Daily news: Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Unseasonably balmy weather greeted cheering crowds as the giant balloons in the traditional Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade floated through the streets of Manhattan.
The parade, held on a sunny morning with a temperature nearing 60 degrees, offered a mix of new attractions and longtime favorites, solemn tributes and lighthearted spectacle.
Shrieking youngsters lined the streets as the balloons floated down Central Park West, including an imposing Ronald McDonald and a humongous Snoopy controlled by several dozen volunteers holding ropes.

Carrying banners and flags, some 10,000 participants — half of them Macy's employees — set out on the parade route down the west side of Central Park, then down Broadway through Times Square. The lineup included three new balloons, 2,000 cheerleaders, 800 clowns, the Radio City Rockettes and 11 marching bands — including the Virginia Tech Regimental Band, playing in honor of the victims of last spring's campus shooting.