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

MINNEAPOLIS -- A giant lightsaber? The Bat-Signal? A super-sized night light?

No, Robbinsdale residents say, that’s just their city’s new water tower.

“Imagine you’re looking across a dark city landscape out in front of you, and then all of a sudden there’s this beam coming out of the ground,” said Mayor Brad Sutton, who could see ...Read more

Last year was an eye-opening year for me, when it comes to Jamesbrittenia. I’m sure you are like Microsoft Word, and underlining in red already and asking, "Who is Jamesbrittenia?" I still struggle with it too.

Jamesbrittenia is a genus with about 83 species of plants, mostly from South Africa, Sudan and Egypt. James Briton, for whom the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Shaadee Ighanian didn't lose her home in the Eaton fire, but when her close friends with a baby did, the former children's apparel designer wanted to help by making a quilt for 7-month-old Luna.

As Ighanian started piecing together the linen quilt, she thought of all the people who had been displaced. "I wanted to make a quilt ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- When her teen with autism suddenly became angry, depressed and violent, the mother searched his phone for answers.

She found her son had been exchanging messages with chatbots on Character.AI, an artificial intelligence app that allows users to create and interact with virtual characters that mimic celebrities, historical figures...Read more

One by one, descendants of people who were enslaved on the Brattonsville plantation grabbed a wreath and placed it at the foot of the only headstone in the cemetery.

At least 481 bodies were buried, mostly in unmarked graves across the forested five-acre plot, making it one of the largest enslaved burial grounds in the region, according to the ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- No one expected Patricia Leach to lead the Catawba Nation one day.

She grew up with a dirt floor on the old side of the reservation, which she said housed “the poorest of the poor.” Everybody over there was in the same situation, she said, “just trying to make it.”

Another obstacle stood in her way that nobody else ...Read more

I work with a lot of amazing, successful women. A lot. And I am constantly impressed by these women’s tenacity, drive and achievements. Most have made their financial wealth on their own and are very proud of that, as they should be. But with this success sometimes comes difficulty in finding a partner. Why is this?

As a recent example, I ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As anti-violence activist, Alvin Brooks, entered Pilgrims Rest Missionary Baptist Church, memories from his many years spent growing up in this Kansas City house of worship flooded his mind.

The old stone building located in the heart of the Dunbar neighborhood was the site for baptisms, Easter services, and gatherings that...Read more

Dear Anna,

I've been with my boyfriend for a little over a year and recently found that he has been sexting strangers (single women and couples) on an app the entire time we’ve been together. When I found out I felt hurt, not just from the sexting but also because he has refused to sext with me ever. And he rarely initiates sex with me, and ...Read more

I came home the other day and my hubby was not home. His car was here, so I figured he had gone for a walk.

He didn’t come home and didn’t come home, so I was concerned he was collapsed on a sidewalk somewhere.

He has never collapsed on a sidewalk before, but when you reach a certain age, and have an active imagination, the possibilities ...Read more