CHICAGO -- At DePaul University, roughly a dozen students routinely wrestle with how much artificial intelligence should and could influence the human experience. They spend hours at the Responsible AI Systems and Experiences, or RAISE, Lab on the university’s Loop campus, exploring how AI affects daily life.

Like many higher education ...Read more

Dear Anna,

My husband of five years says I’m controlling and overbearing. He works full time at an office; I work part time from home. We recently bought a bigger house near his job, which I didn’t want but agreed to for him. I’ve also just been diagnosed with two chronic health conditions. He expects all the chores, bills, errands and ...Read more

I’ve never met a Bermuda Beach I didn’t like. I’m teasing a little: I’ve never been to Bermuda, but I’m sure I’d love its beaches, too! What I am referring to is the award-winning Supertunia Bermuda Beach petunia. I was in California at the Pack Trials about 20 years ago when it made its debut and for sure it brought out the cameras....Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s so tiny that you might walk right past it without noticing: A 2-inch-by-3-inch 1847 watercolor portrait of a virtually unknown officer in the Austrian Empire’s army.

But its story is as big and powerful as the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), where it is on display through May.

For many years, the tiny portrait by ...Read more

I have a client in her mid-30s — we’ll call her Sam — who went on a date last week with a guy who we’ll call Jason. Sam texted me the morning after the date saying, “I had what I thought was a great date with Jason last night… Great convo and connection, talked for 3+ hours, he kissed me at the bar and when I was getting an Uber.” ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I am currently struggling with one of my second-grade students who has autism. He is frequently screaming, swearing, and at times poking, lightly hitting or touching other students. I have been ignoring the behaviors when appropriate, and I have taught the other students to ignore the screaming and swearing. I also make a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — You may have seen them passed around at the playground or park — tiny, candy-colored stickers, often bearing bright cartoony faces, hearts or flowers, meant to repel mosquitoes. Hikers and urban walkers are wearing them on socks and jacket collars; parents are tacking them onto kids’ hats and backpacks. Forget Skittles — ...Read more

Q. My ex and I have been divorced for three years. We both have new partners, and our children get along well with everyone. This year, my daughter suggested that we all have Thanksgiving together. My ex thinks it's a great idea, but my current partner isn't comfortable with it. My daughter doesn't understand why we can't all celebrate together....Read more

On a morning walk to catch the last colors of fall, we saw what appeared to be a large pile of vanilla wafers in the easement up ahead. Whoever trashed an entire box of vanilla wafers clearly has no appreciation for banana pudding.

A few steps closer, we saw that the mound was not vanilla wafers but an enormous puffball of small mushrooms. They...Read more

As a man who is not letter-perfect (I’m not number-perfect, either, and I have the bank account to prove it), I could never replace Ryan Seacrest as the host of “Wheel of Fortune.”

And my wife, Sue, who is perfectly aware of this, couldn’t replace Vanna White as the legendary letter-turner.

In fact, we couldn’t even be contestants on...Read more

BETHEL, MINN. — Looking up at the cloudy sky as 19 of his pigeons flew in a tight formation dozens of feet in the air on an October afternoon, Ma Lee recalled the first time he caught a pigeon.

That pigeon wasn’t of the same breed as the hundreds that he raises now. It was a city pigeon that he snuck up behind and caught when he was 12 ...Read more

DENVER -- Jeremy Gendelman sat his paternal grandfather down at their family’s Denver kitchen table in 2008, a camcorder trained on him, and asked a single question.

“Where were you born?”

Yakov “Yasha” Gendelman didn’t stop talking for three hours.

“I was born in 1930 in the Soviet Union,” Yasha began. “My childhood was not...Read more

CHICAGO — One of the world’s leading experts in the realm of serial killers grew up on the Northwest Side of the city and now lives in Lincoln Square. His name is John Borowski and he looks very much like a normal person and expresses himself with passion and intelligence, even though much of his working life is filled with some of the ...Read more

The Supertunia Tiara duo debuted in 2025 and in this brief amount of time has become the darling of the landscape. The love and admiration from gardeners across the country including my area of West Georgia and East Alabama has been nothing short of WOW! As much as gardeners treasure their Supertunia Vista Bubblegum petunias, Supertunia Pink ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Walking is my salvation. Vigorous solo walks through Griffith Park are both my go-to exercise and meditations-in-motion. I regularly "walk the day off" there, or stroll around the Silver Lake reservoir after work to unwind. I don't listen to music or podcasts or even the news. Instead, I tune into my rhythmic footsteps and the ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I recently introduced my friend, let’s call her M, to a guy I’d befriended through my climbing gym about a year ago. I’d had a feeling she’d like-like him, but the rub is that he’s in a long-distance relationship. I also knew the guy friend had been struggling with his LDR, but it’s been a minute since he’s said ...Read more

A week before Americans went to the polls and flipped a historic number of U.S. House seats, U.S. Senate seats and governor seats to the Democrats, Amy Acton said human decency was on the ballot.

"Kindness is a fierce commitment to justice and seeing the humanity and the God in one another," Acton told a crowd of supporters gathered at Liberty ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Ron King loves donkeys.

It wasn’t always that way for the Arkansas-born, and partially Fort Worth-raised, former media executive. That is, until he saw a TikTok video six years ago.

King had recently been laid off from his job in print media — where he ran magazines like InStyle and Southern Living — and then COVID ...Read more

ROCKFORD, Ill. — Plumes of smoke billowed from the steep-pitched roof of a northern Illinois church one winter night after its organ caught fire during a practice session.

Everyone was evacuated from the property. No one was hurt in the Feb. 23 blaze at Christ United Methodist Church in Rockford, which firefighters quickly extinguished and ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Over the years, Stephanie Wallace and her twin sister, Della, have recruited extra roommates to make ends meet, first their brother, Joshua, then his girlfriend, Diana, as rent climbed to $3,700 on their two-bedroom apartment in San Jose. Still, they scrimp on groceries to pay the utilities and are planning to get rid of ...Read more