Despite a whittling away of consumer debt that has been underway since the recession, many Americans are still entering the holiday season unprepared to cope with the expenses that crop up around this time of year.

Think Finance

, a provider of payday loans and other financial services for consumers with limited or no access to banking services, recently surveyed 1,000 Americans across all income levels.

Some 45 percent of those polled said the holiday season brings so much financial pressure, they would prefer to skip it altogether. Almost half said their level of stress related to holiday expenses is high or extremely high.

Eight-five percent of those in this year’s survey plan to spend the same amount of money or less on gifts this year, with 54 percent planning to spend $500 or less, and 27 percent planning to spend between $500 and $1,000 on holiday gifts.

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The TSA is on high alert for any suspicious turkey complements this Thanksgiving holiday, and in alleged efforts to expedite travelers they’ve released a list of prohibited items and

holiday travel tips.

Unless you’re transporting a very minute amount of gravy, the TSA says you’re better off leaving it at home, along with the following items: cranberry sauce, dips and spreads (cheeses, peanut butter, etc.), gift baskets with food4items (salsa, jams and salad dressings), jams, jellies, lotions, maple syrup, oils and vinegars, salad dressing, salsa, sauces, soups, wine, liquor and beer.

And in case you thought the TSA was being a little too paranoid, they show their rational side by permitting pies and cakes, albeit, with the added stipulation that they are subject to additional screening.

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Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your new country can do for you.

Welcome to USA.gov , a website maintained by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), bills itself as the "primary gateway for new immigrants to find basic information on how to settle in the United States" — featuring a prominent section for new immigrants about how to access government benefits.

The DHS page offers links to government websites that explain how to access benefits including food stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, Medicare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the "official website with information on all available federal benefit programs," with a nonworking link to Benefits.gov.

WelcometoUSA.gov also boasts to immigrants that "[f]ree public education for children is one reason many immigrants come to the United States."

Though the website appears to advertise benefits, new immigrants are not necessarily eligible for the benefits displayed on the website; enrollment in SSI and TANF may also serve as impediments to future immigration status adjustments.

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Your tax dollars at work: Town of 1,000 has a $77 million airport with no air service; now adds $29 million harbor with no road access

Akutan, the Aleutians community with a brand new but so-far unused airport on another island, also has a new harbor but no road connecting it to the town 2 miles away. KUCB reports the harbor was begun by the Army Corps of Engineers with $29 million in federal stimulus money even though the connecting road was likely years in the future.

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Human rights group wants a ban on all robots that are relentlessly pursuing Sarah Connor

Killer robots must be banned before they get loose on the battlefield, a rights group warned Monday, calling for an international treaty outlawing military weapons systems that decide – without a human "in the loop" – when to pull the trigger.

Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic call for all states to agree to ban the "development, production and use of fully autonomous weapons." They also want robot designers to enact a "code of conduct" to keep the genie of killing machines with artificial intelligence in the bottle.

Such a ban would require a major new arms treaty. Killer robots would be the first class of weapons banned before first use. Other treaties, such as the one outlawing chemical weapons, enacted after the horrors of the First World War and the more recent – and limited – ban on land mines, came only after the weapons were used.