By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

Denny’s and Waffle House have removed surcharges that the two restaurant chains added to their menus when U.S. egg prices spiked earlier in the year.

Denny’s confirmed Thursday that it eliminated its egg surcharge on May 21. Waffle House said Wednesday on social media that it canceled its surcharge on June 2.

Waffle House instituted a 50-cent per egg surcharge in February at all of its 1,900 U.S. restaurants due to the soaring cost of eggs. Denny’s also put a surcharge in place in February, but it varied by location.

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Outbreaks of bird flu in January and February caused the average price of a dozen Grade A eggs to hit a record high of $6.23 per dozen in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More than 174.8 million wild bird and poultry have been killed due to the virus, which began circulating in January 2022. Any time a bird gets sick, the entire flock is killed to help keep the highly contagious flu from spreading. The mass slaughters can affect egg supplies because massive egg farms may have millions of birds.

Egg prices at grocery stores began falling in April as bird flu cases fell and Easter demand eased. In May, the average retail price dropped further, to $4.55 per dozen. That was the lowest price since December, when eggs averaged $4.15 per dozen.

Increased imports of eggs also helped lower prices. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said earlier this month that the U.S. has imported more than 26 million dozen shell eggs since January from Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, Turkey and South Korea. The federal government also approved three new facilities for receiving imported eggs.

The government has also completed nearly 1,000 biosecurity assessments on U.S. farms and helped farms pay for biosecurity upgrades, Rollins said.

Still, Rollins said the fall could be “potentially challenging” for egg producers. Wild birds often spread the avian flu virus during their migrations.

Urban Landreman and his neighbor Greg Schaffner both played clarinet. So, when their wives gave birth to children the same year, the two St. Paul men knew what they had to do to inaugurate the special occasion: On July 4, 1986, their two-man marching band serenaded neighbors along the 1100 block of Portland Avenue, from Griggs Street to Dunlap Street, inviting residents to help them celebrate the nation’s birthday alongside their new bundles of joy.

Landreman, who had only lived on Portland Avenue for about a year, repeated the celebration the following 4th of July, as did Schaffner and others interested in their impromptu, one-block musical parade in the Lexington-Hamline neighborhood of St. Paul. More residents came the following year, and then the next, inspiring a display of decorated bikes, a sing-along of patriotic tunes and a “human flag” composed of adults and children holding up color-coded poster boards to form a giant American flag.

“The part I like to say is the flag wouldn’t be complete unless everybody did their part,” said Landreman, who predicted some 50 attendees would show up Friday for the neighborhood social’s 40th anniversary. “Calling it my homily would be too strong, but it’s kind of like our country. We need everybody to participate.”

“It’s super simple,” he added. “It’s like small town Americana. It’s not over the top, with bright lights and huge sound systems.”

Residents along the 1100 block of Portland Avenue lead a block-length 4th of July parade, bike stroll and marching band between Griggs and Dunlap streets in 2017. (Courtesy of Allison Golnik)

The tradition continues at 10 a.m. Friday with a sing-along rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful,” followed by a recitation of the Declaration of Independence, with each attendee reading aloud about two lines.

“One of the guiding principles is this is not a spectator event,” Landreman said. “Everybody participates. We kind of pass it around so everybody reads a line or two. That actually takes a while. I don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve read the Declaration of Independence, but it’s actually quite long.”

Schaffner died in 2022 and his widow, Patricia, moved to the west metro. Landreman’s wife Mary passed away a decade ago. But the tradition they all founded together continues, with the marching band — “kind of a ragtag group,” said Landreman — drawing anywhere from three to eight performers, depending upon the year. Kids decorate scooters and bikes for the parade, which features a ceremonial passing of the American flag each year to the next flag bearer, usually a child.

“This has never been sponsored by anybody,” Landreman said. “It’s totally organic. People come from the neighborhood and make it happen.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s no filibuster in the House, but Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries essentially conducted one anyway.

Jeffries held the House floor for more than eight hours Thursday, taking his “sweet time” with a marathon floor speech that delayed passage of Republicans’ massive tax and spending cuts legislation and gave his minority party a lengthy spotlight to excoriate what he called an “immoral” bill.

As Democratic leader, Jeffries can speak for as long as he wants during debate on legislation — hence its nickname on Capitol Hill, the “magic minute,” that lasts as long as leaders are speaking.

He began the speech at 4:53 a.m. EDT and finished at 1:37 p.m. EDT, 8 hours, 44 minutes later, breaking the record set by then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California in 2021, when he was the GOP leader. McCarthy spoke for 8 hours, 32 minutes when he angrily criticized Democrats’ “Build Back Better” legislation, breaking a record set by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., when she spoke about immigration for 8 hours, 7 minutes in 2018.

“I feel an obligation, Mr. Speaker, to stand on this House floor and take my sweet time,” Jeffries said as he opened.

The speech pushed a final vote on Republican President Donald Trump’s tax bill, initially expected in the early morning, into the daylight hours. The New York Democrat used the time to criticize the bill’s health care and food aid cuts, tax breaks for the wealthy and rollbacks to renewable energy programs, among other parts of the bill that Democrats decry.

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He also killed time by riffing on hip-hop, King George III and his own life story, among other diversions. He called out Republicans who have voiced concerns about the bill, read stories from people concerned about their health care from those GOP lawmakers’ districts and praised his own members, some of whom sat behind him and cheered, clapped, laughed and joined hands.

“This reckless Republican budget is an immoral document, and that is why I stand here on the floor of the House of Representatives with my colleagues in the House Democratic caucus to stand up and push back against it with everything we have,” Jeffries said.

He ended the speech like a Sunday sermon, with most of the Democratic caucus in a tight huddle around him and colleagues calling out, “Bring it home, Hakeem!”

“We don’t work for President Donald Trump,” Jeffries said, as a handful of Republicans across the aisle sat silent and occasionally snickered at the leader as he kept talking.

He invoked the late John Lewis, a civil rights activist in the 1960s and longtime Democratic congressman from Georgia. “Get into good trouble, necessary trouble,” Jeffries said.

“We’re going to press on until victory is won,” he said.

Jeffries sneaked small bites of food and drank liquids to boost his energy, but did not leave the chamber or his podium. The speech would be over if he did.

Democrats were powerless to stop the huge bill, which Republicans are passing by using an obscure budget procedure that bypasses the Senate filibuster. So they were using the powers they do have, mostly to delay. In the Senate, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York forced Senate clerks to read the bill for almost 16 hours over the weekend.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., similarly gained attention in April when he spoke for more than 25 hours on the Senate floor and broke the record for the longest continuous Senate floor speech in the chamber’s history. Booker was assisted by fellow Democrats who gave him a break from speaking by asking him questions on the Senate floor, but Jeffries’ “magic minute” did not allow for any interaction with other members.

Republicans who were sitting on the floor when Jeffries started trickled out, leaving half the chamber empty. When the speech was over, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., called it “a bunch of hogwash.”

The speech “will not change the outcome that you will see very shortly,” Smith said.

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Leah Askrinam contributed to this report.

Do you love pizza so much you are willing to hop aboard the next flight and travel across the country for a transformational slice?

Well, hold on a second: Maybe you don’t have to spend those airline points just yet. Some of the most destination-worthy pizza joints might be in your state, according to a recent ranking from Food & Wine.

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New York? Definitely. Chicago? Yes, despite all the deep-dish skeptics out there. But California’s Bay Area and Los Angeles? Local correspondent Becky Duffett argues they’re worthy of celebration in this ‘za Renaissance, asserting “American pizza has never been better.”

Outta Sight in San Francisco gets Duffett’s nod for its long-fermented sourdough and experimental toppings like Peking duck, while Berkeley’s Rose Pizzeria succeeds for its “crunchy, original style that lands somewhere between Naples and NYC with sweet tomato and creamy white sauces.”

Here are the rest of the country’s pizza destinations:

Food & Wine’s 10 must-visit pizzerias in the United States

1 John’s of Bleecker Street (New York City)

2 L’Industrie (Brooklyn)

3 Bungalow by Middle Brow (Chicago)

4 Buddy’s Pizza (Detroit)

5 Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana (New Haven, Connecticut)

6 Razza Pizza Artigianale (Jersey City)

7 Quarter Sheets (Los Angeles)

8 Outta Sight (San Francisco)

9 Rose Pizzeria (Berkeley)

10 Lovely’s Fifty Fifty (Portland, Oregon)

Source: https://www.foodandwine.com/best-pizza-restaurants-11744723