LOS ANGELES — The food day begins early for the poorest students in the Los Angeles Unified School District — with breakfast available before the start of class. Then there's breakfast-for-all brought to the classroom, followed later by a snack, lunch, more snacks for after-school programs and sometimes a dinner sent home for the child.

It'...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The ball pops up in the air and soars into an arc, drifting against the blue sky, then comes down with a plunk on the glass wall behind Jon Guerra. Out.

"Your swing is too hard," Guerra says to me.

Guerra, who goes by Coach Jon, is sending lobs across the net toward me and three other students at the Padel Courts, a hideaway ...Read more

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. -- When Rita Nau moved to Fergus Falls during the pandemic, she didn’t know a soul.

It can be hard to make friends in America, and greater Minnesota is no exception. But Nau has found ways. In January, the former restaurateur began baking bread and making soup for neighbors, friends and friends of friends — really, ...Read more

If you’ve ever thought about caladiums for use in containers, you are part of a trend sweeping the country. Whether they are used as the only plant in the container or part of a mixed container design, they will create drama in containers from late spring through frost.

The past few years I have been growing a lot of Heart to Heart caladiums....Read more

Aging is inevitable. It’s also very expensive.

At some point in our lives, seven out of 10 of us will need long-term care. And costs for it are high, rising faster than inflation overall. The annual price tag to stay in a nursing home currently tops more than $100,000 a year, according to Genworth and CareScout’s 2024 Cost of Care Survey. ...Read more

I dropped off my son at lacrosse practice Monday night, drove home to start dinner, threw some clothes in the dryer, unloaded the dishwasher, re-loaded the dishwasher, and turned on the Chicago Bulls to see them losing spectacularly in Oklahoma City.

Sen. Cory Booker was just getting going on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

I got up Tuesday ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has released new breakthrough findings on one of science’s biggest mysteries — one that Albert Einstein once called his “biggest blunder.”

In March, Berkeley Lab researchers presented data gathered from 14 million galaxies at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics ...Read more

HENDERSON, Nev. -- He’s 102 years old and he can still do your taxes.

As a veteran, pilot and tax preparer, centenarian William Brew has stories to tell. Born in 1923 in Idaho, Brew has been to places that don’t even exist anymore, fought in World War II and lived through some of the most pivotal moments in American history, but now lives ...Read more

We’re here for another installment of “Ask Dating Coach Erika,” where people anonymously share their burning dating questions.

Question: Any tips for someone who works 80 hours per week and is always burned out but wants to date?

Answer: Trust me -- I wish I had the ability to create more hours in the week. Unfortunately, that's not in ...Read more

Dear Anna,

Three months ago, I excitedly agreed to be the maid of honor in my college roommate's destination wedding next summer, assuming it would involve standard expenses. Fast forward to now, and I'm realizing I cannot afford the costs: a specific designer bridesmaid dress, mandatory professional hair and makeup, the flight and five-day ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I know a certain 11-year-old who doesn't want to do anything in the shower but wash her hair (because she likes how soft and pretty it is when it’s clean). She will go as far as turning on the shower to make us THINK she's bathing, and then just wash her hair in the sink. She stinks. What do I do?

Answer: Gross!

Don’t ...Read more

There are two kinds of people in this world: Do it Yourself People and Hire Someone to Do It For You People. Wisdom is knowing which category you fall into.

We are Do it Yourself People. Unless it involves plumbing. Then we are Hire Someone to Do It For You People.

Experience has taught us that nearly every home plumbing project can and will ...Read more

Q. I have tried to talk to my co-parent about some concerns I have, but she immediately gets defensive. It turns into a shouting match, and I end up the bad guy. I’m not trying to call her out, I just want to talk about the kids. How can we change this? What’s good ex-etiquette?

A. You may not think you are calling her out, but she may feel...Read more

Every 10 years, my internal clock, which I inadvertently swallowed while eating Jell-O, reminds me to have a colonoscopy.

Unfortunately, the sulfate solution I took to wash down the Jell-O and everything else I ingested on my one-day liquid preparation diet would have lost to sewer sludge in a blind taste test.

That’s the sacrifice I made to...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Chicks have been flying off the shelves — figuratively, of course.

After a recent nationwide spike in egg prices, local agriculture stores have seen a surge in demand for chickens as Twin Cities residents rush to establish their own backyard coops.

Last Friday morning, around 100 customers hoping to buy baby chicks lined up ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- It was Tom Rose’s 82nd birthday recently, which meant something for his cousin Richard Rose – time to mail the card the men exchange each year.

The cousins have been mailing this card back and forth, between Tom who lives in Sacramento and Richard who is 78 and lives in Colorado Springs, for close to 20 years. Prior to...Read more

Remember All Lives Matter?

It began as a rejoinder, invented to strip power from the Black Lives Matter rally cry born after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager killed on his walk home from a convenience store.

As a phrase, Black Lives Matter was almost immediately twisted by critics to ...Read more

As you are planning this year’s mixed container designs, The Garden Guy wants to give you some ideas to "punch up" your verbenas. I fear your first question is, "What verbenas?" The verbena is that flower your grandparents grew in long beds at the streetside. At least mine did, in Merkel, Texas, west of Abilene.

Today verbenas are the darling...Read more

There’s an important period in a relationship that’s often overlooked in online dating: the point between finding an interesting profile and actually meeting in person. While there is certainly an art to crafting an interesting opening message — although anything more exciting than “Hey” or “How’s it going?” will often suffice, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The bell dinged and the University Charter High School students gathered their things and headed for the door. As students flooded from classrooms, a strange, new sound filled the long hallway: the din of hundreds of students talking.

To each other.

Before the Los Angeles Unified School District cellphone ban took effect in mid-...Read more