Star Tribune
Record number of travelers expected over the holidays
Americans are likely to set another travel record as they take to the roads, skies and rails for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. An estimated 119.3 million people are expected to make a trip of 50 miles or more, on par with pre-pandemic levels and surpassing the previous mark set in 2019, according to AAA.
“Minnesotans should expect the roads, airports and public transportation to be busier than normal as people take special vacations, visit loved ones and hit the road for holiday plans,” said Brynna Knapp, spokeswoman for AAA Minnesota.
The crush will start Friday and with weekends on either side of the mid-week holidays spill over into the first few days of the new year.
By far, most travelers will drive to their destination, and AAA expects 2.5 million more motorists on the roads this year compared to 2023. With 107 million going by car, travelers should brace themselves for congestion and longer trips, with the worst traffic in metro areas expected on Sunday, said Bob Pishue with the traffic analytics firm INRIX.
Midday travel could also be tough going, said Pishue, who advised motorists to hit the road before lunchtime or after 7 p.m.
“If schedules allow, leave bright and early or after the evening commute,” he said. The best days to drive are on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day
While roads will be busy, those who drive will find gas prices at or below $3 a gallon in most of the Midwest, including Minnesota, where the average price for a gallon was going for $2.87 on Wednesday, about the same as last year, AAA’s nationwide survey of filling stations said.
At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the busiest day at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints will be the day after Christmas when 50,000 travelers are anticipated to pass through screening. The busiest day ahead of Christmas will be Friday with 45,000 people expected to be screened, said spokesman Jeff Lea.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter has vetoed five line-items to cut from the budget passed by the City Council last week, but it’s not clear if those vetoes will stand after the council voted to override them Thursday.
Carter and Council President Mitra Jalali disagree on when the city budget is made final, a minor distinction that could have significant implications for filling city jobs, funding police overtime and renovating council offices.
Carter argues the council missed a Dec. 18 deadline in city charter to finalize the budget, so his vetoes are the final word and his administration will start “operationalizing” the budget. Jalali said she thinks the council hit that deadline, having passed a budget Dec. 11. And she said St. Paul has until Dec. 30 to deliver a budget to the state, so the council’s overrides will stand.
Earlier this month, Carter came out swinging against the council’s 5.9% property tax levy increase they set last week. Carter wanted a steeper increase; and the council’s budget contains much less funding for police overtime than Carter wanted, and directs his administration to not fill several vacant positions.
Carter used his line-item veto authority to cut $2.3 million from the council’s budget, arguing their balance sheet relied on impossible-to-realize savings, including a major cut to police overtime. He delivered the line-item vetoes to the council Wednesday evening, after the council’s regular meeting adjourned. The biggest cut was $1.8 million, was for a renovation of the council offices. Carter characterized the upgrades as “new carpets and drapes,” while Jalali said during Thursday’s meeting that the work was focused on making the offices more accessible to people with disabilities.
Jalali had worked with Carter on a compromise budget, which the council rejected last week. But this week, Jalali said Carter had given the council no indication that he intended to veto any part of the budget.
Asked how his vocal opposition to the council’s budget and vetoes would impact the working relationship with the council, Carter said, “We should be alright.”
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Trump’s new demands for a debt limit increase are ”premature.”
”This reckless Republican driven shutdown can be avoided,” Jeffries said. Republicans should ”simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated.”
While Democrats have floated their own ideas in the past for lifting, or even doing away with the debt limit caps that have created some of the toughest debates in Congress, they appear to be in no bargaining mood to save Johnson from Trump — even before the president-elect is sworn into office.
”Here we are once again in chaos,” said House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, who detailed the harm a government shutdown would cause Americans. ”And what for? Because Elon Musk, an unelected man, said, ‘We’re not doing this deal, and Donald Trump followed along.”’
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget had provided initial communication to agencies about lapse planning last week, according to an official at the agency.
Late Wednesday, the Republicans floated a new idea for a scaled-back bill that would simply keep the government running and provide the disaster assistance to hurricane ravaged regions.
“MCPA had two totally contrary orders, one to follow federal law, and one from the Legislature to not follow federal law, and they got caught in that trap,” said Hudston Kingston, the legal director of CURE. “Luckily, the EPA is not bound by state law.”
The documents Kingston received from the case end in August. It’s unclear what has happened in EPA’s enforcement case since then.
EPA Region 5 spokeswoman Macy Pressley said the case was still active, but did not answer a list of detailed questions.
Separately, U.S. Steel is arguing in court that it should receive a legal exception to the rule it’s accused of violating.
The standard is allowed in law, but the company has to prove the change won’t harm the rice. In April, MPCA said U.S. Steel had not met that bar and denied the request. The company appealed the decision.
