When Nina Boorstein learned that a number of Chicago Public Schools don’t have libraries, she knew she wanted to help.

Boorstein, a tutor and a former first-grade teacher, has a helper’s heart. And since 2016, she’s had a mission at the center of it.

The summer before her son Scott’s senior year at Northwestern University, she and her ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- The women smiled as a musician played music that dominated the airwaves decades ago, when they were younger and their memories were sharper.

In an adjoining room at the Plymouth Community Center, their relatives gathered for a break and the chance to chat with others who understand the trials of caring for someone with dementia. ...Read more

A few months ago I wrote a column called "Let Loose the Chartreuse." This is my go-to color to make all companions or combinations literally "POP WITH PIZZAZZ"! In that column I dabbled here and there with some of my favorites, both new and old selections.

There is one I didn’t mention as it really deserves its own column; it offers a ...Read more

With Americans regularly scrolling, buying and selling online, there are more ways than ever for fraudsters to steal your hard-earned money.

The latest Bankrate Financial Fraud Survey reveals that about 1 in 3 U.S. adults (34%) have experienced financial fraud or a scam in the past 12 months, since January 2024. Among them, nearly 2 in 5 (37%) ...Read more

CHICAGO -- On a recent rainy morning in Chicago’s Loop, a group of visually impaired students made their way along a sidewalk, sweeping their white canes back and forth to feel curbs and planters. They stopped at a corner to listen. A CTA train roared overhead. Cars rushed in front of them. They waited. When they could hear the traffic move ...Read more

As a dating coach, I often get questions ranging from the early stages of dating—messaging on the apps, texting, date planning—to the early stages of a relationship.

Here are a few from this past week:

Question: Dated for 6 months; he broke it off and said that the timing wasn't right but hopes one day it will. Was it genuine?

Answer: I ...Read more

Whether you were forced out of the workforce due to downsizing, a recession or other reasons, you might’ve retired thinking you were done with work for good. But unretirement might change that, whether it’s because you need the money, you miss the social engagement or some other reason entirely.

You don’t have to stop working at some ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I've been with my boyfriend for eight months, and overall, things are great. He's kind, funny and a dedicated teacher. The issue? When he's not working, he's gaming — sometimes six or seven hours a night. I don’t mind that he has a hobby, but it bugs me that he devotes nearly all of his free time to it. I don’t want to be the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The oak trees saved the blue house on East Calaveras Street. Seriina Covarrubias was sure of it.

When she had returned after the Eaton fire, much of the Altadena neighborhood was in ruins. Homes and the nearby shops on North Fair Oaks had been destroyed. Her garage and her prized garden were demolished. Her house had been filled ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I teach fourth grade. I have a student who always loses the papers that he’s supposed to have in spite of the fact that students have color-coded folders for each subject and were taught at the beginning of the year to put every paper in a folder, and to not have loose papers in their desks. He is doing this intentionally...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The goat had a resigned look in her eyes as the rancher pressed her udder and aimed a stream of milk into a tall cup. Sunrise needled through the misty air. The smell of manure was almost tactile. A foam emerged as the shooting milk churned with a powdery mixture at the cup’s bottom: instant coffee, granulated sugar, cinnamon ...Read more

I dashed into our Walmart to pick up a few greeting cards and noticed huge glass cases lining both sides of a nearby aisle.

My first thought was they had locked up hunting guns, but this Walmart doesn’t sell firearms anymore. Then I thought maybe they locked up power tools like big box hardware stores do. Wrong again.

The merchandise locked ...Read more

Q. My ex and I were together for nine years. We had two children, now 6 and 8. I cheated on him. I met someone at work, and we started a relationship. I know it was wrong, but it happened, and I left. Since that day he has been completely irrational, and he has become someone I don’t know. He posts insane accusations on social media. He stalks...Read more

To sleep — perchance to snore. Ay, there’s the rib, which my wife, Sue, pokes every time I snore while she’s trying to sleep.

My unconscious imitation of a buzzsaw, which I allegedly do often enough that Sue has to go into another room to get a good night’s slumber, is the reason I have been signed up to participate in a sleep study, ...Read more

WILMINGTON, Del. — Windswept rain clouds raced over a swollen Brandywine Creek on a recent, blustery Sunday, and worshippers scattered like leaves to wander its muddy banks.

One ran her hands over an old oak’s rough bark. Another picked up pieces of trash. A pair of Canada geese honked loudly at them all.

The Rev. Pete Nunnally, of St. ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- An epic treehouse that has stood in Sherman Oaks for 24 years now teeters on the brink of destruction after the city of L.A. declared the whimsical creation a crime.

"The Simpsons" producer Rick Polizzi built the treehouse, dubbed Boney Island, in his front yard as a playhouse for his daughters. He says it's become a quirky local...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- On the golf course just outside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, thousands of people stride across the grass, phones in their hands and eyes on their screens.

"Who has a shiny Oshawott they can trade? What about a Blitzle? Any Pansages?" one person asks.

"I've got a Snivy!" someone shouts back.

"I'll trade a Panpour," another ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In the mid-1960s, Louvenia Jenkins posed a question to her mailman: Do any Black people live in Pacific Palisades?

The mail carrier, a light-skinned Black man, told her there were about half a dozen or so, but they were "all passing." As in, their skin was light enough that they could pass as white.

Jenkins was then in her late...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The theft this month of 100,000 eggs with a street value of $40,000 from a trailer in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, has attracted national attention and a few too many pun-laced articles. Whether the theft was related to the current high price of the commodity is unknown and the crime remains ... uncracked.

However, it is true ...Read more

I arrived at college in 1992 with no idea what I wanted to do with my one precious life.

I had always loved to write, and freshman English quickly became my favorite class. One day my professor pulled me aside and encouraged me to go check out the student newspaper. You clearly like to write, she told me, and they always need writers.

Off I ...Read more