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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 30 noveMber 2020
Rough rescue: Storms, broken plane force layover for turtles

BOSTON (AP) — They might giving, the turtles were
have gotten there faster by loaded onto a shuttle bus
walking, but at any rate, borrowed from the airport
these endangered turtles and driven the rest of the
had a lot to be thankful for way to New Orleans, arriv-
on Thanksgiving. ing on Thanksgiving Day.
Bad weather, a damaged "When we learned the
propeller and an unsched- plane could not reach its
uled stop in Tennessee final destination, a flurry of
complicated the rescue calls went out, and with-
of 30 critically endangered in an hour, we had safe,
Kemp's ridley sea turtles warm overnight housing se-
that were among hun- cured for these turtles," said
dreds recently found on Connie Merigo, manager
the beaches of Cape Cod, of the New England Aquar-
stunned and almost killed ium's marine animal rescue
by falling ocean tempera- department.
tures. Volunteers and con- The turtles appear to be
servation experts initially in good condition at their
took the turtles to the New new home, operated by
England Aquarium in Bos- the Audubon Nature Insti-
ton and the National Ma- tute's Coastal Wildlife Net-
rine Life Center on Buzzards work, but they will require
Bay, where they began the significant care before they
long rehabilitation process can be released back into
before being moved to “Rescued Kemp’s ridley sea turtles receive care as they are prepared for transport at Tennessee the wild, according to the
wildlife centers along the Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Thirty endangered sea turtles res- New England Aquarium.
Atlantic and Gulf coasts. cued from the beaches of Cape Cod are now safe in New Orleans after their Thanksgiving travel Kemp's ridley turtles are the
plans went awry. They were being taken to a Louisiana rehabilitation center when bad weather
A batch of 30 New Orleans- and damage to a propeller grounded their plane in Chattanooga. Wildlife experts scrambled to smallest sea turtles in the
bound turtles had a harder find overnight homes for the turtles. They were then driven to New Orleans on Thanksgiving. (Thom world, growing to a little
trip than most. Benson/Tennessee Aquarium via AP)” over 2 feet. They are found
Their plane left Wednesday in the Atlantic as far north
but had to change course A rock kicked up during damaged the propeller nessee Aquarium collected as Nova Scotia but are
and refuel twice because takeoff after the second and grounded the plane. the animals and cared for seen most often in the Gulf
of storms and strong winds. refueling, in Chattanooga, Staff members of the Ten- them overnight. On Thanks- of Mexico.q

Black Friday sees record online as US shoppers stay home

consulting. 95%, he said.
Jewelry and footwear saw some Field said stores may be rethinking
of the biggest in-person sales de- the cost of paying employees and
clines, according to RetailNext, a opening on Thanksgiving when
shopping tracker. Apparel sales they could easily make up for those
were down 50%, while sales of sales online.
home goods fell by 39%. "I wonder, now that we're seeing
Even with that drop, Black Friday will a season where they were able to
still likely end up as one of the big- cut the cord on it, if it will give them
gest in-person shopping days in the pause," he said.
U.S. this year, Field said. He thinks Adobe expects Monday to be the
many people will still shop for the largest online sales day in U.S. his-
holidays in person, but will choose tory, with estimated spending of
mid-week days when crowds are $10.8 billion to $12.7 billion.
smaller. Heavier in-store discounts One reason for the big numbers is
and concerns about lengthy ship- that people are shopping online
ping times could also draw shop- for things such as groceries and
pers closer to Christmas. alcohol that they bought in per-
"Black Friday had a lot to lose, but son before the pandemic, Adobe
Shoppers pass an Indigo Friday 40% Off sign Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020, on Chica- some of it is going to be distributed said. As for more traditional gifts,
go's famed Magnificent Mile shopping district. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) throughout the holiday season," Hot Wheels cars, Lego sets, Apple
Field said. AirPods, Samsung televisions and
(AP) – Black Friday online sales hit a Meanwhile, traffic to physical One trend that could remain after video games are among the big-
new record this year as pandemic- stores plummeted as retailers tried the pandemic ends is that stores gest sellers.
wary Americans filled virtual carts to prevent crowds by cutting their could remain closed on Thanks- Big retailers such as Walmart and
instead of real ones. hours and limiting doorbuster deals. giving Day, Field said. Since 2013, Target benefited from the surge,
Consumers spent an estimated U.S. store visits dropped by 52% on a growing number of stores had but small retailers did as well, Ado-
$9 billion on U.S. retail websites on Black Friday, according to Sensor- opened on Thanksgiving to match be said. Sales at big stores surged
Black Friday, according to Ado- matic Solutions, a retail tracker. their competitors and get a jump by 403% on Thanksgiving and Black
be Analytics, which tracks online Traffic was slower in the Northeast start on Black Friday. But it's typi- Friday compared to the daily aver-
shopping. That was a 22% increase and West than in the Midwest and cally not a big day for retailers, age in October, but sales at small-
over the previous record of $7.4 bil- South, said Brian Field, Sensormat- and this year many stayed closed. er retailers also grew by 349%.
lion set in 2019. ic's senior director of global retail Thanksgiving store traffic was down q