What's open Christmas Day? The list includes CVS, Starbucks and 7-Eleven — but not Walmart

CC™ Checklist

Whether you forget an ingredient for the Christmas meal, a gift or want to go out to eat, your options will be limited Wednesday.

Christmas is the one day of year that the nation's largest retailer, Walmart, closes all of its locations and several regional and national stores also follow suit.

According to Womply, a small business software provider, 92% of local retailers are closed on the holiday and four out of five restaurants are closed.

But all hope isn't lost. 

Your mileage may vary on how far you'll have to drive for any forgotten items but drug stores including CVS and Walgreens will be open on the holiday. So will several convenience stores including 7-Eleven, Wawa and Cumberland Farms.

Many major restaurant chains also will be closed Wednesday but many Starbucks, McDonald's and Dunkin' locations will be open, along with IHOP, Denny's and Waffle House.

Delivery services including Postmates, Grubhub, UberEats and DoorDash will be delivering food orders Christmas for participating local and national restaurants. Check the apps or websites Wednesday to find available options.

What stores are open Christmas Day?

Hours can vary and not all locations will be open. In some cases, store websites have not been updated to reflect holiday hours, so calling your closest location is advised.

7-Eleven: Most locations open 24 hours

Acme: Hours vary.

Albertsons: Hours vary.

Bravo Supermarkets: Some locations open special hours Wednesday.

Casey's General Store: Stores open at 10 a.m.

Circle K: Hours vary, some open 24 hours. 

Cumberland Farms: Hours vary, some open 24 hours. 

CVS: Most open regular hours though many pharmacies will be closed.

Duane Reade: Hours vary.

Family Dollar: Some locations are open special hours Wednesday. Call your closest location as this information is not online.

Giant Food: Some stores are open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, while other locations are closed.

goPuff: The digital on-demand convenience retailer is open Christmas in its 150-plus markets.

Love's Travel Stops: Open 24 hours.

Pilot Flying J: Most open 24 hours or regular hours.

RaceTrac: Hours vary.

Rite-Aid: Most locations open but hours vary.

Safeway: Hours vary but many are open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sheetz: Open 24 hours.

Speedway: Hours vary.

TravelCenters of America: Find holiday hours here.

Vons: Varies, check website.

Walgreens: Most open regular hours though many pharmacies will be closed.

Wawa: Most open 24 hours or regular hours.

More businesses open: Additional stores, gas stations and convenience stores also are expected to be open. Check before heading out.

Christmas store roundup: What stores are open Christmas Day for last-minute gifts, forgotten ingredients? See the list

Traveling for Christmas?: Burger King offers free Impossible Whoppers for delayed flights

What restaurants are open Christmas?

Check with your closest location before heading out. Some restaurant websites do not have updated holiday hours so calling is suggested.

Applebee's: Not all locations will be open as the decision is made by franchisees.

Baker’s Square: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Benihana: Make reservations online for Christmas Day.

Boston Market: Nearly all locations are open Wednesday but menu selections and hours may vary by location.

Buca di Beppo: Most open regular hours.

Burger King: Select locations will be open on Christmas Day.

Chart House: Most locations open and hours and menus vary. 

Checker's: Most open regular hours.

Chinese restaurants: It's a tradition for Chinese restaurants to be open Christmas. Check with your favorite for hours.

Dave & Buster's: Check your closest location's hours online.

Denny's: Open 24 hours.

Dunkin': Hours vary and not all locations will be open. Check the Dunkin' mobile app to confirm whether your local store is open.

Fleming's Steakhouse: Select locations open Christmas.

Fogo de Chão: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Hard Rock Cafe: Varies.

Hooters: Many locations open at 4 p.m., but hours can vary.

Huddle House: Hours vary.

IHOP: Most locations will be open regular hours Wednesday. IHOP has a limited-time Elf on the Shelf menu and kids eat free promotion through Jan. 1.

Joe's Crab Shack: Hours posted at www.joescrabshack.com/christmas.

Legal Sea Foods: Each location's hours listed at www.legalseafoods.com.

Luby's: Special menu available.

Macaroni Grill: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Main Event: Check for entertainment centers' hours online. 

McCormick’s & Schmick’s: The restaurant recommends making reservations.

McDonald's: Participating locations are open Wednesday, hours vary.

Morton’s The Steakhouse: 2 to 9 p.m.

Panda Express: Hours vary.

Paris Baguette: All locations will be open Wednesday but hours vary.

Perkins Restaurant & Bakery: Some locations will have special hours Wednesday.

Pokeworks: Corporate locations will be open along with participating franchised locations.

Ruth Chris' Steak House: Reservations are recommended and can be made online.

Shari's: Hours vary and listed at www.sharis.com.

Shoney's: Locations open at 11 a.m.

Starbucks: Not all locations are open and hours vary. Check with your closest location and hours will be updated on the app and website.

STK Steakhouse and Kona Grill: The restaurant chains both owned by The One Group will be open Christmas. Check websites for varying hours.

Steak 'n Shake: Most will be open, call for your closest location’s hours.

TGI Fridays: Some locations will be open special hours, which vary. 

TooJay's Deli: Check with locations for special hours.

Tony Roma's: Hours vary.

Veggie Grill: Select locations open Christmas. 

Village Inn: Hours vary but many close at 4 p.m. Christmas.

More restaurants: Some locally-owned and regional chains restaurants also will be open Christmas and restaurants located in hotels often are open on holidays. Find additional restaurants by searching social media and looking on OpenTable, an online reservation service.

Megyn Kelly Says President Donald Trump's Impeachment Trial Is 'Rigged'.....

CC™ Periscope

In a new interview for an upcoming PBS documentary, former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly says she believes President Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial is “rigged.”

Kelly appears in an upcoming PBS Frontline documentary airing in mid-January about the political divide in the United States, where she discusses everything from hearing Barack Obama speak for the first time to her feud with Trump throughout the 2016 election campaign.

In the interview, Kelly also answers questions about Trump’s impeachment (the interview was conducted before Trump was officially impeached on Wednesday evening).

“The trial’s kind of rigged, right?” Kelly says. “The jury’s kind of set in the Senate because the Republicans control it. I don’t see enough Republicans in that body turning on a man who’s about to face re-election anyway and is going to be in the voters’ hands anyway, doing something that radical as finding him guilty if articles of impeachment come over from the House.”

Although the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump on Wednesday, the president will stand trial in the Senate, where it’s widely expected the Republican majority will vote to acquit him on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Kelly notes the founding fathers left the constitutional stance on impeachment vague in order to leave legal “wiggle room.”

“If they’d just said ‘high crimes’ — you know, ‘treason and high crimes’ — we’d know what the standard was,” Kelly says. “But ‘and misdemeanors’ opens it up, because they’re not talking about misdemeanors like he jaywalked, right? That opens it up to it could be improper conduct. It could be abuse of power.”

Democrats and Republicans have debated throughout the months-long impeachment investigation on what constitutes “abuse of power” and whether Trump did, in fact, abuse his power as president.

During Wednesday’s impeachment debate on the House floor, Republican representatives claimed House Democrats were treating Trump unfairly. One Republican representative alluded to Trump’s impeachment as a comparable tragedy to Pearl Harbor, while another claimed Jesus was afforded more rights before his crucifixion than Trump had been during the impeachment investigation.

Trump declined to testify during the impeachment investigation, as well as other top officials in the Trump administration.

Wednesday’s debate on the House floor over impeachment was also similar to Kelly’s statements about how Democrats and Republicans see Trump’s impeachment differently.

“Much like pornography, that’s in the eye of the beholder,” Kelly says in her interview. “As the Supreme Court said, ‘I know it when I see it.’ Well, so what does that mean? That means it boils down to politics, and people are going to see it through their own partisan lenses.”

Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate is expected to begin in January.

Apparently oblivious of his House impeachment, Trump urges students to back his agenda and oppose impeachment

Trump stands impeached much like Clinton (L) and Johnson (R)

CC™ Insight

President Donald Trump kicked off his end-of-year holiday in Florida on Saturday by rallying student supporters on behalf of his political agenda – and against Democrats and impeachment.

"There was no crime ... there was nothing," Trump told a cheering crowd at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida. "What are we doing here? The world is watching."

While blasting Democrats for their impeachment push, Trump said at one point that "we're facing an opposition willing to use totalitarian methods to get their way."

Trump mocked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for suggesting she might not submit two impeachment articles to the Senate for trial, but spent more time on his standard campaign stump speech.

Turning Point USA, a network of conservatives on college and high school campuses, held its summit not far from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, where he is spending the holidays.

"The radical left doesn't stand a chance against young conservatives who put America first," Trump said to the adoring crowd during a speech that lasted more than an hour.

Speaking three days after the House passed two articles of impeachment, Trump bragged that no Republican lawmaker voted for either allegation. He said that Democrats looked "bad" and that "our polls have gone through the roof."

Pelosi has not submitted the two impeachment articles for trial amid Democratic concern that the Republican majority in the Senate will not conduct a fair and thorough trial.

"No one is above the law and the Constitution is the supreme law of the land," Pelosi said after the impeachment vote. "No one is above the law and this president has been held accountable."

The House on Wednesday passed two impeachment articles that accuse Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The first article concerns evidence that Trump pressured the country of Ukraine to investigate a U.S. political opponent, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Trump is also accused of holding up military aid to Ukraine until it followed through with his demands.

The obstruction article deals with Trump's refusal to allow testimony by top aides during the House impeachment inquiry.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tweeted after the vote that "we all feel the weight of history in this moment, but President Trump's grave misconduct left us no choice but to impeach. Now it is incumbent on the Senate to conduct a fair trial."

In his campaign-themed speech to student backers, Trump extolled the newly signed defense bill, a revamped trade deal with Canada and Mexico, new trade talks with China, the federal judges he has appointed, and the proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

He also attacked a string of Democratic presidential candidates, including Biden and his son Hunter Biden. who had business interests in Ukraine.

Trump frequently joked with the friendly crowd.

While criticizing what he called an over-reliance on wind power, Trump said that companies often paint windmills different colors, including "an orange-white" – and then he made a crack about his own complexion and hair.

"My favorite color," Trump said. "Orange."

Source: USA TODAY

Polls show majority want Trump convicted in the Senate following House impeachment

Impeached US President Donald Trump - Reuters/Marco Bello

CC™ Politico

A majority of Americans support believe President Trump should be removed from office, a new poll by Politico and Morning Consult found.

The share of Americans who want Trump removed from office has climbed since the House's impeachment proceedings concluded on Wednesday. 

Another Politico/Morning Consult poll taken before the impeachment vote on December 14-15 found that 50% of Americans supported Trump's impeachment, compared with 52% in the most recent poll.

Like the impeachment vote itself, public support for Trump's removal falls largely along party lines. Eighty-five percent of Democrats agree with the House's decision to impeach, compared with only 16% of Republicans.

Trump became the third president in US history to be impeached following a vote in the House on Wednesday. The president now faces trial in the Senate, during which he is expected to be acquitted and maintain his post. The timing of the Senate trial is unclear as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has yet to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, which charge the president with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The voters polled by Politico and Morning Consult were more divided on Trump's reelection prospects. Sixty-four percent of Republicans surveyed said the impeachment would strengthen Trump's reelection bid, while 55% said the inquiry would hurt his campaign. The Virginia-based news outlet and the marketing researching firm interviewed 1,991 registered voters online between December 19 and 20.

The poll's margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points.

Source: Business Insider

Liverpool beat Flamengo to win FIFA Club World Cup..... All they do is win.....

Liverpool lift the trophy (Getty Images)

CC™ Sportswire

Jurgen Klopp may have confessed to having zero clue what it looked like, but after Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over Flamengo he had the Club World Cup trophy held triumphantly over his head. 

It is their third piece of silverware in just six months. His players had so craved adding the gold badge with the imposing ‘world champions’ inscription to their kits and will soon proudly get to advertise it on their chests. 

It wasn’t pretty or poetry – and the win featured one of the most appalling refereeing performances seen in a showpiece final by Qatar’s Abdulrahman Al Jassim – but not even he could deny what Liverpool believed was their destiny.

Their “addiction” for honours, as Adam Lallana put it, has delivered an unmatched treble by an English club. The Champions League, Super Cup and now Fifa’s flagship club competition have all been conquered – the latter for the first time – while the quest to lift the Premier League will resume for the division’s leaders next week.

In Doha, Flamengo fans had dominated at Souq Waqif, where tables overflowed with Sofret Ahel El Raya at Damasca One Restaurant and chants in support of their team were only interrupted to puff shisha.

They had taken over the pristine metro too, where they borrowed Hey Jude by The Beatles to venerate their manager: “Na, na, na, na-na-na na, Na-na-na na, Jesus!”

Liverpool could have taken the lead inside 60 seconds, but the Brazil international blasted over on that occasion, with Naby Keita doing the same moments later.

The champions of Europe swarmed their opponents in the opening half of play, but Jorge Jesus’ side grew into their stride and starting posing problems around 20 minutes in without creating anything of significance.

It was, unfortunately, referee Al Jassim that drew the most attention in a first half where Liverpool did not have a shot on target, with his decisions of the head-scratching variety.

The official was hugely out of his depth, a verdict which only looked more certain as time ticked on.

The second half was predictably more open, with Firmino striking the inside of the post and Gabriel Barbosa serving as Flamengo’s main threat.

He forced two saves from Alisson, while at the other end, Diego Alves did excellently to deny Henderson with his fingertips.

While the game was elevated after the interval, Al Jassim’s officiating reached new levels of incompetence as evidenced by his penalising of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who later hobbled off with his right ankle wrapped in a protective boot, when Filipe Luis went down after clashing with Pablo Mari’s shoulder. 

But the worst was to come.

In injury time, the referee awarded Liverpool a penalty on 91 minutes after Mane was impeded by Rafinha as he was clean through on goal and about to shoot. Al Jassim went to the pitchside monitor to review his decision and replays showed the foul took place just outside the area. That seemed the only matter of contention, but he ruled there was no infringement and so there was no free-kick, no red card and a bizarre drop ball to Flamengo.

But there was only so much Al Jassim could do to ruin a fine spectacle before a goal finally came. Henderson, superb all night, did well to keep the pressure on, before playing Mane through. The Senegal international ran across goal, checking back and supplying the unmarked Firmino, who shifted the ball to his right and blasted it past Alves.

Liverpool can now add another trophy to the Champions Wall at Melwood and it is a good thing the club will be moving to a more expansive training facility, because at this rate, they will require a lot more space to detail their honours.

Source: The Independent

Donald Trump's impeachment was right - but it will help the president win the US election

US President Donald Trump with wife Melania at an event

CC™ Opinionscope

Everyone seems really eager to confirm that impeaching president Trump was the right thing to do, but no one asks: what’s next?

Look no further than what Boris Johnson has achieved in the UK, and you will grasp what might be coming in the US. Impeachment is set to win Trump the 2020 presidential elections.

I hear you saying the US is different. The voting system, the priorities of the people, the partisan politics and, above all, the political culture. That’s absolutely right. But does that most certainly mean that the outcome must be different? I very much doubt it.

Impeaching President Trump may be the right thing to do in the presence of such compelling and substantial evidence of the abuse of power and obstruction of congress, and many more.

Most fact-driven people, with a little bit of sanity, know that Trump should have been removed from the White House long ago, let alone giving him the chance of being there from the beginning. But, just like Brexit, impeaching him now will be followed by an equally substantial rise of the far-right nationalism posing an unprecedented threat to the liberal democratic system across the western world.

The irony is that it all starts in the UK. The British majority unexpectedly voted for leaving the EU in February 2016, followed by Trump’s rather jaw-dropping victory in the elections held in November the same year. Now, Brexit will most likely be carried out officially by the beginning of 2020, and Trump (this time unsurprisingly) might win the elections at the end of the year.

The political shock and awe seen in 2016 will not be present this time because the impeachment saga will feasibly hit the Democrats and bolster Trump’s legacy.

Hilary Clinton, and now Nancy Pelosi, were not yet ready to understand what had really happened or how the electorate across the party divide perceive the liberalism they supposedly represent. And more importantly, how the right (far and central) is swiftly winning the hearts and minds of the liberal traditional voters.

This happens because the right extremism seems, sadly, on the right side of history.

Nancy Pelosi did the right thing by laying the case for Trump’s impeachment in the House of Representatives, just like Jeremy Corbyn when he promised a referendum to let British voters decide on the final withdrawal agreement with the EU. But whatever the morals over this, the right thing in politics sometimes doesn’t take you anywhere.

Pelosi understands that the impeachment won’t pass the Senate or do any harm to Trump’s election campaign. She might believe that the historic show was necessary to keep the Democratic Party united. British voters have seen this in the near past, and they all know it doesn’t end well.

The fundamental change that liberals look unable to grasp is the people’s scepticism of the liberal democratic order that has prevailed across the Atlantic and dominated the greater west since the end of the Second World War. Democracy, in its current worn-out condition, is broken. People are struggling, from Chile to Hong Kong, to find a more effective alternative that represents their 21^st-century aspirations. It is a struggle that is likely to keep blistering throughout the next 50 years.

In the Anglo-Saxon world, people look at the socialists and democrats as the gatekeepers of this liberal democracy. Many of them don’t want to hear tirades about old fashioned socialism or free broadband. They seem more ready to give their ears to Boris Johnson’s false claims about recruiting 50,000 nurses and building 40 hospitals or his gawky battle cry of “make Britain great again.”

It might be the left-leaning columnists and another punch of loud socialists on Twitter that propped up Bernie Sanders’s candidacy as a serious concurrent for the presidency. But people in the US, too, don’t seem very fond of “democratic socialism” or Bernie’s “New Deal” politics.

Most of us on the liberal bank of the river didn’t yet figure out how Brexit has deeply changed the UK, and are still unable to envisage how Trump’s impeachment will turn the table in his favour. The populist “politics of lies”, on both sides of the Atlantic, was so effective and powerful as to convince many that having a Final Say referendum and impeaching Trump is a part of the “enemy of the people” plots against the “will of the people.”

The major shift from pure economics to culture in election campaigns resonated greatly with voters, and in the UK, had the whole political map redrawn. Labour and Lib Dem leaderships were smashed under the wheels of a new kind of wicked populist leaders who have no problem destroying the facts to feed their base with the untruths they want to hear.

After the red wall has collapsed, I can see the blue wall of America tottering from afar. In 2016, Donald Trump was able to win victories in the three blue wall states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In 2020 he might sweep across the Democrats’ heartlands and have the wall completely demolished.

The Democrats are effectively riding the same Labour and Lib Dem train and hoping to reach a different destination. Unfortunately for them, history works in a more predictable way.

The US and Europe have seen in the past five years far-right bigotry skyrocketing. This was just the beginning. The second phase, which is likely to unravel during 2020, will witness its real surge. And as liberal democracy was an Anglo-Saxon remedy to Europe after the war, this might well be the Anglo-Saxon epidemic that, in the absence of any credible resistance and leadership, might devour the whole continent.

Source: The Independent

More representatives voted to impeach Trump than in either of the two previous impeachments of Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson

Clinton - Trump - Johnson - (Reuters/AP/PhotoQuest)

CC™ Factoid

President Donald Trump on Wednesday night became only the third president in US history to be impeached, with the House of Representatives backing articles of impeachment that charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The House voted 230-197 in favor of an article accusing Trump of abuse of power and 229-198 in favor an article accusing him of obstruction of Congress. Both votes largely followed party lines.

Compared with the previous two impeachments in US history, Trump had more votes against him than either of his predecessors: Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868.

Clinton was impeached on charges related to a sexual-harassment lawsuit and for claims he lied under oath over his affair with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

He faced articles of impeachment of perjury and obstructing justice, both of which were passed by the House, with the following majorities:

• Perjury: 228 votes to impeach, 206 against.
• Obstruction of justice: 221 votes to impeach, 212 against.

Trump's two articles of impeachment each received slightly more support.

On a sheer numbers basis, Trump's impeachment was also more decisive than the vote against Johnson, who received 126 votes for his impeachment, 47 against, and 17 members who did not vote.

In the late 1800s, however, the US had only 37 states and the House was a smaller body. Proportionally, the vote against Johnson was stronger, with about 66% of representatives against him, compared with 52% against Trump.

Source: Business Insider

The magic of Russell Wilson.....

CC™ Flashback - NFL Minute

Yes, he is the pride and joy of the Emerald City. Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, has been making quite a name for himself since he stormed into the National Football League (NFL) three years ago.

Apart from going 17-1 in eighteen starts at home and winning the Superbowl in only his second season, plays like this (below) are what make him so special and destined for greatness in a game where success is not guaranteed, especially for a 'short' (not to mention black) quarterback. 

How to scale up excellence in an organization

CC™ Business Insight

Stanford's Robert Sutton discusses the mind-set and strategies of companies that are most adept at building and spreading high standards.