. And that demand hasn't slowed even with the government back open. She estimates that the pantry is serving hundreds more people per month than before the government…...

5+ day, 5+ hour ago (734+ words) A pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is being amplified by the voices of Venezuelan exiles in America who support the anti-Maduro opposition. A lot of those exiles live in Doral, Florida, just outside Miami. You can feel the Venezuelan presence in Doral: people speaking Spanish at a public park during their kids" soccer practice, the restaurants making arepas and teque'os. An estimated 2 in 5 people in Doral are from Venezuela, many with stories of persecution. Gustavo Garagorry was born in Caracas. In the early 2000s, he spoke out against Hugo Chavez, Maduro"s predecessor. Then he got threatening phone calls. He says Chavez"s henchmen even assaulted him. "One time, when I go back to my home from the movies, people in a car [assaulted] me," Garagorry said. "And I say, "What the hell?" And they say, "You are [a]…...

5+ day, 16+ hour ago (237+ words) Capitalism: A Global History'comes in at 1,000 pages before the footnotes. Across the Universe explores the past, present and future of crossword puzzles. Plus, a Mitford sister biography and more. New books this week: A tome on capitalism, a deep dive on crosswords and more "To understand capitalism, we need to be able to see it." Sounds simple, sure. But when Sven Beckert shares this observation, just a few pages into Capitalism: A Global History, the Harvard professor is actually laying out a rather daunting challenge. Today's dominant world order so thoroughly dictates the logic of our day-to-day lives, and operates on a scale so far beyond our personal lived experience " often even beyond our intellectual grasp " that you may as well ask a tuna to see the Pacific Ocean. Hence Beckert's hefty tome " which, at more than 1,000 pages before footnotes,…...