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ByDavidKoenig The Associated Press DALLAS Airlinesareshift- ing the timing of thousands of flights, even adding doz- ens of redeyes, as they try to avoid delays while haul- ing millions of passengers from now through the Christmas weekend. Success or failure could all depend on the weather and Mother Nature isn't making it easy on airlines. Rain and fog in the Northeast caused delays and cancellations Wednes- day in Boston, New York and Washington — the bus- iest part of the country's airspace. Rain in Chicago and Atlanta caused some delays in those cities too. Severe storms that ripped through Mississippi and Alabama, however, had little impact on air travel since no major airports are in those states. Weather wasn't the only culprit for travel head- aches. A Black Lives Mat- ter protest in Minneapolis had clogged roads around the airport and temporar- ily blocked access to one of the two terminals. Passen- gers were moving through security again as of 4:30 local time. There were about 4,500 delays and 375 cancel- ations around 5:45 p.m., according to flight track- ing site FlightAware. The majority of flights can- celed were smaller re- gional jets that carry 50 to 76 passengers. More than 28,000 flights were sched- uled for Wednesday and a typical day sees about 150 cancelations and 4,000 de- lays. The catch: flights are extremely full over the holiday period, with most travelers unable to make changes in their schedule. Airlines expect about 38 million passengers over a 17-day period spanning Christmas and New Year's, an increase of about 3 per- cent, according to an in- dustry trade group, Air- lines for America. The group says the average flight could be 90 percent full. Crowds like that mean that any hiccup in the system — delays at a ma- jor airport, a technology glitch — can ripple across the country and leave tens of thousands of passengers standing in airport lines. "The biggest factor is al- ways weather," said Amer- ican Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein. Back-to-back storms led to more than 4,300 canceled flights around Christmas 2012. This time the Northeast corri- dor not only should be free of snow and ice, it should be relatively balmy with temperatures on Christ- mas Day in the 60s from New York to Boston. But rain and snow are fore- cast through Thursday in parts of the West, and the South and Ohio Valley could see severe storms before Christmas. Airlines have been helped recently by the El Niño pattern that has brought above-average temperatures to north- ern states. "We saw that through the Thanksgiving holiday season, and we've seen that through Novem- ber and December," said Steve Hozdulick, South- west Airlines' managing director of operational performance. United posted its low- est flight-cancellation rate ever for a Thanksgiv- ing week, and Southwest had its best on-time per- formance ever for the day before the holiday, which helps reduce other prob- lems such as lost or de- layed bags. From 9 percent to 19 percent of flights were de- layed over the peak five- day Thanksgiving pe- riod, according to track- ing service FlightAware. com. A year earlier, when the weather was worse, de- lays ran between 12 per- cent and 31 percent. Besides the vagaries of weather, airlines in recent years have done a better job of adjusting schedules for peak holiday periods. According to Mark Du- ell of FlightAware, U.S. airlines added up to 700 flights a day on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Sat- urday and Sunday, com- pared with the same days last week. They cut about 4,400 flights on Christ- mas Eve and 5,700 on Fri- day, Christmas Day, when fewer people want to travel, he said. TRAVEL Airlines prep for holiday crush: More flights and bigger planes NAMY.HUH—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Travelers walk to their gates at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. By Ken Ritter The Associated Press LAS VEGAS Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a homeless woman with murder, child abuse and hit-and-run after police said she intentionally plowed a car carrying her young daughter through crowds of pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip. Additional charges were expected against Lakeisha Nicole Holloway, 24, as in- vestigators interview wit- nesses and review video and physical evidence from the Sunday night crash. "This is an ongoing inves- tigation," said Clark County DistrictAttorneySteveWolf- son, who earlier predicted "a great number" of charges would be filed. "I've person- ally seen the videos from a varietyofangles,andI'map- palled at the callousness of thisdefendant'sconductand what appears to be an inten- tional act." Casino and street sur- veillance video cited by the prosecutor has not been made public, and Wolf- son said prosecutors don't plan to present it in court Wednesday, when Holloway is expected to make her first appearance before a judge. Authorities say Holloway repeatedly swerved onto a sidewalk packed with tour- ists in front of the Paris Las Vegas and Planet Hollywood casino-hotels. A modest, makeshift memorial stood at the site on Tuesday. Joseph Abood, one of Hol- loway's public defense attor- neys, said his client plans to plead not guilty. "We can all agree this is a shocking and tragic event," Abood said. "We have great sympathy for the family of Jessica Valenzuela and all the other people who were injured." Valenzuela, 32, of Buck- eye, Arizona, was killed and at least 35 people from California, Colorado, Flor- ida, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington state, Mexico and Quebec, Canada, were injured. Three were still in critical condition and five others re- mained hospitalized. Holloway was on suicide watchinjail,wheresheisbe- ing held without bail. Abood said he and another public defender, Scott Coffee, were collecting information and didn't know whether Hollo- way's mental health would emerge as a defense. Holloway was charged with felony child abuse and neglect because police say her 3-year-old daughter was with her in the vehicle. ONGOING INVESTIGATION CHASE STEVENS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Lakeisha Nicole Holloway enters district court with one of her public defenders, Scott Coffee, for her arraignment Wednesday in Las Vegas. Woman charged with murder, hit-and-run in Vegas Strip crash By Ken Dilanian The Associated Press WASHINGTON Putting the U.S. military in charge of drone strikes in Iraq and Syria has effectively reduced congressional scrutiny of those sensitive operations, leaving some activists, law- makers and U.S. intelligence officials fearful of increased civilian casualties. For the last decade, the CIA ran the American ef- fort to find and kill al-Qa- ida members with drones, mostly in Pakistan and Ye- men,outsideofdeclaredwar zones. But the frequency of those strikes has plum- meted to about one a month. The main counterterrorism focus now is the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,where militaryspecial operations forces are flying drones that hunt and kill a senior militant every two days. The shift reflects both le- gal and philosophical con- siderations. When he an- nounced a framework for targeted killing two years ago, President Barack Obama argued that the mili- tary, not a secret intelligence agency, should be the pri- mary instrument of lethal force against terrorists. But one byproduct of the change, American officials say, is that congressional staffers no longer examine the details of each individ- ual drone strike. Some CIA officials, law- makers, and outside activ- ists worry that the new ar- rangement creates a greater risk of mistakes, given that drone strikes regularly tar- get key militants who don't wear uniforms and embed themselves in civilian pop- ulations. Congress, they say, should independently review each drone strike to monitor targeting decisions and compliance with the rules of engagement. "Congress ought to be exercising equally rigor- ous oversight irrespective of which agency or depart- ment uses lethal force," said Raha Wala, senior counsel at Human Rights First. "We are talking about some of the most legally, politically and diplomatically fraught counterterrorism opera- tions, whether they occur in or out of a war zone." The Associated Press in- terviewed a variety of legis- lative and executive branch officials for this story, nearly all of whom declined to be named because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. As the CIA's drone war in Pakistan ramped up in 2010, the spy agency was conduct- ing more than two attacks a week. Intelligence com- mittee staffers with secu- rity clearances began driv- ing to CIA headquarters to watch video of each drone strike in Pakistan and Ye- men as they reviewed the intelligence documents un- dergirding the decisions to press the button. The staff- ers scrutinized civilian ca- sualty claims and whether the decision to fire adhered to Obama's rule that there should be near certainty that no civilian would be harmed. SENSITIVE OPERATIONS As military handles drone strikes, less scrutiny by Congress KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan, on a moon-lit night. 741Main Street,Suite#2 Red Bluff, CA 96080 1-800-287-2187 (530) 527-2187 OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK www.redbluffcoldwellbanker.com See All Tehama County Listings at IfyouareConsidering Selling Your Home, Now is the Time! 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