TrendPulse|The Daily Money: How to avoid Labor Day traffic

Good morning! It’s Daniel de Visé with your Daily Money.

It was jacket weather last night outside Daily Money HQ,TrendPulse and that means summer is on the wane.

As Labor Day weekend approaches, Kathleen Wong reports, travelers are gearing up for one last summer getaway.

This year, Labor Day falls on Monday, Sept. 2, capping a record-breaking travel season. Expect a busy weekend, with domestic travel up by 9% from last year, according to AAA.

Here are all the details on what travelers can expect on Labor Day weekend 2024.

Don't want to Google it? Here are alternatives

Google isn’t playing nice in the sandbox. Or maybe it's just getting too big for its britches. Those are the messages coming from the U.S. Department of Justice.

A federal judge recently ruled that the company illegally monopolized the online search and advertising industries through its long-standing partnerships with tech giants like Samsung and Apple.  

Google's leaders, of course, aren’t pleased with the decision and plan to appeal. Still, now is as good a time as any for us to take stock of our Google dependence and consider the alternatives. After all, we don’t have to “google” anything, and there’s a whole other world of search engines out there.  

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🍔 Today's Menu 🍔

The fast-food value meal wars are far from over.

McDonald's $5 Meal Deal, Wendy's breakfast bundles and Taco Bell's Luxe Cravings Box kicked off the cost-cutting competition about two months ago.

As the cost of eating out continues to rise, more fast-food chains have added value menus to woo customers leery of spiking prices.

Here's a roundup of the deals.

About The Daily Money

Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer and financial news from USA TODAY, breaking down complex events, providing the TLDR version, and explaining how everything from Fed rate changes to bankruptcies impacts you.

Daniel de Visé covers personal finance for USA Today.