Add some missing note items. Revise release instructions

HOWTO_RELEASE

@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@
 4. Update the NEWS file (extract most important things from the repository log). Make sure to update the release date.
 
 5. Commit the changes in the NEWS file.
+   Push changes with:  git push origin,
+   and confirm all bots are green before moving forward
 
 6. Tag the release:
 
@@ -32,7 +34,7 @@
 
 7. At this point the github/release.yml action should run, 
    wait for it to finish and then verify you can build with it.
-   
+
    $ VERSION=MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH
    $ wget https://github.com/libgeos/geos/releases/download/$VERSION/geos-$VERSION.tar.bz2
    $ tar xvfz geos-$VERSION.tar.bz2
@@ -47,7 +49,7 @@
     update the versions for next release in Version.txt (both in
     main and release branch if this was a PATCH=0 release).
 
-10. Update download page: web/content/usage/download.md
+10. Update download page in main branch: web/content/usage/download.md
 
     - Add latest release
     - Remove previous patch level release (if any)

NEWS.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 
 ## Changes in 3.12.1
-2023-xx-xx
+2023-11-11
 
 - Fixes:
   - Remove undefined behaviour in use of null PrecisionModel (GH-931, Jeff Walton)
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@
   - Fix InteriorPointPoint to handle empty elements (GH-977, Martin Davis)
   - Skip over testing empty distances for mixed collections. (GH-979, Paul Ramsey)
   - Fix TopologyPreservingSimplifier endpoint handling to avoid self-intersections (GH-986, Martin Davis)
-
+  - Build warnings with Visual Studio (GH-929, Jeff Mckenna, Paul Ramsey)
+  - Fix CMake on Windows with Visual Studio (GH-945, Aaron Barany)
 
 ## Changes in 3.12.0
 2023-06-27