IN TRANSITION:  President-elect Donald Trump is spurning the formal transition process allowing him to keep secret the names of the wealthy people and companies paying for his transition into a second term.

  Trump has yet to enter an agreement with the General Services Administration that imposes limits on transition fund-raising in exchange for up to $7.2 million in federal funds. By dodging the agreement, Trump can raise unlimited amounts of money from unknown donors to pay for staff, travel, and office space. It’s what’s known as a “dark money” fund.

  Basically, this allows the people buying his good favor to be unidentified. And unlike campaign contributions, foreign nationals are allowed to donate to the transition.

  Campaign spokes people have repeatedly said the campaign intends to sign the transition agreement but blew through the September and October deadlines. They say they are “constructively engaged” with the Biden administration.

THE WAR ROOM: Israel over the weekend bombed targets in central Beirut killing as many as 80 people. One air strike took down an apartment building and killed 20 people while failing to hit a Hezbollah leader who was believed to have been there.

  Israel is telling a tale often told in Gaza, and now Lebanon … they are killing unarmed innocents and reducing housing to rubble while pursuing militants.

  The war in Lebanon has killed an estimated 3,500 people and forced almost a quarter of the population to leave home. Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into Israel.

TRAVEL AND RESORTS: The lines are already long at airports around the country. An estimated 80 million people are expected to travel 50 miles or more for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Thirty-one million of those travelers are expected to fly.

  Peak travel days are tomorrow, Wednesday, and the Sunday. Expect delays. Storms in the West and Central US could slow the flight schedule.

ON THE PITCH: The Orlando Pride won its first National Women’s Soccer League championship Saturday 1-0 … one-nil as they say in the game … over the Washington Spirit at Kansas City’s CPKC Stadium.

  The No. 1 seed Pride entered the playoffs with an overall record of 19-6-2. It was the first championship for the Brazilian soccer icon Marta who’s been in the league for 10 years.

  CPKC Stadium, by the way, is the first built exclusively for women’s soccer.

FAMILY TIES: The infamous parent-murdering Menendez brothers are expected to appear today by video link for a hearing on re-sentencing and possibly release after more than 30 years in prison.

  Erik and Lyle Menendez, now ages 53 and 56, blew away their in parents with shotguns in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion. Current Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who was not re-elected, moved for the re-sentencing after considering new evidence that the boys were motivated in part by their father sexually abusing them for years.

ONE WORD, “PLASTICS”: Negotiators from dozens of countries are in Busan, South Korea, trying to agree on a global treaty to cut down on plastic pollution. The world produces about 400 million metric tons of plastic waste every year, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

  An enormous amount of those plastics end up oceans, shorelines, and landfills, where it breaks down into microplastics that have been found everywhere in the environment and even in human bodies. There are beaches with multi-colored plastic sand.

   The oil and gas industry, including major producers like Russia and Saudi Arabia, have delayed and blocked measures that could hurt their business.

THE OBIT PAGE: Alice Brock, whose name and dining establishment in Western Massachusetts were made famous by the Arlo Guthrie song “Alice’s restaurant,” has died at age 83.

  “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant ….” 

  The song, mostly spoken, is a rambling tale about Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant in Stockbridge, actually known as the “Back Room,” and Guthrie getting arrested for throwing garbage in a ravine making him morally ineligible to be drafted into the Vietnam War. It became an anthem for the anti-war movement.

  Brock had closed her restaurant before she became a cultural figure whose fame turned into a personal burden. “I resented it for a long time,” she told WAMC Northeast radio. “But I’ve come to realize now that people are just delighted when they hear my name, so how can I complain?”

    “Walk right in it’s around the back
     Just a half a mile from the railroad track
     You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant”

THE SPIN RACK: A Dartmouth College sorority and two fraternity members have been charged with providing alcohol to an underage student who drowned after attending an off-campus party this summer.  Won Jang, 20, who drowned in the Connecticut River, had attended the party hosted by the sorority and supplied with alcohol  by the fraternity. — The former treasurer of Santa Cruz County, Arizona has pleaded guilty to embezzling $38 million over a period of 10 years. She is believed to have poured the money into her 150-acre ranch in nearby Tumacacori, operating expenses for a cattle business, and at least 20 vehicles, including an Airstream touring coach. — Fire ripped through more than 1,000 structures in Manila’s shantytown Tondo district yesterday before firefighters took eight hours to put it out. No casualties were reported. Some residents fled the waterfront slum by boat. — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed a bill making it no longer a crime to commit adultery in that state. Sure, tell that to your spouse.

BELOW THE FOLD: A Georgia mother is fighting back against child endangerment charges. Brittany Patterson, 41, is a mother of four who was arrested a month ago in front of her children. The charge … allowing her 10-year-old son to walk a mile into town by himself.

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