In Thanksgiving pause, Trump calls for national healing

"Emotions are raw and tensions just don't heal overnight," the incoming president said in a video message released on the eve of the national holiday.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson on Wednesday said "an announcement is forthcoming" on his role, which would make him the first black choice — possibly as secretary of Housing and Urban Development — but he also suggested he'd be thinking about it over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Trump is also expected to select billionaire investor Wilbur Ross Jr. to lead the Commerce Department, a senior Trump adviser said Wednesday, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the adviser was not authorized to disclose internal deliberations.

The president of the National Education Association, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, said in a statement that for years DeVos "has lobbied for failed schemes, like vouchers — which take away funding and local control from our public schools — to fund private schools at taxpayers' expense."

[...] some conservatives warned that the longtime Republican donor, who along with her husband has spent millions of dollars to promote candidates who favor charter schools and school vouchers, also supports the Common Core education standards that Trump railed against during the campaign.