The practice of pardoning a turkey on Thanksgiving Eve is a phenomenon first observed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 but was not formally made official until President George H.W. Bush in 1989.
The presidential turkey pardon is an interesting White House tradition that has captured the attention of the public in recent years. Live Thanksgiving turkeys have been presented to presidents since the Lincoln administration. The turkey pardon ceremony has been said to date back to 1947, when President Harry Truman received a turkey as a gift from the National Turkey Federation. The Truman Library has been unable to find any evidence of this.
The resident of the Executive Mansion began receiving complimentary turkeys from the National Turkey Federation in 1947 and the gift was recognized by a reception, typically held in the White House Rose Garden.
These birds though were destined to grace the holiday feast at the White House and were presented to the president before they were placed on a platter.
But in 1963, when the glamorous Democrat received his bird, he decided to send the bird back to the farm from whence it came and announced: “We’ll just let this one grow.”
John F Kennedy was the first US President to offer mercy to the national turkey in 1963, an annual gift from the National Turkey Federation
Then later under the Nixon administration, the birds were sent to a Washington-area petting farm instead of getting the chop – and every president since has followed suit.
But the White House notes that in the early era of the presidential acts of mercy, no official pardon was provided – the president would just announce that the turkey would not be killed.
It wasn’t until the first Thanksgiving of President George H.W. Bush, in 1989, that a turkey was officially pardoned for the first time. Each year since the President has formally pardoned a turkey and spares it from ending up on the Thanksgiving table. Since 2005, the turkeys have been flown to Disneyland, where they serve as grand marshals of the theme park’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade and live out the rest of their lives at Frontierland.
Since Barack Obama assumed office in 2009, he has enacted a tradition of pardoning two turkeys instead of just one.
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LAX employees are threatening to strike over being denied healthcare on Thanksgiving eve, the busiest travel holiday of the year.
A coalition of labor and community leaders is calling for the protest of alleged violations by LAX contractor Aviation Safeguards for breaking a healthcare contract with the airport earlier this year.
Andrew Gross-Gaitan, the director of the Southern California Airports Division, told KNX 1070 News Radio that Aviation Safeguards left more than 400 LAX workers without affordable family health care when it failed to comply with the city’s Living Wage Ordinance.
“When people’s lives are on the line, their family members are on the line, they’re not going to be able to enjoy their Thanksgiving,” said Andrew Gross-Gaitan.
“This is really a critical moment for thousands of workers.
“We’re looking at thousands of workers who may face their family benefits being cut,” Andrew Gross-Gaitan added.
“There is one worker whose wife is literally dying of liver cancer, and this has been going on for close to a year. The families of these workers are really in crisis.”
As many as 1,000 airport workers and union supporters are expected to march on Century Boulevard just as an estimated 1.8 million passengers are expected to travel through LAX over the holiday weekend,CBS reports.
LAX employees are threatening to strike over being denied healthcare on Thanksgiving eve
Last May, an estimated 1,200 LAX employees protesting unfair labor laws, picketed outside the airport and prevented passengers from entering.
Andrew Gross-Gaitan said there is definite potential for severe disruptions to airport operations during the protest.
“It’s entirely possible there will be significant travel delays,” he said.
Martin Terrones, Communications Coordinator for the labor union United Service Workers West, downplayed the event.
“It’s not really a strike or a walkout,” he told L.A. Weekly.
“But it is going to be an action none the less.”
Some delays are already creeping up across the country as Thanksgiving nears.
San Francisco International Airport had delays all day Friday due to rain. In Charleston, South Carolina, passengers were frustrated over glitches in a new radar system that caused mass delays.
As of Saturday, U.S. flights were largely on time, with few delays over 15 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
However, that might change with the weather.
“A Pacific storm train may bring the biggest travel problems for Thanksgiving to the Northwest,” reports Accuweather.
“While there may be some fog that delays travel in the major cities of the Northeast.”
Bottom line: “Between the East and West coasts, fewer widespread weather-related travel delays are forecast.”
