MIAMI -- Leeann Parker got three things the moment she left prison after almost 20 years: a cool outfit, a hug from her 3-year-old grandson and a tote bag of new books.

Parker, who was incarcerated when her daughters were 5 and 9, said she entered Homestead Correctional Institution angry and bitter. At the end of August, with the help of a ...Read more

Ever since my wife, Sue, has been out of commission with an injured hand, which required surgery and has prevented her from performing important tasks like keeping me alive, I have had a whole laundry list of things to do.

At the top is — how did you ever guess? — laundry.

For the past 46 years, I have been a basket case when it comes to ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Glenda Rivera’s teenage son was shot while walking just across the street from his high school in Chicago's Hermosa neighborhood.

Rivera’s son survived. But eight years later, when her daughter enrolled in the same school, Rivera felt that she needed to do something to protect the children in her neighborhood from violence on ...Read more

Last year was exciting for The Garden Guy as I became introduced to a plant called Estrellita Little Star. The name is neat to me as Estrellita actually means Little Star. While that might sound redundant it also sounds like a profound introduction: This beautiful flower is Estrellita…. Little Star. It is like Spanish and English celebrating ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Columbia’s Main Street bustles with state employees walking to lunch, students shuffling in and out of their apartments, visiting relatives, prospective hires, panhandlers, landscapers and more. Tim Sease makes sure whatever is happening, it’s happening on time.

Almost every week for the last 50 years, Sease has been at ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Dwayne Fair has to be careful about sitting on the steps outside his North Philadelphia house.

Someone is likely to walk by and ask him for help fixing something around their home. But he loves it.

“I don’t mind helping nobody,” said Fair, 60, building manager for the union hall of Philadelphia’s largest city worker ...Read more

MIAMI – Every Saturday morning without fail, siblings Joshua, Ava, and David Martoma used to wake up before sunrise, get dressed and pile into their mom’s car to drive down to the Federal Correctional Institution in southwest Miami-Dade to visit with their father in prison. They would often spend the ride asleep in the back seat.

The family...Read more

Last week, a group of students from Decatur High School in Georgia narrowly escaped a tragedy. The students were almost hit by a car when they neglected to do one of the most important things their parents probably taught them to do — look both ways before crossing the street.

The reason? They were all looking down at their phones.

An ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — J. Jhondi Harrell, the founder and executive director of the Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC), remembers life before food stamps.

When he was 12, his father, a long-distance truck driver, had a heart attack. That was in 1967, and the family's economic well-being plummeted as his mother became the sole provider. To help make...Read more

Your ex’s birthday is coming up, and you’re sitting there with your phone in hand, debating whether to send that little “Happy Birthday” text ... and, of course, which emoji to go with it. It seems harmless, right? Maybe even polite. And I get it. You want to show that you still care and remember the important things.

But, often, the ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I'm a 29-year-old bisexual woman. My girlfriend (30) and I have been together for almost two years, and we recently moved in together. I love her deeply, but I’ve noticed that she’s always on her phone — whether we’re watching TV, having dinner or just hanging out in bed. I’ve tried to brush it off, telling myself it's no ...Read more

CHICAGO — Ever since Chuck Blatt got divorced 14 years ago, he’s established a routine with his daughters — visits and dinners on Wednesdays, Fridays and every other weekend. But this year, it started to significantly change when both women went away to college, his youngest for her freshman year at the Chicago College of Performing Arts. ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

Our 11-year-old nephew is spoiled, entitled, rude and disrespectful to both young and old family members. Family gatherings have become very stressful and tense due to him refusing to eat at certain times, refusing to greet adults, punching family members, interrupting adult conversations and generally being completely out ...Read more

Whoever first coined the phrase, "It's nothing big, it's everything small," was ahead of the times.

I think about that every time I pause over AI, A1 and Al.

Depending on whether you read that sentence in serif type (letters with slabs on the end of strokes) or sans serif type (no slabs), you may or may not have read it correctly.

The first ...Read more

Q. I have lived alone since my husband’s passing six years ago. Over those six years, I have grown very close to my grandson who is now 7. When he sleeps over, he likes to sleep in my bed. I recently met a man who I care for very much and he occasionally sleeps over. My grandson has met him and seems to like him, but he has never slept over ...Read more

Let’s get one thing straight, Mr. Home Organizing Service.

When I said I wanted to organize my house, I did not mean I want to discard everything that you shame me into believing is useless.

I am not interested in throwing away the souvenirs my late political science professor husband collected from his world travels just because they don’...Read more

If it weren’t for my wife, I would have starved to death long ago. If it weren’t for me, we both would have starved — or we would have had to eat out every night for a while — because Sue recently had surgery on her right hand and couldn’t cook.

That left me to be her right-hand man and make dinner without having to call either the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Need to find your lost bag? Trying to locate your neighborhood mail thief? Apple's AirTag can help you with both.

Released in 2021, the $29 Apple AirTag was created to help users easily locate items through a Bluetooth signal. Some people are even using it to find their stolen property.

In a recent case, a woman in Santa Barbara...Read more

When Gus Walz stood up and cheered “That’s my dad” on the third night of the Democratic National Convention, in front of 20,000 people in the United Center, in front of 21 million viewers at home, in front of—most importantly—his dad, I felt something shift.

Something big. Something necessary. Something permanent.

Sure, it was a ...Read more

Over the years The Garden Guy has written about the various Pantone Colors of the Year. I really love applying trendy colors to the garden. A new coleus making its debut has made me really start to think about this color that is so thrilling. It is a color that you simply can’t use wrong. It makes you happy when you see it in mixed containers...Read more