(Photo by Brandon Anderson, Flickr)

West Baltimore shooting, Thanksgiving travel, the price of the Thanksgiving meal and more

Manhunt underway

A manhunt is underway in Baltimore and the surrounding areas after a suspect shot a veteran homicide detective in the head and gravely wounded him on Wednesday, according to ABC News. The officer, an 18-year veteran with the Baltimore Police Department, was conducting a follow-up to a homicide investigation on the city’s west side when he saw a man engaging in suspicious activity, the police department said. The officer, who was not immediately identified, approached the man at around 5 p.m. and was shot in the head shortly after, police said. It was not clear if the officer had returned fire. He was rushed to the University of Maryland Medical Center, where he was placed on life support. “Our thoughts and prayers area with our detective, with his wife, with his two children as he continues to fight for his life,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said at a press conference Wednesday evening. “He is in very, very grave condition right now.” Authorities are offering up to $62,000 to anyone with information leading to his arrest.

Read more: Search underway for ‘cold and callous’ suspect who shot Baltimore police officer in the head

Roasted Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Quinoa
Roasted Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Quinoa by Chef Alan Maw (Photo courtesy The Classic Catering People)

The price of Thanksgiving

The price of the Thanksgiving meal has gone down this year. The average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $49.12, a 75-cent decrease compared with last year’s average of $49.87, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 32nd annual price survey. The turkey centerpiece decreased by 2 cents per pound. That means a 16-pound turkey that feeds 10 people with plenty of leftovers will set you back $22.38 — a 36-cent-per-pound savings compared with last year. In a statement, John Newton, the American Farm Bureau Federation’s director of market intelligence, said the lower retail turkey prices are a result of increased production and inventories of turkeys. The Farm Bureau’s informal survey tracks a shopping list of 12 Thanksgiving Day stables, including stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, green peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, pumpkin pie mix and pie shells, whipped cream, milk and miscellaneous items. In general, the price of the whole meal has steadily increased since 1986, the first year of the survey, when the price of a 10-person Thanksgiving dinner was $28.74. The price hit a high in 2015 at $50.11, but has been trending downward for the last two years. This year’s estimated costs are a 1.5% decrease, the lowest prices have been since 2013. Aside from the turkeys, shoppers can expect savings on milk, rolls and pie shells. A one-gallon jug of milk is 18 cents less expensive, at $2.99, compared with $3.17 in 2016, a package of 12 rolls costs 20 cents less at $2.26, compared with $2.46 in 2016, and two pie shells are 14 cents cheaper at $2.45, compared with $2.59. Meanwhile, costs grew on items such as stuffing, pumpkin pie mix and whipping cream. A 14-ounce package of breaded stuffing fetches $2.81, compared with $2.67 in 2016 — a 14-cent increase. Desserts have also gotten pricey. Both whipping cream and pumpkin pie mix increased by 8 cents from last year. A half pint of whipping cream is $2.08, compared with $2 in 2016, while a 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix is $3.21, compared with $3.13 in 2016.

Read more: Thanksgiving Day dinner will be less expensive this year

Turkeys
Turkeys (Photo courtesy Kim Siever, Flickr Creative Commons)

Hit the road

Travelers are expected to hit the road this Thanksgiving in the highest numbers in more than a decade, according to AAA. Roughly 50.9 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more away from home Nov. 22-26, a 3.3 percent increase over last year and the most since 2005, AAA said in a report released on Thursday. “A strong economy and labor market are generating rising incomes and higher consumer confidence, fueling a strong year for the travel industry, which will continue into the holiday season,” Bill Sutherland, AAA senior vice president, said. The largest share of travel, roughly 89 percent, will be on U.S. roads. U.S. motorists will take 45.5 million trips this holiday, a 1.5 percent increase over last year and also the most since 2005, even though gas prices are at their highest since 2014, AAA said. Air travel is expected to grow by 5 percent to 3.95 million trips, buoyed by the cheapest tickets since 2013, AAA said. It is the sixth consecutive year air travel has grown during the holiday, and now accounts for 7.8 percent of all travel, its highest share since 2010, AAA said. Overall, motorists are on pace this year to break the record for most vehicle miles driven on U.S. roads, helping spur potential record demand for gasoline.

Read more: Record Number of Americans Forecast to Travel Over Thanksgiving Weekend: AAA

Cards for Humanity

CNN is reporting that Cards Against Humanity, an irreverent card game company known for its attention-seeking pranks, says it bought land on the U.S.-Mexico border to block President Trump from building his wall. The Chicago company said on its website that this was part of a holiday promotion, for which customers could contribute to the wall-blocking project with $15 purchases for surprise gift packages. On Wednesday morning, just a few hours after launching the program on Tuesday, Cards Against Humanity said it was sold out. “Donald Trump is a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans,” said Cards Against Humanity on its web site. “He is so afraid that he wants to build a twenty-billion dollar wall that everyone knows will accomplish nothing. So we’ve purchased a plot of vacant land on the border and retained a law firm specializing in eminent domain to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get built.” Cards Against Humanity said that contributing to the land purchase and its legal defense was the first of six days of gifts that customers would be receiving in December.

Read more: Cards Against Humanity buys land on Mexican border to stump Trump’s wall plan

Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaking to the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington, D.C., Nov. 11, 2016. (Bob Jacob/Cleveland Jewish News)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg honored

The Genesis Foundation awarded U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg its first lifetime achievement award. The foundation, which sponsors the annual $1 million Genesis Prize known as the “Jewish Nobel,” in its announcement Wednesday praised Ginsburg’s “groundbreaking legal work in the field of civil liberties and women’s rights.” The five recipients of the Genesis Prize selected Ginsburg, 83, for the honor. In addition to this year’s winner, actress Natalie Portman, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Itzhak Perlman and sculptor Anish Kapoor weighed in. “We honor Justice Ginsburg as an outstanding daughter of the Jewish people who made an enduring contribution to human civilization, who is an example of talent and achievement and who is committed to bettering the world,” the five said in a joint statement. “She is a source of inspiration not just for Jews but for people of all faiths and ethnicities around the world.” In 1993, Ginsburg became the second female justice on the Supreme Court. She is one of three Jewish justices currently serving on the high court and the longest-serving Jewish justice. The former president of Israel’s Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, is slated to present the award to Ginsburg at a July ceremony in Tel Aviv.

Read more: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Wins Genesis Foundation’s 1st Lifetime Achievement Award

Forward celebrates 120th anniversary

The Forward celebrated its 120th anniversary with a gala that honored BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith and longtime TV journalist Andrea Mitchell. More than 350 people attended the Monday night gala for the Forward, formerly known as the Jewish Daily Forward, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Monday night in New York City. The event raised slightly over $1 million in ticket sales and sponsorships. Fran Drescher, the Jewish actress best known for her nasally character on the sitcom “The Nanny,” hosted the affair. “I first caught the bug for journalism at the Forward,” said Smith, who worked there before going on to other publications such as Politico. In a video Mitchell, who could not attend the event, described how her maternal grandmother often read the Forward, which was originally published only in Yiddish. “It was her window into the world,” the NBC newswoman said. Smith and Mitchell were given Distinguished Journalism Awards. “Our donors, and those celebrating with us, recognize that supporting the Forward’s journalistic efforts in 2017 is a critical piece of supporting American democracy,” said Rachel Fishman Feddersen, the newspaper’s CEO and publisher.

Read: The Forward celebrates 120th anniversary, honors Ben Smith and Andrea Mitchell

Also see: Publisher of The Forward to Speak at Beth Tfiloh about Jewish Journalism

Efraim Zurof
Efraim Zurof (Photo courtesy of Dr. Efraim Zuroff)

On the hunt

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israeli office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, works to bring Nazi war criminals to justice all over the world. On Dec. 6, you can hear the Nazi hunter speak at Beth Tfiloh Congregation. In a recent interview with Jmore, Dr. Zuroff was asked which country most needed his work. “Lithuania. It still hasn’t faced its past participation in the Holocaust. Under Nazi occupation, there were 220,000 Jews in Lithuania, but 212,000 Jews were murdered during the war, many killed by Lithuanians without Nazi participation, Dr. Zuroff said. So Lithuanians are not dying to face this. Today, there are 4,000 Jews in Lithuania.”

Read the entire interview here.

J-Word of the Day
L’Briyot (Hebrew)
Meaning: To your health
Usage: “Did you just sneeze? L’Briyot!”

Go to facebook.com/JMORELiving every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. to watch Need to Know with Editor-in-Chief Alan Feiler. Join the discussion on the week’s news and current events.

Top photo: Crime scene tape (Photo by Brandon Anderson, Flickr)

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