PHILADELPHIA -- It was afternoon at the convent, and that meant bingo.

A dozen elderly women, some in wheelchairs, others with their walkers pushed aside, studied the triplets of cards in front of them. A life-size cardboard cutout of Pope Francis, newly deceased, waved beneficently down at them.

“Call the right numbers!” joked Sister ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — When the University of Minnesota offered to let me experience what it’s like to die, naturally I said yes.

Aren’t we all morbidly curious about the undiscovered country, as Hamlet put it, from which no traveler returns?

Except this time, happily, I would get to return because it would be a virtual death, an experience in a ...Read more

You scream, I scream, we all scream for …

Beer!

Well, I do when the grandkids aren’t around. But when they are, we all scream for ice cream. My screaming happens when I eat it too fast and get brain freeze, which I would get even if I were marooned on the blistering sands of the Sahara Desert without food, water or a heaping cone of ...Read more

Food bank shortages caused by high demand and cuts to federal aid programs have some residents of a small community that straddles Idaho and Nevada growing their own food to get by.

For those living in Duck Valley, a reservation of about 1,000 people that is home to the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, there’s just one grocery store where prices are ...Read more

Spend any time on FinTok (the personal finance corner of TikTok) and you may have heard of a “no-buy” month, which is a budgeting challenge to not spend money on certain discretionary purchases for a month. Whether you eliminate one spending category in particular or cut discretionary spending altogether, the point of a no-buy challenge ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Every morning, right before the kids line up to enter the school at Hibbard Elementary School in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood, Micaela Ortiz Arredondo is already waiting for them, their breakfast in hand, ready to welcome them in.

“Buenos días, mijo. Good morning,” she tells each student as they take their meal, some ...Read more

According to Bankrate’s 2025 Money and Mental Health Survey, almost half of U.S. adults (47%) say that money has a negative impact on their mental health. Nearly half (47%) of those say debt is one of the leading causes of this negative impact.

Unfortunately for Americans, debt is so common that it can be easy to dismiss or see rapid debt ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Attention, Louvre Museum: It might be a good idea to keep Seamus Liam O’Brien away from the Mona Lisa.

Otherwise the St. Paul man might be tempted to paint a bright rubber duck somewhere on the famous painting and add his signature to da Vinci’s.

O’Brien is a scenic artist, sign painter and muralist with fine arts ...Read more

On a drizzling Saturday night, a herd of teenagers dressed in floor-length gowns and fitted suits enter a hotel ballroom through a blue and gold balloon arch. It's prom night for Pasadena's John Muir High School.

For the students whose graduating year was upended by the Eaton fire, the evening feels particularly monumental. About 175 John Muir ...Read more

It is May and The Garden Guy is here to tell you that your garden really needs more snow for the long growing season ahead. I’m talking about one of the best flowers you can add to the design of your mixed containers. That would be Snow Princess sweet alyssum, a Lobularia hybrid.

Snow Princess and I go way back to April 2009. That was the ...Read more

Dear Anna,

My husband and I welcomed our beautiful daughter six months ago, and while we're absolutely in love with her, I feel like my husband and I are just ships passing in the night. Between diaper changes, feedings and sleep deprivation, our relationship has taken a backseat. Date nights seem like a distant memory, and when we do have a ...Read more

A real estate broker, an auctioneer and a columnist walk into a bar. Not really, but the setup is similar. I was standing with two friends, a man who sells real estate and a woman who appraises art and manages auctions. The three of us have known one another and one another’s families for years.

The man immigrated to the U.S. from Central ...Read more

Q. My best friend’s husband passed away. She has been devastated and decided to join a grief group where she met a man who was also struggling with the loss of his wife. They hit it off, and although they each still maintain a separate residence, they stay together every night. They are both in their late 70s and were both married for over 50 ...Read more

Getting rid of debt is a goal many Americans have. Not only does eliminating debt improve your financial health, but it is also likely to have a positive impact on your mental health. Assessing your outstanding balances, selecting a debt payoff strategy, and formulating a game plan are good starting points for getting out of debt once and for ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- For over 50 years, residents of the mostly Black, largely rural Lower Richland community have relied on the Hopkins Pool for swimming lessons, water aerobics and to be a gathering place on hot summer days.

But after those decades and almost no substantial repairs, the pool all but fell apart in 2023. Up to 1,000 gallons of ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Bonsai Club, which claims to be the oldest organization of its kind in the United States, celebrated its 79th annual Bonsai Show on Saturday at the Sacramento Buddhist Church in Land Park, featuring around 70 trees from across the region.

Since 1946, bonsai caretakers from Sacramento have shared their ...Read more

PART I of II

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I am the principal of a private, secular, K-8 school. Every year that I have been principal, the behaviors start out fine in the fall, and slowly deteriorate after that, no matter how hard we work at it. They are particularly bad in our middle school. Some of our programming involves having class meetings when ...Read more