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What's New? America's billionaires enjoyed a stellar 2024, their collective net worth soaring by hundreds of billions of dollars on the back of a sustained boom in the tech sector. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which ranks daily the world's wealthiest individuals, nine out of the 10 individuals who saw the largest growth in their net worth since January are U.S. citizens. Elon Musk , the South African-born CEO of SpaceX , Tesla , and X (formerly Twitter), saw his net worth skyrocket by an astounding $222 billion for a total of $451 billion as of December 24. His shares in Tesla, which make up a significant portion of his total fortune, have grown by 81 percent over the same period. Taken together, the 10 centibillionaires—which included perennial frontrunners Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos —notched an additional $730 billion onto their collective net worth in 2024, a few billion shy of Taiwan's GDP. Why It Matters The staggering accumulation of wealth—boosted in early November by the re-election of Donald Trump and a surge in U.S. stocks—sheds light on the dynamics of economic inequality in the U.S. and its broader implications. These debates had already been ignited by the impacts of inflation and wage stagnation as suffered by America's middle- and working-classes, and in the past such high figures have prompted calls for higher taxation on the super-wealthy, as well as examinations into the influence of money in the American political system. What To Know The individuals on Bloomberg's list, ranked by the increase in their net worth over the past 12 months, are: Elon Musk (+$222 billion), Mark Zuckerberg (+$84 billion), Nvidia founder Jensen Huang (+$77.9 billion), Jeff Bezos (+$67 billion), Larry Ellison (+$67 billion), Michael Dell (+$46.6 billion), Larry Page ($46.1 billion), Sergey Brin (+$42.2 billion), and Walmart heirs Jim (+$39.6 billion) and Alice Walton (+$39.0 billion). The nature of the billionaires on Bloomberg's list also highlights the outsized and growing impact of technology on the global economy today, nearly all of the billionaires deriving their wealth from ownership of companies in this sector. The global reach of communication technologies, and the high scalability of companies dealing in cutting edge tech, means that businesses positioned at the forefront of the digital transformation are poised to reap even greater rewards, promising today's billionaires even greater fortunes in the future. On the other end of the spectrum, the continued downturn in the luxury goods sector has seen many well-known billionaires shed significant portions from their net worth. Bernard Arnault, the founder and CEO of LVMH who once held the title of the world's richest person, saw his wealth decline by $32 billion in 2024. Arnault is followed by Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, businesswoman and heiress to the L'Oréal fortune, whose net worth sank by $25.6 billion so far this year. What People Are Saying Peter Oppenheimer , Chief Global Equity Strategist and Head of Macro Research in Europe at Goldman Sachs, spoke to financial outlet Boring Money about the future of the tech boom: "The drivers of this success have reflected their ability to leverage software and cloud computing and to fuel high profitability generated by extraordinary demand growth. But their more recent surge in performance since 2022 owes much to the hopes and aspirations around AI." What Happens Next? Some analysts have likened the tech boom to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and warned that this too could burst, hurting those who hedged their fortunes on the transformative power of AI. For now, however, technology appears to have triggered an unparalleled rise in net worth for those at the pinnacle, leading to levels of individual wealth never before seen in history. Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.

Shohei Ohtani wins 3rd AP Male Athlete of the Year award

Christmas Day  Kansas City (-3) at Pittsburgh: The Chiefs can set a franchise record for wins in the regular season and wrap up the No. 1 seed along with home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs as they continue their quest for a third straight Super Bowl title. The scuffling Steelers are trying to snap a two-game losing streak after missing an opportunity to clinch the AFC North. CHIEFS: 24-20  Baltimore (-51⁄2) at Houston: The Ravens have won five in a row over the Texans, including 34-10 in a divisional playoff game last season. Baltimore can move into first place in the AFC North with a win and loss by Pittsburgh. But Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry face a tough challenge against Houston’s defense. C.J. Stroud and the Texans are reeling after losing Tank Dell to a devastating knee injury. RAVENS: 23-19 Thursday’s game  Seattle (-31⁄2) at Chicago: The Seahawks have to win to maintain slim playoff hopes. The Bears have lost nine straight. Geno Smith and Jaxon Smith-Njigba should have a big day against Chicago’s pass defense. SEAHAWKS: 26-20 Saturday’s games  Los Angeles Chargers (-4) at New England: The Chargers would clinch a wild-card spot with a victory over the Patriots, who battled hard against the Bills. Los Angeles is 9-2 against the spread as favorites. Justin Herbert is 9-0 ATS in the Eastern time zone in his career. The Patriots have lost eight straight home games in December. BEST BET: CHARGERS: 23-16  Denver at Cincinnati (-3): Joe Burrow and the Bengals have to win to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. They’re favorites for the 12th time this season despite a losing record. The Broncos would clinch a wild-card berth with a win. UPSET SPECIAL: BRONCOS: 23-22  Arizona at Los Angeles Rams (-6): A four-game winning streak has the Rams on the verge of securing the NFC West. Los Angeles aims to avenge a lopsided loss to Arizona in Week 2. The Cardinals were eliminated from the playoffs and are reduced to playing spoiler. RAMS: 26-16 Sunday’s games  New York Jets at Buffalo (-10): The Bills will know going in if they have a shot at the AFC’s No. 1 seed. If the Chiefs beat the Steelers and lock it up, Buffalo’s main priority will be keeping Josh Allen and everyone healthy. Still, they can rest in Week 18. After a subpar effort against the Patriots, the Bills can’t take Aaron Rodgers and the Jets lightly. BILLS: 27-16  Las Vegas (-1) at New Orleans: The Raiders already hurt their draft positioning by beating the Jaguars last week. Another win could further knock them down and negatively impact their quest for a franchise quarterback. But coach Antonio Pierce wants to win, and the players don’t care about draft slots. The Saints can’t get to the end of the season fast enough. RAIDERS: 20-16  Carolina at Tampa Bay (-8): The Panthers have embraced the spoiler role and coach Dave Canales will try to derail his former team’s playoff hopes. Bryce Young keeps improving and Chuba Hubbard is having a career year. Baker Mayfield and a turnover-prone offense have to overcome a depleted defense that couldn’t stop Cooper Rush and the Cowboys. BUCCANEERS: 26-20  Tennessee at Jacksonville (-1): The winner of this one really loses because it’ll be costly in the race for draft positioning. TITANS: 19-17  Indianapolis (-8) at New York Giants: The Giants have come too far to lose the No. 1 pick in the draft. The Colts are clinging to slim playoff hopes. Jonathan Taylor and Anthony Richardson combined for 308 yards and four TDs against the Titans. They could have similar results against New York. COLTS: 27-16  Dallas at Philadelphia (-91⁄2): The Cowboys are left to play for a winning record after being eliminated from the playoff race. The Eagles still need a win to secure the NFC East, but are almost locked into the No. 2 seed. Saquon Barkley is 268 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record. EAGLES: 24-17  Green Bay at Minnesota (-1): The Vikings are two wins away from the NFC’s No. 1 seed with Sam Darnold. Let that sink in. But those won’t be easy victories. Minnesota has to beat Green Bay and then Detroit on the road to win the NFC North and get home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Vikings, who are getting the Packers on short rest off a Monday night rout, have been overlooked and underrated. This is a statement game. VIKINGS: 27-22  Miami (-61⁄2) at Cleveland (3-12): Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins have slim playoff changes and get an opportunity to win a game in cold weather. A loss helps the Browns hold onto a top-five pick in the draft. DOLPHINS: 25-16  Atlanta at Washington (-4): The Falcons regained control of their NFC South hopes when the Buccaneers lost. Now, they have a tough test against the Commanders with Michael Penix Jr. making his second start. Washington clinches a playoff berth with a win or a loss by Tampa Bay. COMMANDERS: 24-23 Monday’s game  Detroit (-4) at San Francisco: The Lions aim to avenge their loss in the NFC championship game. Detroit clinches the NFC’s No. 1 seed with a win if the Packers beat the Vikings. If Minnesota beats Green Bay, the Lions have to beat the Vikings in Week 18 to secure the top seed so the result against San Francisco won’t matter. In that case, Dan Campbell could choose to rest some of his starters in preparation for a winner-take-all regular-season finale. LIONS: 26-23 — Rob Maaddi, Associated Press Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!Trafford man accused of harassing uncle, pocketing $10K over bogus property investigation

By Derek B. Johnson December 23, 2024 The State Department’s center for fighting global disinformation received a lump of coal in its Christmas stocking this week as congressional lawmakers excluded new funding and authorization for the office beyond this year. The Global Engagement Center, which tracks foreign disinformation, will lose its authority on Dec. 24. Despite a concerted push by State officials to lobby Congress for an extension, a measure to extend the center’s authority into 2031 was stripped out of the final version of defense authorization legislation that passed through the Senate. “The Global Engagement Center will terminate by operation of law [by the end of the day] on December 23, 2024,” a State Department spokesperson told CyberScoop in an email. “The Department of State has consulted with Congress regarding next steps.” According to figures provided by State, the GEC has a staff of approximately 120 and an annual budget of $61 million. The spokesperson did not address questions about what will happen to the center’s personnel and technology following the closure. The shuttering will leave the State Department without a dedicated office for countering disinformation abroad for the first time since 2016. The closure comes at the end of a year when U.S. officials, foreign political leaders and private companies tracking disinformation have alleged that Russia and China have engaged in concerted propaganda campaigns targeting democratic elections in Taiwan , Moldova , Georgia , Romania and other countries. “This is extremely frustrating,” Mark Montgomery, former executive director of the Cyberspace Solarium and a supporter of extending the center’s authority, told CyberScoop. “On a bipartisan basis, both political parties know that Russia, China and, to a lesser degree, Iran and other non-state actors, conduct information operations against us spreading lies, and the GEC was a good tool for ensuring that the truth, as we see it, came out.” While the center does not focus on disinformation targeting the United States, its work with related organizations faced criticism from congressional Republicans and Elon Musk, who accused the center in 2023 of being “the worst offender in U.S. government censorship [and] media manipulation.” Musk is now an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump and was placed in charge of an advisory board for cutting programs and reducing government spending. Additionally, Republicans on the Hill raised questions about the GEC’s value, suggesting its work might duplicate existing analysis from the private sector and other parts of government. In interviews with CyberScoop and FedScoop last month, GEC leaders pushed back on those views, calling their work “critical” to combatting foreign propaganda campaigns in allied countries and emphasizing that they take active steps to exclude data on U.S. persons from their analysis. “We are really the first analytical unit in the U.S. government that takes this kind of comprehensive approach of looking at threat actors — Iranians, [China], the Russians — and try to understand ... what their influence is broadly on the information space in different geographic regions,” said Carrie Goux, GEC’s acting deputy coordinator. Lindsay Gorman, a former White House official under the Biden administration, told CyberScoop that there is “a lack of recognition in Congress that the wars democracies are fighting with autocrats overseas are no longer only in the physical domain, but in the cyberspace realm of 1s and 0s.” “Whether their goal is to marshal support for invading neighbors or undermine U.S. credibility overseas, the U.S. needs a means to fight back. One way is to expose covert campaigns for what they are — important work the GEC is doing,” said Gorman, now at the nonprofit German Marshall Fund. “GEC has been the eyes and ears on the ground when it comes to information threats overseas, tracking where autocratic strategic objectives lie and how tactics are evolving to guide responses.” Gorman stressed that Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns “aren’t going away” and are increasingly leveraging social media and emerging technologies like generative AI “to sow discord and undermine democracy around the world.” GEC officials also said their limited budget has hindered efforts to acquire advanced technology needed to support their work, including tools to detect AI-manipulated media. State Department documents obtained by FedScoop detail a range of solutions and tools the center hoped to acquire if it was reauthorized, including a system for detecting photoshopped images, a “meme detection” model to help analyze and contextualize imagery, a detector for imagery created through Stable Diffusion, and a tool to detect AI-generated assets in video. Montgomery said that with Republicans set to take control of the State Department and both houses of Congress next month, they are positioned to shape the GEC’s mission and operations to address any concerns about impinging on domestic U.S. issues. “The frustration is, why not give it an extension now that you’re basically responsible?” Montgomery asked.

Wall Street hits more records following a just-right jobs report

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany searched on Monday for answers on possible security lapses after a man drove his car into a Christmas market, killing at least five people and casting a renewed spotlight on security and immigration ahead of a snap election. The possible motive of the arrested suspect, a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric and a sympathy for the far-right Alternative for Germany Party, remains unknown. The man, identified only as Taleb A., had left video messages on his X social media account on the day of the attack. In rambling commentary, he variously blamed Germany’s supposed liberalism for the death of Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, and accused police of stealing a USB stick from him and destroying a criminal complaint he had filed. The Welt newspaper said he had undergone psychological treatment. As a nation mourned, with citizens leaving flowers and lighting candles in Magdeburg where the incident took place on Friday, questions swirled about whether more could have been done and whether the authorities could have acted on warnings. Around 3,500 people attended a rally of the anti-migrant AfD on Magdeburg’s cathedral square late on Monday where co-leader Alice Weidel called for change “so we can finally live once again in security”. Cries of “deport them” erupted from the crowd. About 4,000 candle-carrying counter-demonstrators, according to a police estimate, formed a human chain to protest against what they called the political use of a horrible incident and hate. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called for tougher internal security laws to be adopted, including a new act to strengthen police forces as well as the introduction of biometric surveillance. “It is clear that we must do everything to protect the people of Germany from such horrific acts of violence. To do this, our security authorities need all the necessary powers and more personnel,” Faeser told Spiegel news magazine. The deputy head of a security committee in the Bundestag (parliament) announced he would convene a special session asking why previous warnings about the danger posed by Taleb A. were not acted upon. Taleb A. has lived in Germany since 2006. The attack occurred two months before a snap election in February where the AfD is polling in second place and is particularly strong in eastern Germany, where Magdeburg is located. “Everyone deals with this situation in their own way, some are grieving, others are angry,” said Andreas Bohs, who was passing the Magdeburg attack site where mourners laid flowers, candles, teddies and other stuffed toys. “Everyone has the right to express their opinion and this should not be used for any political purposes here. But I know that every political party somehow does it.” A local hospital said it was still treating 72 injured people, of which 15 were in severe condition. PREVIOUS WARNINGS Germany’s main opposition Christian Democratic Union, which polls indicate will form the next government, called for the strengthening of intelligence services. Holger Muench, president of the federal criminal police office (BKA), told public broadcaster ZDF during the weekend that Germany was reviewing security measures at Christmas markets and addressing any vulnerabilities. Muench said Germany had received a warning from Saudi Arabia as far back as 2023 about the suspect, which German authorities investigated but found vague. “The man also published a huge number of posts on the internet. He also had various contacts with the authorities, made insults and even threats. But he was not known for acts of violence,” Muench said. Taha al-Hajji, a Saudi lawyer in exile and the legal director for the Berlin-based European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, said most Saudi opposition activists did not have a good relationship with the suspect. “He made problems with everyone always ... He was really isolated,” said al-Hajji. “He felt that he was the only one right and people were wrong, he felt he was the centre of everything, he was important. He always had problems with everyone.”

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This story is part of the December 8 edition of Sunday Life. See all 12 stories . There are two ways you can look at my relationship with Christmas. You could say that it brings out the giddy child within, reconnecting me to a simpler time, one before mortgage and relationship stress, and the stress of stressing about being too stressed. Or, you could say a rigid attachment to childish ideals of Christmas magic brings out the unlovable, uncompromising psychotic in me, putting a backlight to the faults and fissures of my adult personality. My family would probably choose the latter. I still have plans to inflict a fair amount of festive cheer on my family this year. Credit: iStock I love Christmas, even the parts that drive other people nuts: the panicked frenzy that descends as December 25 approaches, the endless rotation of jingle-bell jingles in shops, the corny movies, the total inescapability of the season. Even the sprawling shopping malls – anathema to my sensibilities 10 months of the year – transform into wonderlands of festive magic and possibility. My 11-year-old has the good sense to complain when the decorations appear in early October while I rejoice at the opportunity to stretch the season to its tautest limits of plausibility. I love Christmas so much, in fact, that I find it very difficult to enjoy. A family should be functional, if not thriving, for the festivity to register below surface level. Bunny Bunyai Despite being too old to blame my mum, I blame my mum. Having endured a spartan, lonely upbringing herself, she went all out at Christmas for my brother and me. Every December, our lounge room was given over to a towering pine tree covered in delicate Polish glass baubles and fine German tinsel. She baked mince pies, strung the halls with garlands of cards, took us to view the Myer Christmas windows and for Santa photos at David Jones – going to great efforts to maintain the beautiful Santa lie (I was menstruating before I finally stopped believing). Every Christmas morning, I’d wake to an abundance of presents under the tree, wrapped with the care and expertise of a workshop elf. All this is to say, the bar was set high for me when I had my own children. When my daughters were little, I would borrow bags full of Christmas books from the library in late October, displaying them on every available surface, and inviting, or perhaps goading, my girls to acquaint themselves with the festive fantasies that I would never be able to fully realise for them. Because in trying to recreate the memories of my childhood, I often overlooked a few important facts. And to really enjoy Christmas as an adult, a few ducks need to be in a row. A family should be functional, if not thriving, for the festivity to register below surface-level. Bank accounts need to be robust, to prevent an eruption of irritable bowel syndrome every time your children mention their wish lists. And intimate relationships must be harmonious – nothing wilts the spirit more than a late-December frost in relations. These threads have rarely all come together at the same time for me. Life is a tightrope walk of expectation management, and it’s not a skill I would put on my CV. Every year, the same self-mandated Christmas rituals play out, and every year, they fall flat on their arse. Of course they do; I expect too much of them, and of the people participating. Loading Visits to Christmas-light displays are punctuated by my yelps of “HOW MAGICAL IS THIS, GIRLS? CAN YOU FEEL THE MAGIC? ARE YOU ENJOYING THE MAGIC?” Any reaction less than extravagant wonder sends my spirits crashing. My insistence on a non-stop TV diet of Christmas movies is met with resistance, if not outright opprobrium. My youngest daughter is unable to brook any suggestion of onscreen sadness or tension. This rules out most Christmas films, in which there’s always an issue threatening to derail the festive joy. She is also allergic to pine needles. “Just keep your distance,” I advise, when the tree enters the house (during the second week of November), adopting the casual disregard for kids’ safety that characterised my 1980s childhood. But after the desultory experience of Christmas 2021, during which one relative doubled down on extreme right-wing conspiracies, political arguments dominated the lunchtime discourse (and not in the fun, lively way of my fantasy Bohemian family), and my youngest child finished the day with a 38.8-degree fever, I decided, while forking a midnight slice of fruit cake into my downturned mouth, that maybe this would be a good time to start adjusting my expectations. It’s a work in progress. I still have plans to inflict a fair amount of festive cheer on my family this year. But small gains have been made. I have accepted that a life lived messily 10 months of the year can’t suddenly be magicked into perfection come November 1. My 16-year-old will visit Melbourne’s iconic Ivanhoe Christmas lights display, but only if I buy her a case of Pepsi Max; she won’t enjoy the experience, but maybe she’ll look back on it fondly as an adult. Family members will very likely enter into a conversation over lunch about the “woke left” that will have me contemplating a return to immoderate drinking – but isn’t that actually the most authentic and universally understood experience of Christmas Day one can have? And there will be no backyard cricket after lunch, the kind that I have always observed in other people’s families with deep envy. But that’s OK. I’ve never really liked cricket, anyway. Get the best of Sunday Life magazine delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning. Sign up here for our free newsletter . Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. License this article Sunday Life Bunny Banyai is a freelance writer and author Most Viewed in Lifestyle LoadingThe Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is gearing up for the lowland trout lakes program. They will be planting hatchery trout from now through spring in many local lakes, and the season kicks off with the Black Friday trout opener. For over a decade the popular program has aimed to get families and friends out together for a day of fighting fish, instead of fighting the holiday shopping crowds. State-wide there will be 24 lakes stocked with “jumbo” rainbow trout before Nov. 29, ranging up to 17 inches in length, with some of tipping the scales at three pounds. 65,000 trout will be stocked out, mostly in the western part of the state. Stacie Kelsey of the WDFW Inland Fishes Program reports that the same lakes will soon be stocked in Region 5 as in recent years. Each of them will receive 2,000 of the jumbo-sized trout. “Those are the best lakes for the area, and they seem to produce well,” Kelsey said. She said the program seems to get more popular every year. “We do get a lot of good feedback about it,” she added. Two lakes in Clark County will be stocked for the event: Klineline Pond, in Vancouver’s Salmon Creek Park, and Battle Ground Lake, in Battle Ground Lake State Park. Kress Lake in Cowlitz County will also receive 2,000 jumbo rainbow trout. Two Lewis County lakes will also be stocked, the Fort Borst Park Pond, and the South Lewis County Park Pond. In Klickitat County Rowland Lake will be stocked. In addition to the Black Friday stockings, many lowland trout lakes will also be planted with “catchable” rainbow trout. These fish run from 10 to 12 inches. In the months to come, plenty of trophy sized brood trout will also be stocked out, providing anglers a shot at trout from five to 10 pounds. In Clark County, Klineline Pond has already been stocked with 2,000 catchable trout. Kelsey reports that in both Battle Ground Lake, and Klineline Pond, the trout seem to prefer bait to artificial lures. And, while Berkley Power Bait has always been the most popular offering, the trout already stocked in Klineline Pond are showing a preference for a different bait right now. “For some reason the bite on Power Bait has been kind of slacking off there,” she said. “Now it’s the Berkley Trout Nuggets that are catching fish.” She added that some anglers have been fishing with a combination of a worm tipped with a salmon egg. Klineline Pond has excellent bank access, while Battle Ground is a good lake for small boats, and there is a fishing pier there as well. The two lakes in Lewis County that get the Black Friday stockings tend to fish very well, too, according to Kelsey. “Fort Borst Park is very popular with families and kids,” she said. “It’s got pretty good shore access all the way around it.” The South Lewis County Park Pond also has very good shore access, and there is a boat launch and a fishing pier. In the Columbia River Gorge, Rowland Lake is very popular on Black Friday, and it is a larger lake with a boat launch and good bank access. Lures and bait both work well here, and Kelsey reports that these fish are very aggressive. “Rowland is really popular, and every year it’s just such a good lake for the Black Friday fishery,” she said. The trout at Rowland seem to take just about every kind of offering, including trolling small plugs in 2 or 2.5 inches, casting or trolling spinners and spoons, or fishing bait below a bobber, or on the bottom. A few other local lakes have already been stocked with catchable trout, including Lacamas Lake near Camas, which has already received 4,000 catchable rainbow trout. Also, Icehouse Lake near the Washington end of The Bridge of the Gods near Stevenson received 2,000 catchable rainbow trout on Nov. 13. Icehouse Lake has been fishing very well with spinners recently, but over time the trout will switch to preferring bait. Kelsey also mentioned that just ahead of Christmas, Sacajawea Lake in Longview will once again receive a strong stocking of jumbo trout that will rival the big rainbows stocked out for Black Friday. This fishery has also become very popular in recent years. The enthusiasm around the Black Friday stocking program is another reason that trout fishing is the most popular kind of fishing in Washington state. “I think it’s going to be another great year,” said Kelsey, “and we just encourage people to get out and have fun with their families. It’s a great time to take a kid fishing, or a parent fishing.” Buzz Ramsey’s winter trout tips Few people get more excited about this fishery than local fishing legend Buzz Ramsey, who was one of the original promoters of the program. Listed here are some of his tips for getting the most out of this event. 1. Sleep in and enjoy the late-day bite. “A guy can start early, but it seems like the best bite starts about 9 or 10 o’clock,” Ramsey said. “The water is cold, just a slight rise in temperatures as the day progresses, even a fraction of a degree, seems to turn those fish on. I’ve seen it time and time again.” He reports that the best fishing seems to be mid-day. 2. Smaller baits work better in the cold water. “The fish are not real aggressive in the cold water,” he said. “Powerbait is the overall favorite, but the trout will take a smaller bait better. For the best success, try using a small enough hook and just big enough bait that it floats off the bottom, so the cruising trout can find it. Too big a hook and it will sink to the bottom. It can get bit that way, but it’s not as effective.” He suggests a size 18 treble hook, and just enough bait to float it off the bottom. Using a free-sliding sinker and some slack in the line will also help. The fish can grab the bait and swim and off taking the bait deeper while not feeling that weight on the line. “Set the hook,” said Ramsey. “Don’t forget that.” 3. Troll with small plugs, spinners, or spoons. “I have caught them on everything, a 2.5 flatfish, a little Maglip, or the Spinfish in the 2.0 or 2.5 size,” he said. “I stuff the Spinfish with tuna and troll them behind a small lake troll flasher. I have also caught them trolling Rooster Tails, and the Thomas Minnow. He reminds anglers that using some scent on your bait can increase the bites, and tipping your spinner with a small bit of Berkley Trout Worm, or some other attractant can increase your success. 4. When it is warm and windy, fish the windward shore. “If you get some afternoon sun, those fish will come into the shallows, not real shallow, but they will move into that warm water,” Ramsey said. “Also, if you get a west wind on a sunny day, it blows that warm water onto the east end of the lake. It can be good to fish the windy end of the lake when that happens. It can be really good then.” ———— For more information: Check the WDFW trout stocking report at: https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/reports/stocking/trout-plants ———— For more on the Black Friday fishery, here is the WDFW blog page: https://wdfw.medium.com/score-a-holiday-deal-by-heading-to-a-lake-for-black-friday-trout-fishing-fun-7d93c0ce8933

Becoming a resident of South Dakota is easy. Some say too easyIf you want to turn climate policy into a bitter culture war, there are few more effective weapons than a Big Mac. On one side, environmentalists will point out that the cattle we raise cause about as much greenhouse pollution as all the world’s cars, trucks, ships and planes. On the other, irritated meat-lovers will call you a killjoy, and warn you don’t win friends with salad. There’s one place where the opposing groups agree, however: As incomes rise and allow people to buy more of it, beef-eating is such an irresistible habit that only implausibly radical behavioral changes can stop things spiraling still further out of control. They’re both wrong about that, though. As we’ve argued in the past, the world is rapidly closing in on peak beef. It’s possible that the carbon hoofprint of the global cattle herd is already in decline. That’s certainly the assessment suggested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s data. More than 90 percent of the world’s additional demand for meat over the past 15 years has been met by less carbon-intensive products. Consumption of chicken increased by 35 percent, or 27 million metric tons, between 2010 and the agency’s forecast for 2025 demand, while pork is up by 12 million tons, or 12 percent. Beef, whose heavy methane load is due to burped gases from ruminant stomachs that poultry and pigs lack, increased by a mere 3.6 million tons, or 6.3 percent. Such numbers are particularly striking when you consider that the world’s population increased by about 15 percent between 2010 and 2023, and the global economy is about 43 percent larger, adjusted for inflation. Our appetite for burgers, steak and mince hasn’t increased at anything like the same rate. This suggests the constraint on beef production is not our guts and wallets, but more fundamental constraints of resource availability. The same factor that worries environmentalists about beef — its voracious ability to consume land, water, feed crops and the planet’s carbon budget — puts limits on the ability for supplies to grow. Diners might not need to self-consciously reject red meat at all, when the availability of cheaper fish, chicken, pork and vegetarian options is enough to cause an imperceptible shift away from it. By the USDA’s numbers, those factors may already by causing a decline in the worldwide herd. From a peak of more than a billion head of cattle in the mid-2000s, stocks at the start of next year will fall to 923 million head, a record low in their data. That may seem inconsistent with a world in which beef demand is still growing, but in fact it’s not. In crowded developed countries, animals spend much of their lives in intensive feedlots, where they’re given a grain-based ration to get them to slaughter weight in 18 months or less. This is much more productive than having grass-fed cattle living semi-wild on rangelands. In Brazil, animals can live for three years or more before a trip to the abattoir. As major producing regions such as Brazil, the U.S. and China intensify their beef production processes and focus on the breeds that grow fastest, we are eking more beef out of a smaller herd. This intensification means pasturelands already cover less area than at any time since the 1970s. In terms of animal welfare, this isn’t great news — but from the perspective of the climate, it’s almost certainly an improvement. There’s one major reason to doubt this optimistic story: Counting the number of bovids spread across vast rangelands is an imprecise business, so it’s possible the USDA’s numbers are wrong. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has a much higher, and still-growing, estimate for the cattle herd — 1.55 billion head, as opposed to the USDA’s 923 million. That appears to largely relate to differences in areas such as Africa and west and central Asia less connected to global trade routes, where the market-oriented USDA’s data-gathering may be weaker than that of the FAO. Both bodies are in agreement that the cattle herd has more or less stopped growing in most of the world, but the FAO’s numbers for Africa alone are enough to offset all the positive news elsewhere. Swathes of sub-Saharan Africa have a ranching, pastoralist culture, like the Americas and Oceania, quite distinct from the crop-growing cultures of Asia and Europe. It would hardly be surprising if rising incomes there saw locals develop the insatiable appetite for beef we associate with Argentines and Americans. Even there, though, it’s worth considering that not every cow is bred primarily for slaughter. The carbon footprint of dairy products is pretty much in line with that of poultry, pork and eggs, and drastically lower than what we see with beef and lamb. We produce about eight times more milk than beef for half the carbon emissions, so if dairies are taking market share from slaughterhouses then emissions may be falling even faster (on the USDA’s numbers) or at least growing more slowly (per the FAO). That’s welcome news. In agriculture as in industry, there’s evidence of progress all around us.

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