3 Ways to Talk with Kids about Santa and Jesus This Christmas

Martin O’Malley, the Biden administration’s Social Security Commissioner, partied with union members in Florida days before signing a contract preventing managers from reducing telework compared to the COVID era, The Daily Wire has learned. The American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents 27,500 employees of the Social Security Administration (SSA), held its Caucus Conference in Fort Lauderdale from November 12-15. The conference is where government employees plot how to extract as much as possible from management. But O’Malley, the top manager, was in attendance, drinking and singing songs with attendees, who praised him, according to materials obtained by The Daily Wire. On November 27, O’Malley signed the agreement with the union locking in telework through 2029. Two days later, he resigned from the agency in order to run for chair of the Democratic National Committee. That means the former Maryland governor signed a contract that he would not have to live under, but other managers would. The giveaway to the union could give him cache with party activists that could help him secure the DNC gig. Edwin Osorio, the council’s vice president, posted a picture of him out on the town at the conference, captioning it “Had a great night hanging out with the greatest commision[er] of Social Security ever had!” Video shows O’Malley regaling attendees with an Irish ballad on his guitar, crooning about “drink[ing] ourselves stupid.” Mike Watson, a political influence researcher at the conservative-leaning Capital Research Center, said the dynamic raises questions about whether the deal was in the best interest of taxpayers and those who depend on Social Security, or whether it represented a bargaining table with both signatories on the same side. “O’Malley partying at the AFGE conference is just a particularly vivid way to show what was already true: Unions elect their bosses, who then side with them in negotiations, while taxpayers are left out in the cold,” he said. He said that even staunch labor activists recognized that the give-and-take between management and labor in private companies wouldn’t work in government, with Franklin Delano Roosevelt writing that “the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” Social Security commissioners’ terms can last longer than one presidential administration. Andrew Saul, O’Malley’s predecessor, had been set to lead the agency through 2025. But Biden fired him and installed O’Malley at the behest of the union, who objected to the fact that Donald Trump had initially installed Saul. Council 220 president is Jessica Lapointe. An online photo shows her posing with a sign that says “Vote Kamala.” Lapointe’s job at the Social Security Administration is to help people who don’t speak English get Social Security checks. The Social Security Administration union agreement, obtained by The Daily Wire, is structured as a resolution to various years-old “grievances,” meaning O’Malley could have signed it earlier, but did not. The agreement doesn’t just lock administration employees into a level of work-from-home flexibility that began with a global pandemic, but it takes away management’s historic rights to dictate work terms. The grievances claim “disparate treatment of or disparate impact on unspecified minority and/or disabled bargaining unit employees. The Grievances are dated: February 11, 2015; February 11, 2016; April 24, 2017 (amended January 31, 2018); June 27, 2018; October 9, 2019; March 23, 2020; and June 21, 2021.” The union agreed to drop the grievances in exchange for doing away with existing language that management “will determine the number of scheduled telework days, if any, eligible positions, and percentage of employees permitted to telework,” and replacing it with “Each Deputy Commissioner will adhere to the current number of telework days, eligible positions, and percentage of employees permitted to telework as of the date of this agreement until October 25, 2029.” It changed “Management has sole discretion to change, reduce, suspend, or eliminate approved telework day(s)” to “temporarily change.” That means that the Trump administration, which has suggested it wants to bring employees back to the office, could try its hand at “temporarily” eliminating telework for a period of multiple years, though that would probably lead to a legal dispute. Also remaining in the memorandum of understanding is “Management also has sole discretion to change, reduce, or suspend approved telework day(s) for any employee due to the employee’s performance.” The Trump administration might be able to construe that as applying, for example, to all but the most exemplary employees. The Social Security Administration did not respond to questions about the appropriateness of its leader appearing as a celebrated guest at a union conference, and then signing a long-term contract on his way out the door. It also did not say how much taxpayer money went toward the Florida union conference. CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE Taxpayers pay the salaries of employees during hours that they engage in union activities, a practice known as “official time.” “If I were attempting to combat government inefficiency and waste,” Watson said. “I would absolutely target for elimination the practice of using taxpayer money, rather than members’ dues, to pay union officials conducting union work.” Social Security Administration employees are tasked with getting checks to the elderly and disabled. But as they partied in Florida and sought permanent remote work, there were indications that work was not getting done. Disabled people have to wait more than half a year for employees to make a determination, on average, if they are eligible for Social Security. It’s possible O’Malley did not agree to give up management rights earlier because President Joe Biden didn’t think telework was a good idea — raising the prospect of whether the goal was simply to sandbag the agency under the Trump administration. The Biden administration spent $120 million renovating Social Security’s headquarters, even though it is 91% unoccupied because of telework. In 2022, Biden used his State of the Union address to call for a return to the office, and his chief of staff repeatedly pressed Cabinet officials to do so. There is evidence that telework has been abused by Social Security Administration employees. In the most sensational case, an employee ran a home inspection business while he was supposedly working from home for the agency, and having his mom occasionally send emails from his account was enough to get away with it for three years. “The Biden administration clearly seems to be trying to bind its successor from making reforms that Trump and his allies promised,” Watson said.

One rescued baby koala is very happy to be back in his mom’s arms! Wildlife nurse Kerry Machado shared the most precious footage of the animals’ reunion on social media. Oakley the koala had the absolute sweetest reaction to seeing his mother again after being separated from her. This video is sure to melt your heart! In the adorable clip, a caretaker took the baby koala out of his travel carrier and lifted him up to where his mother was sitting on a branch. As soon as Oakley saw his mom, he reached out his little arms to grab onto her! Soon, he was climbing all over her and clinging to her as if he never wanted to let go again. This baby koala was clearly very excited to see his mother, but a few commenters on Facebook thought the expression on Mom’s face was less than thrilled. Some joked that she must have been enjoying a little me-time away from her child! “Mom says, ‘well there goes my night out,'” wrote one user. Another chimed in, “All mums everywhere when the grandparents bring the kids back after a sleepover.” Oakley the baby koala was discovered alone and lost. Screengrab from Facebook In all seriousness, this mama koala probably felt very relieved to have her baby back. Non-profit 1300 Koalaz shared a bit more about the background behind this mother-son reunion on Facebook, and it’s a harrowing story. Apparently, someone discovered poor Oakley on a road all by himself! Volunteers searched the area tirelessly to find his mom while he received care. They almost gave up hope before finally spotting “a lactating female koala nearby.” Sure enough, she was just the animal they were looking for! “We are over the moon to confirm she is indeed Oakley’s mum!” wrote 1300 Koalaz. “After a smooth introduction, the pair have been reunited and are now settling into an aviary with Wildlife Nurse SA. They’ll stay in care for a few days to ensure Oakley is feeding well before we release them.” What a happy ending for this lost baby koala and his mom! You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Cuddly Baby Koala Gets Reunited With Mom In Precious Clip appeared first on InspireMore.

It’s only two years since known objects that look like asteroids and move like comets became numerous enough to get a name, and now we find there are two quite different categories.

A next-gen AMD Ryzen gaming CPU has had its Geekbench benchmarks posted publicly, weeks before it was expected to debut at CES 2025. Rumored to be AMD’s flagship processor of the new Strix Halo line, it appears its integrated GPU can go toe-to-toe with an Nvidia RTX 4060. However, there’s also a massive catch. Current AMD desktop GPUs may not be the very best graphics cards in the world, but they have been holding their own in terms of raw power. However, it's the company's ability to embed its Radeon GPUs into its Ryzen CPUs that has proven a winner in the laptop and handheld spaces. Nearly all the best gaming handheld devices use an AMD CPU with an integrated GPU. Continue reading New AMD Ryzen CPU benchmark leak beats Nvidia RTX 4060 without a graphics card MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

Here’s your chance to pick up a fast gaming monitor from a big brand for an absolute bargain price. This gaming monitor deal enables you to grab an Acer Nitro Gaming XF243Y M3 monitor for just $129.99, saving you $70 on the usual MSRP. That price not only gets you a full HD monitor with an IPS panel, but it also has a 180Hz refresh rate, making it a great budget buy for fast-paced first person shooters. That’s a great spec for such a low price, and Acer is a name you’ll also find on our guide to the best gaming monitor, with its displays having proved excellent choices time and again over the years. In this case, the Nitro Gaming XF243Y M3 gets you a 23.8-inch IPS LCD panel with a 1ms response time, and in our tests we’ve found this LCD tech to be more responsive in fast-paced games than rival VA panels, with less visible ghosting. You can read our VA vs IPS guide for more detail on how these technologies work. Continue reading This 180Hz Acer gaming monitor is a bargain at just $129.99 right now MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best gaming monitor

It's been a funny launch for Path of Exile 2. A victim of its own success, so many people logged into the ARPG that Grinding Gear Games had to warn of long queues and other issues. The dev is rolling with the punches, though, with a substantial update chock full of quality of life features. If you thought the rival to Diablo 4 and Last Epoch was great fun already, the first big PoE 2 update just made it a lot better. Continue reading Path of Exile 2 has already fixed some of the worst issues, including dodging MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Path of Exile 2 builds, Path of Exile 2 classes, Path of Exile 2 quests

A new book examines the rise and fall of the Carolingian dynasty, discussing how people across social classes understood the momentous history of their day

Image: Yelp Yelp is introducing some new AI features that aim to help users discover new establishments and narrow down customer reviews. The AI-powered “Review Insights,” announced today as part of Yelp’s end-of-year product release, quickly summarize how customers feel about certain aspects of a business, such as food quality, service, ambiance, and wait times. Review insights are aggregated sentiment scores that provide a quick overview of topics using facial icons — positive, neutral, and critical — displayed above a business’s reviews. Yelp users can click specific topics to read related reviews that focus on those aspects of the business, such as what customers are saying about the food or service. Yelp says the feature is available on iOS for restaurant, food, and nightlife businesses, and will be expanded to services categories “next year.” Review insights builds on the AI-powered review summaries feature that Yelp introduced in January. “When searching for a local restaurant, you might have a specific aspect in mind that matters most to you — be it the vibe of the space, how long it takes to get a table, or the quality of the food,” said Yelp’s Chief Product Officer Craig Saldanha in the announcement blog. “Even when a review doesn’t explicitly mention one of the topics, the LLM understands the context in the review to identify and surface the relevant topic and sentiment.” Image: Yelp Heads up — Yelp will autoplay and unmute the full-screen user videos on the iOS app homepage. The home feed search bar on iOS now features a trending drop-down that highlights the most popular terms other local users are looking for, which will be coming to Android “early next year.” The iOS app home page has also been expanded to include new reviews, photos, and full-screen video spotlights uploaded by other users that surface recent experiences. Yelp says it’s rolling out an AI-powered update that “better tailors the home feed to your preferences” in the coming weeks.

The Galaxy S25 launch is about a month away, and you might be making upgrade plans already, especially considering what you might have heard about the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip that will power the new Samsung flagships. The first phones running on the Elite chip are here, and they offer monster battery life in addition to great performance. That's a great teaser of what's expected from the Galaxy S25 series, especially the Ultra. But that Snapdragon 8 Elite chip won't come cheap. If you've been dreading a price hike for the Galaxy S25 series, especially for the Ultra, I have bad news for you from Korea. The first price rumors are here, and they detail the two main factors that might prompt Samsung to increase prices next year. Continue reading... The post New Galaxy S25 Ultra leak says Samsung’s flagship phone is getting a price hike appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Black Friday blowout: Massive Apple sale, LG OLED TVs, KitchenAid mixers, Instant Pots, laptops, more Cyber Week deals: $139 AirPods 4 with ANC, $4 smart plugs, $40 Ninja blender, last-chance PS5 deals, more Cyber Week deals: $329 Apple Watch S10, $50 off Microsoft Office 2024, $374 PS5 Slim, Vitamix blenders, more Amazon is giving out free money for Black Friday 2024