PITTSBURGH — One bird spectacle readily observable in Allegheny County right now comes in the form of 100 purple martins swirling above the fields and their condos at Harrison Hills Park.

Nesting in colonies, the handsome dark purple bird is the largest swallow in the nation, boasting a 16-inch wingspan and gobbling up thousands of insects.

...Read more

MIAMI -- Most people who show up to meditation class over what used to be a popular Thai restaurant in Coral Gables are just looking to relieve some stress.

The spiritual part may come later, says Buddhist monk and resident teacher Gen Kelsang Tashi. Or it may not.

Either way, it’s all good here. After all, the mission of the Kadampa ...Read more

The stock market can be a scary place. It can feel like inexperienced investors don’t stand a chance against high-powered traders, and well, there’s the constant up and down of stocks. So it’s not surprising that young American investors cited intimidation as one of the top reasons they didn’t pick the stock market as their top long-term...Read more

They gather several times a week in the parking lot of a Vons supermarket in Mar Vista, and no subject is off-limits. Not even the grim medical prognosis for 70-year-old David Mays, one of the founding members of the coffee klatch.

"It's one of our major topics of conversation," said Paul Morgan, 45, a klatch regular.

Mays is a cancer survivor...Read more

Southern Blaze Bright Pink phlox is coming next year and with it brings a "Touch of Texas." It will do its part to make sure your neighbors don’t "out phlox" you when it comes to garden flowers. It is indeed a phlox that you will immediately feel is special, even refreshing with a touch of nostalgia.

There is nothing more nostalgia than being...Read more

DENVER — When Jolene Phillips decided to go back to school to become a special education teacher, the 52-year-old had already spent nearly two decades in the classroom as an aide.

She graduated from Western Colorado University last year, a feat she said was made possible by a $10,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Education.

“It ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’ve been with my partner for two years in a rocky but loving relationship. Our main issue is his all-consuming passion for photography. He's on his camera club's volunteer committee, attends meetings every Monday, shoots Wednesday and Thursday evenings plus some Fridays, and spends Saturday and Sunday mornings on photo walks. He ...Read more

A question I occasionally get (though, not too often since I mainly work with people in the very early stages of meeting and new relationships) is this: “When should I ask the person I’m dating about their finances?”

This has been especially relevant lately in light of the movie "Materialists" out right now about a matchmaker is ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- The key to hosting a game night so good it brings out Taylor Swift’s competitive side? Overprepare, according to Cathy Rong, Questlove’s chief of staff and the woman behind his viral star-studded board game bashes.

Rong can spend up to three months in advance planning semi-regular game nights for the Roots frontman, ...Read more

They hesitated at first, but the fishermen jumped into the water after realizing how calm the tiger sharks were, said Chelsea Black.

Black, a postdoctoral researcher at UNC-Chapel Hill, spent two weeks at sea, teaching shark fishermen how to tag and release the animals rather than kill them.

Black partners with Project Hiu, a nonprofit ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- “That bench, that’s where I used to sleep,” Paul Jackson said, pointing across the street from the Sacramento Central Library. “I went to sleep over there one night. I woke up with one shoe, and my glasses were gone.”

Blind in one eye and living with seizures, Jackson was alone and struggling with access to ...Read more

BALTIMORE -- A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But who knew that books could kill?

That’s the premise of an exhibit at Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum that looks at four toxic pigments used for millennia and around the world to illustrate and bind books: mercury, arsenic, lead and the bright-yellow mineral known as “orpiment.” The...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Not much can surprise someone who partook in four shuttle missions and three space walks during a 36-year career with NASA. Let alone, for someone who has spent their life studying space and space travel, the proposal of a new satellite technology.

But when Stephen Robinson, director of UC Davis’ Center for Space ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Seymour Lemonick just accomplished something few 90-year-olds can dream of: staging his first art exhibition.

For the retired Philadelphia teacher and football coach — a sculptor and self-taught woodworker whose Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, home is a makeshift museum — it’s a pinch-me moment.

“This is beyond my wildest ...Read more

The last time we sold a house was 40 years ago, so we were unfamiliar with the current concept of “staging a house” before selling it. When our youngest daughter and husband mentioned staging their house, we thought live music and refreshments might be involved. Wrong again.

Staging a house means you declutter, deep clean and enter all your...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

My question is about snacking. My kids are eating 24/7. We have plenty to do, but everything we do needs a snack to go with it. I also don’t want to give my kids eating complexes. I’m trying to balance it out. I need phrases to get them through to the next meal. We do have a midday snack every day, but they want dessert ...Read more

Q. Although my ex has never been officially diagnosed, she must have some sort of affliction because no one could be as terrible as she is without having something. That’s fine for me. I left her long ago, but my children, who are now adults, constantly complain about her. I can certainly identify with their observations, and I wish I had been...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The wave is all anger and elegance. Shaped like a cursive C, it hurtles toward the Santa Monica shore.

A child on a surfboard balances on its crest. Or at least he tries to.

The boy wipes out. Hard.

But then he pops up in the whitewash, all smiles. His Aqua Surf School instructor is grinning too.

On this happy day, the ...Read more

If Alexander Graham Bell, who is credited with patenting the first telephone, were alive today, he’d be:

(a) On hold.

(b) Getting relentless calls about his car’s extended warranty.

(c) Convinced that my new smartphone has a dumb owner.

The correct answer is:

(d) All of the above.

At least Bell has the good sense not to call me — and...Read more

Dear Anna,

I've been with my girlfriend for eight months, and I'm starting to feel like I'm competing with her phone for her attention — but not in the way you'd expect. She's become obsessed with AI chatbots. At first I thought it was just a novelty thing, but now when she's stressed about work, upset with her family, or even excited about ...Read more