Lost luggage is piling up at airports nationwide as the recent Southwest cancellations and delays continue to wreak havoc on holiday travel schedules.
The big picture: Southwest's flight cancellation problems — sparked by extreme winter weather but exacerbated by the airline's business model and antiquated systems — have left some passengers stranded without their bags and unsure how to find them.
Southwest Airlines was responsible for the majority of flight cancellations and delays in the U.S. for the third straight day on Wednesday, signaling that the airline's holiday season troubles aren't over yet.
The latest: Southwest accounted for 2,352 of the 2,419 canceled U.S. flights as of 2:30am Thursday ET, according to FlightAware. Another 52 of its flights were delayed.
Twitter users around the world reported problems accessing the website and other technical glitches on Wednesday night.
Details: In the first widespread outage since Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late October, over 10,000 users in countries including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand reported outage issues, starting in the evening, per the online tracker Downdetector.
Starbucks announced that it is updating its popular loyalty program starting Feb. 13 to change how many stars are needed to redeem select items for free.
Why it matters: Starbucks Rewards members drove 55% of the Seattle-based company’s U.S. operating revenue for its last quarter that ended in October, officials said.
Multiple airlines are working to help travelers get home amid the chaotic mess caused by Southwest Airlines' recent flurry of cancellations and delays.
The big picture: Thousands of American travelers have had to rebook their travel plans after Southwest delayed and canceled thousands of flights due to winter storms and the carrier's own scheduling system.
The Mega Millions jackpot grew to $640 million for the lottery's last drawing of the year on Friday after nobody won the grand prize Tuesday.
Driving the news: The Dec. 30 drawing is estimated to be the sixth largest in the lottery's 20-year history if there’s a winner and the prize stops growing, according to Mega Millions.
Don Baker — longtime Richmond bureau chief for The Washington Post, who died on Christmas Day at age 90 — once was brushed off at a news conference by someone who told him questions were only for the media.
"I am the media, buster," the grizzled West Virginia native replied — an instant classic immortalized on the button above, given out at his retirement party.
