At age 66, South Carolina physician Paul Rousseau decided to retire after tending for decades to the suffering of people who were seriously ill or dying. It was a difficult and emotionally fraught transition.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do, where I was going to go,” he told me, describing a period of crisis that began in 2017.

...Read more

As I look back at this gardening year, one of the plants I enjoyed the most was the Upscaled Red Velvet monarda or beebalm. I am in my third year growing the fairly new variety, and it is just getting better and better. Like countless others before me have said, the third year is like magic.

It was like magic with the bees and butterflies too. ...Read more

Americans across the nation have undoubtedly felt the impact of inflation on their wallets over the last few months. Bankrate’s Credit Card Debt Survey found that 50% of cardholders are carrying a balance month-to-month — the highest percentage since 2020. Many others have student or personal loan debt.

For those struggling with debt, debt ...Read more

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Reports of a monkey loose in North Myrtle Beach last month drew attention on social media and speculation from residents. Police even went looking for the animal twice but were unable to locate a monkey.

Although the prospect of monkeys in the Myrtle Beach area may seem odd, there are private monkey owners in and around ...Read more

I've read that doing puzzles helps keep your brain sharp as you age.

I don't like to brag, but I can often solve the Jumble puzzle at a glance. After years of making millions of typos at the keyboard, I'm accustomed to seeing words with letters in the worng odrer.

A granddaughter brought over a new game called Mobi. It's like Scrabble but all ...Read more

Dear Anna,

One of my closest friends has been pulling away from our friendship over the last few years. It’s nothing overt or dramatic, but there’s a subtle withdrawal happening. She barely texts me anymore, and it used to be daily. She’s stopped initiating plans, and in the rare instances when we do hang out, she seems kind of distracted...Read more

Fourth-grader Naiya White knows what you think about her twice-daily beauty regimen and her Sephora shopping trips.

"I heard all you guys were freaking out about 10-year-olds using skin care," she says in a TikTok video posted last month, standing outside a Sephora store in Grand Junction, Colorado. "So let's go pick some out!"

Moments later, ...Read more

I did something a few years ago that I don’t usually do — I tried to prove myself wrong. What? I know! Let me explain…

As a dating coach who works with people in both the online dating space and dating in general, the advice I give is what I know to work based on both my 13 years in the business (and, since I’m a former economist, I ...Read more

According to an old saying, which can probably be attributed to my neighbors, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

But now that my neighbors have installed a new fence, and a landscaper has worked turf magic on my once-barren property, I can happily say that the grass is green on my side, too.

For the past several years,...Read more

SAN DIEGO — A pair of flamingos have become first-time parents at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park after hatching an egg together. And they’re both dads.

The male foster parents — both in their 40s — are raising one of six chicks born this year at the North County park, which cares for nearly 100 lesser flamingos with their distinctive ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Under pressure after a conservative group took legal action, the Los Angeles Unified School District will overhaul a $120 million academic program for struggling Black students by eliminating race as a factor in determining which children will be helped.

The decision has outraged supporters of the district's Black Student ...Read more

CHICAGO -- They spent hours gathered with strangers on the concrete steps along Lake Michigan, letting their eyes adjust to the darkness. Shortly after 9 p.m., the starry sky lit up with shimmering waves of green and purple. On cue, amazed gasps and cheers rippled through the crowd as they celebrated having caught from the city a magical sight ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

This might not be a good question because it isn’t about a specific situation with my 15-year-old, but a general problem. I have to remind her over and over about everything: the way she speaks to me, cleaning up her room, you name it. She is generally cooperative after I tell her something a billion times, but I’m just ...Read more

ADAIR, Iowa — The blue-and-white highway sign for the eastbound rest stop near here displays more than the standard icon of a person in a wheelchair, indicating facilities are accessible to people who can’t walk. The sign also shows a person standing behind a horizontal rectangle, preparing to perform a task.

The second icon signals that ...Read more

There are two sounds that follow natural disasters. The first is an eerie, unnatural silence. No traffic, no car doors slamming, no children’s voices, dogs barking or birds chirping. Just a disquieting quiet.

The second sound is that of motors revving and gears whining, followed by the deafening buzz of chain saws slicing into downed trees.

...Read more

Q. I don’t trust my child’s father. He says one thing and does another—all the time. I get to the point where I think maybe, just maybe, I can trust him and then he pulls something that makes me furious. Most recently I found out he is taping when we exchange the kids to use against me at some point, but last week he was telling our co-...Read more

California wildlife policymakers have opted to protect the diminutive Western burrowing owl as they consider listing the rapidly declining species as endangered or threatened.

The state Fish and Game Commission unanimously voted last week to make the unique avian a candidate for permanent safeguards under state law while acknowledging the ...Read more

I was born during a blizzard, I am all wet even during droughts and, perhaps a contributing factor to global warming, I am full of hot air.

This alone would qualify me to be a television weather expert.

But I have made it official by buying a rain gauge and an outdoor thermometer and hygrometer. I also have the world’s most impressive ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- You may not be able to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but on Thursday at Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market, sculptors made the Rocky statue, a Philly soft pretzel, and so much more out of scrapple, the often-revered-and-sometimes-feared Pennsylvania Dutch dish made of pig scraps in a congealed loaf form.

Ten people...Read more

DURHAM, N.C. — It’s been 35 years since John Parker died after a pickup collided with the bike he was riding on Cheek Road in east Durham before school. He was 6.

His mother, Deborah Melvin-Muse, doesn’t display photos of him, the second-youngest of six children. His brother’s birthday was the day after the crash — and he hasn’t ...Read more