There’s cost-cutting, and then there’s cruelty.

The Trump administration appears determined to blur that line to the point of indistinction, using the former, over and over, to justify the latter. The decision to abruptly shut down the LGBTQ+ youth suicide and crisis hotline — a service that has no doubt saved countless lives — is the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Maybe you didn’t want your kid to play with toy guns or toy soldiers, so you gave him some wholesome, creative Lego bricks.

Which works until he uses the interlocking plastic pieces to make a tank.

And that explains why World War Brick exists.

World War Brick was a three-day convention held June 6-8 in Minneapolis devoted to ...Read more

Five years ago, I started growing and writing about Rainbow Rhythm daylilies from my landscape perspective in Muscogee County, Georgia. That first year I reached out to Jenny Simpson, who along with husband Jerry, owns Creekside Nursery in Dallas, North Carolina. At the time I told everyone to follow them on Facebook, and that recommendation is ...Read more

A woman recently messaged me with a dilemma. She had planned a trip to the Grand Canyon months ago with a platonic male friend. Since then, she started dating someone new, and after one month of exclusivity with her new boyfriend, she told him about the trip. The boyfriend’s reaction? Not good.

Her question to me: “Do I cancel the trip out ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. -- Dozens of graduates and parents stopped Lawson Boeth on his way into the Florida State Fairgrounds, asking why the soon-to-be Newsome High School graduate already had his diploma in hand before the ceremony.

He didn’t have much time to stop and explain. It wasn’t his: It was for his brother Walter, who died in 2020 at 16.

�...Read more

No one could fault Lisa Kirkbride if she cursed the stars for her wicked diagnosis: a rare and inoperable brain tumor usually found in children, one that doctors have approached with scientific intrigue. Most people with this type of cancer have only a year or so to live.

The fact that Kirkbride is speaking to me in her living room nearly three...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

How do you teach a kid respect? Not just for people, but for things, as well. For example, how to be responsible in caring for jackets or lunch containers, and how to respect belongings (not cutting clothes or leaving things at school). And what about respect for other people, like listening while others talk and not rolling...Read more

Q. My ex argues about everything. It’s gotten so bad that if I even say, “Good morning!” she accuses me of having an ulterior motive. “That was fake,” she’ll say. I don’t know what to do. This goes on in front of the children — at Little League games and exchanges. I think about her and I sweat. How can we problem-solve and ...Read more

Get a group of women together and chances are they will talk about relationships. And shoes. More specifically, relationships with shoes.

The conversations are about shoes somebody loves, shoes somebody used to love (but broke up with due to plantar fasciitis), and shoes somebody dreams of meeting in the future.

These are women in crisis ...Read more

If a shampoo were ever named after me, which would work everyone else into a lather, it would be called Empty Head & Shoulders.

That’s because I have more gray matter on the outside of my head than I do on the inside.

My barber, Maria Santos, knows this and has not only added color to my life but recently answered a question that had me ...Read more

If there’s one thing Americans can agree on, it’s confusion about tipping.

While tipping is expected sometimes, it’s unclear in other situations. Do you tip the DoorDasher who picked up your food order and dropped it at your door? Do you tip the plumber on top of the bill they hand you? If so, how much? Is 20% generous or the new normal? ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- If ever there were a home that told the story of the emotional attachment we have to our neighborhoods in Los Angeles, this is it.

Not because of the sweet bungalow, which is situated in a dense Manhattan Beach neighborhood where parking is scarce and neighbors are often on top of one another. Or the calm light-filled interiors. ...Read more

CHICAGO — Small and stocky birds perch, hunched over, on the treetops and branches of Lake Okeechobee on the edge of Florida’s swampy Everglades for the better part of winter. The alligators swarming the murky waters below don’t faze the black-crowned night herons — in fact, the birds count on them for protection. And when some fly away ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Irmo, South Carolina’s new skate park hasn’t been open long, but it’s already getting attention.

Tucked away in the Friarsgate neighborhood inside Rawls Creek Park, it hosted the Boardr series, a national, all-ages skateboarding contest, on March 28-29. The event drew hundreds to the park to watch talented skateboarders ...Read more

A friend of mine was driving her son home from his graduation dinner the other night when their car was surrounded, suddenly, by police officers in riot gear.

While she and her family were eating and celebrating, thousands of demonstrators were flooding Chicago’s streets to protest the immigration crackdowns playing out across the United ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I'm 34 and just came out to myself (and a few close friends) as gay after years of thinking I was just "bad at dating men" or "too picky." Looking back, all the signs were there, but I genuinely thought my lack of attraction to boyfriends was normal and that romantic love was just something that happened in movies. I've spent the ...Read more

Suppose you’re unexpectedly called into your boss’s office one day and given the tough news that you’re getting laid off. Panic sets in as you think about bills, rent and putting food on the table.

It’s a situation that many of us fear. Unexpected events such as job loss, medical emergencies and car repairs can happen to anyone, without...Read more

Hallelujah, it's hydrangea season! Actually, hydrangea season comes early in the Deep South and even more so if you are growing Let’s Dance Sky View hydrangea. This will be my third year, and the first week of May always brings a bubbling of blooms.

To me this explosion of blooms with the onset of spring makes it the most precocious variety ...Read more