Maybe you saw the Trump administration just quietly gutted the office that oversees special education services and funding.

Maybe you didn’t. There’s a lot to keep track of right now.

All but a handful of staff were laid off from the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which oversees ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Most fine-dining experiences want to remove the chaos, aiming to create a seamlessly elegant night out. "Family Meal," however, wants to lay it on.

We had been told we are here to attend a retirement party of sorts, one final meal from an acclaimed chef before he hands over his 26-year-old restaurant. What unfolds is a battle ...Read more

The past two years, have seen rainstorms that were real gully washers at my house in West Georgia. Consequently, my dry creek area with daylilies saw the rocks moving downhill. But the water movement opened the door for one of the most enjoyable gardening projects in years.

The storms created a winding path for water to relocate to the street. ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The discovery of what appeared to be a human femur and pelvic bone might have unnerved the construction workers who unearthed them near Lake Worth Beach last week, but for Dr. Heather Walsh-Haney and her students, it was just an average Monday.

The forensic anthropologist and Florida Gulf Coast University professor is ...Read more

ROCHESTER, Minn. – They’re setting the dolls loose.

Dozens of time-worn dolls and children’s toys adorn the walls, hang from the ceiling and stare up from the floor, some in faded dollhouses more than a century old.

The History Center of Olmsted County’s Creepy Dolls collection — which since 2019 has drawn international attention ...Read more

Congratulations! Becoming debt-free is a game-changer. Making that last payment on credit cards, student loans or whatever debt burden you carried must have been a huge weight off your shoulders. After having paid off $300,000 of debt, I know that feeling well. But when the celebratory vibes wear off and the weight is lifted, what comes next?

...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’m 27 and have been with my boyfriend (29) for almost three years. We care about each other deeply, but lately I’ve started to notice how different we are in our day-to-day lives. I’m someone who likes structure — I meal prep, budget and plan things out weeks in advance. He’s more of a “let’s see what happens” kind ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. -- For most of the runners at the Eversource Hartford Marathon, Saturday’s race was the culmination of months of grueling training — an odyssey that would test their will and endurance, and provide immense personal satisfaction at the finish line.

For Shan Riggs, this was a cool down.

Riggs, 46, just finished running more ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Every evening after Steph Johnson drives home from work, she spends roughly five hours baking in her kitchen. As Taylor Swift plays on loop, Johnson pipes ruffles onto tiers of "Bluey" and Batman-inspired birthday cakes and frosts sheets of shortbread cookies molded into tiaras, ice cream cones, and Swoop, the Eagles mascot.

But...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Vikings had just kicked off when a dozen people ordered beers and commandeered a few tables at a local brewery on a recent Sunday. While football played on the screens above them, over the next three hours, they cheered and laughed and even swore a bit.

And they didn’t look at the game once. They were focused on ...Read more

Q. I am the proud mom of two very active boys and a 3-year-old little girl. They all tell me they want to trick-or-treat with their father and me, but we have been separated for almost two years now. We live close by, and I’m willing to try, but I have to admit, just thinking about it gives me anxiety. It sounds like a great idea, but a lot to...Read more

Because I love, love, love saving time, I am looking forward to the first weekend in November when the entire nation will save 60 minutes — not the Sunday night news program but an hour on the clock.

Of course, nobody likes to mention the fact that the only reason we are “saving” an hour is because an hour was stolen from us in the spring...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Several dozen horses calmly graze along the shores of Mono Lake, a sparkling saline expanse spread out before the jagged Sierra Nevada mountains. The September sun is blazing. A pair of brown horses come up side by side and stare intensely at an approaching visitor.

These wild equines soon may disappear from beside the ancient ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I have two school-aged boys and I have a 38-month-old little girl. My question is about my daughter. With my sons, usually if they cried, and I gave them what they wanted, they’d stop crying and that would be the end. When I give my daughter what she wants, she will only stop crying or whining briefly before she’s off to...Read more

LOS ANGELES — This year, for the first time, California schools will be screening kindergarteners, first- and second-graders for reading difficulties, including dyslexia, under a state mandate signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023.

Such early identification of reading struggles is key to getting young children the needed interventions ...Read more

I would say that my wife and I have an open door policy in our house, but it takes us so long to leave the premises that we have to close the door or flies will get in.

No matter where we are going, either together or separately, we need a list of things to remember or it will take us more time to go out than it will to come back.

Here is the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Steve Stringer works his dream job out of a shed in Melrose Hill.

The 500-square-foot outbuilding wasn't where Stringer, an L.A.-based ceramicist, imagined setting up shop. The day he found it, he was touring a neighboring Western Avenue property. When that space turned out to be too big for an art studio, the landlord told ...Read more

As I sit down to write this, my city is preparing to host its 47th marathon.

Which means my daily runs along Lake Michigan are made even more beautiful, more hopeful, more perspective-inducing by the presence of runners hailing from around the world — all different languages, all different paces, all different cultures. Keeping their legs ...Read more

I remember the day quite well. I went to my Rotary Club meeting and returned to my office in the garden. I casually glanced into the garden as I entered the building. I noticed a sizable group of nature lovers gathered around looking through their binoculars. I asked inside if anyone knew what they were looking at. The answer was a great purple ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Hair. Human hair. Hair woven into jewelry, wreaths, keepsakes. Michael Jackson’s hair. Marilyn Monroe’s hair.

Hair as art, hair as spectacle.

It was Leila Cohoon’s world, and she showcased it all at Leila’s Hair Museum, located in an otherwise unremarkable freestanding building on Noland Road in Independence, ...Read more