With a late Thanksgiving, the holiday shopping season is five days shorter than last year, and owners of small retail shops say that people have been quick to snap up holiday décor early, along with gifts for others and themselves.

This week’s new entertainment releases include albums from Björk and Broadway's "Into the Woods,” the reunion of Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy in “Hocus Pocus 2” and a Showtime documentary about Sinéad O’Connor.

(CNN) - Some 300,000 Chicago schoolchildren are out of class for the second day in a row Friday as negotiations continue between the city and thousands of striking educators. "We understand that's hard for parents," Jesse Sharkey, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, told reporters Friday morning. "Our students deserve smaller class sizes. "We have tried to provide the best deal that's fiscally responsible, that's fair to teachers and fair to taxpayers," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. "Without question, the deal that we put on the table is the best in the Chicago Teachers Union's history," Mayor Lightfoot said.