By NIESHA LOFING, Sacramento Bee

It isn't hard to guess what most Americans will be eating that Friday -- the almighty leftover Thanksgiving sandwich.

Every bite replays the glorious meal we labored over the previous day, shoved between two slices of bread. And it's fabulous.

Moms and dads plan for family trips, college and weddings, but life sometimes throws a curve called autism.

And it's hitting more and more families. An average of one in 110 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder.

These neurodevelopmental disorders can make communication and social interaction difficult, sometimes impossible.

It's a mystery nearly 68 years in the making.

On April 24, 1943, an Army cargo plane en route from China to a base in India crashed while flying the "Hump," the World War II term for the high mountain ranges of the Himalayas. Five servicemen on board, including Army Pfc. Mervyn Earl Sims, vanished.

California's landmark family leave program didn't turn out to be the costly "job-killer" that businesses initially feared and has produced significant economic, social and health benefits for both male and female workers, economic and labor researchers found in a study released this week.

If you think the refrigerator is stuffed now, just wait until it's swollen once again with the bounty of Thanksgiving leftovers.

Turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce practically beg to be sandwiched between two pieces of thick, white bread that's been generously slathered with mayonnaise.

It's happened again: another young life lost to a stunt that kids call the "choking game" but is no more a game than Russian roulette.

Sixteen-year-old Justin Butler was a fun-loving, football-playing high school student in Nevada County, Calif.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - We've been enamored of fireworks for centuries.

Our forefathers used fireworks and black ash to celebrate events even before the first Independence Day on July 4, 1776, and the practice has held strong ever since.

But what exactly are we watching? How do fireworks, well, work?

PLUMAS LAKE, Calif. - Louis Braille was 12 when he began inventing a system of reading and writing by raised dots.

Thomas Alva Edison was a teenager when he invented a telegraphic repeating instrument.

Tharon Trujillo of Plumas Lake was just 10 years old when he invented a safety gate that helps keep children and pets from falling through sliding screen doors.

The United States shares the longest non-militarized border in the world with Canada, yet many U.S. citizens haven't a clue what their northern neighbors eat.

That particular realization struck Don Burns as he contemplated hosting a Vancouver 2010 Olympics viewing party.