CHICAGO -- Karla Leon knew something was wrong when she couldn’t log into her financial aid portal.

For the past three years, the University of Illinois Chicago accounting major had checked her financial aid package well before classes resumed, confident that her scholarship and tuition costs would remain relatively steady.

Her education has...Read more

SAN DIEGO — As dusk approached San Diego's seaside enclave of Ocean Beach, its Sunset Cliffs bustled on a recent Friday evening.

Two engaged couples posed for wedding photos in between joggers, dog walkers and sightseers who clamored around Osprey Street to enjoy the day's majestic sunset.

It was a deceptively idyllic setting for what ...Read more

I give a lot of advice on how to use the various dating sites and apps, but it’s important to talk about what they are, why we should use them, and some general pointers for having a positive experience.

Online dating is:

--An additional way to meet people

--A screening tool based on things that are important to you

--A way to meet people ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — New UCLA research finds schools in San Diego County and statewide need to do more to support homeless students, calling homelessness an educational crisis that requires regional investment, dedicated funding, more federal protections and integrated cross-system support.

The academics’ report, released last month, argues that the...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Ellianna Hink stood at attention inside the Minnesota State Fair Sheep and Poultry Barn, hoping her feisty, biting bird Hydrangea wouldn’t ruin her chance at victory in the Westminster dog show of youth chicken competitions.

Occasional cock-a-doodle-doos punctuated the muggy air as the judge circled the ring of finalists.

...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I have come up against a behavior with my eighth-grade students that I don’t know what to do with. And this behavior has multiplied in one of my class periods to the point that it puts a stop to all instruction almost every day. I call it strategic arguing. I have four students in my fifth period class who have realized ...Read more

My new therapist is sitting on the edge of my desk, legs crossed, head slightly bowed. His beady eyes peer at me through his black framed glasses as he holds a pen poised over his clipboard.

He’s three inches tall, made of molded plastic, and looks like a cross between Freud and Dr. Leo Marvin from the movie, “What About Bob?”

The ...Read more

Q: My ex shows up for everything that involves our daughter, even when it happens during my parenting time. Soccer practices, school events, sometimes even routine appointments. When I say something, she tells me, “I'm her mother. I have every right to be there.” I want us both involved, but sometimes I'd like to just be Dad without my ex ...Read more

Disneyland will look to the past in hopes of keeping up with the future when Walt Disney Imagineering creates a Tomorrowland 4.0 that promises to stay true to the land’s original vision of an imaginative, wondrous and optimistic future.

Disneyland announced a reimagined Tomorrowland that will feature new attractions and open spaces full of ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Twenty years later and the Kentucky bluegrass is still there. So are some of the invasive thistles, with their small thorns, as well as the tall thin reeds of the troublesome smooth brome.

But steadily, acre by acre, the native wildflowers and prairie grasses are returning to dominance in the Leif Mountain Preserve, an 850-acre ...Read more

When it comes to the care of my hair, which is getting a little spare, I stick my tongue in a light socket to give it a certain flair.

That, without rhyme or reason, is what I told a phlebotomist who complimented me on what she called my “beautiful curls.”

Marlin said this as she was about to jab a needle in my arm, the mere sight of which...Read more

In landscape design, elephant ears are often described as having coarse texture, or if they’re lucky, bold texture. To me, they are the "Drama Queens of the Garden."

You may know Proven Winners for their Supertunia Bubblegum petunias or their Limelight hydrangeas, but they have already shown they can sweep a boat load of awards with fancy ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- You can pick a peck of pickles at the Minnesota State Fair.

There are pickles in the pies, the cookies, the corn dogs, the beer, the popsicles, the iced tea, the pizza. Pickles on sticks. Pickles in the lemonade. Pickles in the hummus. Pickles bobbing and burbling in the deep friers.

It’s brine’s time to shine.

The Great ...Read more

MIAMI -- Back when the late chef Anthony Bourdain would drive around South Beach in a cherry red Corvette, he’d get a tattoo and walk down the street to grab a drink at “one of my favorite places on earth.” On one of those trips, he paid a visit to his buddy Mac Klein, the owner of the eponymous Mac’s Club Deuce. Klein had just turned ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- I lay on my back and stared at a bright blue painted sky, dappled with puffy clouds. As my mind drifted, the sound of a breeze, created by handheld fans, filled the room. Then came a symphony of chimes, crystal bowls, wave drums and rain sticks. To my right, a black bear cub eyed me curiously.

Soon a thunderous crescendo of gongs...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Christine Moore's three children could not have seen any of it coming. Not the fire, not the sudden death, not the exhausting fight to get back home.

First, it was the Eaton fire that upended their lives in January of 2025. Maddie and Avery were living in New York after college, in their 20s and embarking on careers in art and ...Read more

Kate Jackson’s mother took off when Jackson was an infant, leaving her 9-month-old daughter and 4-year-old son with an overwhelmed father and a lifelong search for equilibrium.

“He was a loving and nurturing father,” Jackson writes in "Relative Strangers,” the new anthology she edited, “but affection and attention couldn’t give my ...Read more

Since Season 4 of "Ted Lasso" just came out (so far, so good… and I love that he’s coaching a women’s team!), I decided to re-watch the first three seasons. Good TV is good TV. What can I say?

While overall, the show is a comedy, there are some definite pieces of wisdom hidden in there if you look hard enough. One of these is, “All ...Read more

Dear Anna,

My girlfriend and I have been together for six years. We’re in our mid-30s. Like a lot of people, she’s spent most of her life wanting to get fit and lose weight, and for a long time it didn’t really go anywhere. This year her doctor put her on a GLP-1 medication, and combined with a new daily workout routine, it’s actually ...Read more

It had been a rough few months. Cynthia Tompkins was hospitalized in May for osteomyelitis — a bone infection — then spent six weeks in a rehabilitation facility. “It was a struggle,” she said. “I didn’t bounce back too well.”

Tompkins returned to her home in San Diego, but she was still taking antibiotics, along with a host of ...Read more