When Mariella Rojas goes into her mother's bedroom each morning, she doesn't know whether 81-year-old Rosa Angelica Saldana will recognize her.

"Sometimes she'll say, 'Mariella,' and she'll caress my hand," the pre-K teacher says. "Or sometimes she's just staring at me and looks spaced out."

Her mother, once vibrant and industrious, lived on ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — First, the tents had everyone up in arms.

Two years ago, more than 170 tents or makeshift structures encircled Echo Park Lake, a beloved Los Angeles landmark that had became a sprawling homeless encampment.

Then, everyone was in fisticuffs over the fence.

After city workers in 2021 cleared the encampment — with protesters ...Read more

I’ve seen my fair share of head-turning headlines when it comes to news in the online dating world, but this one definitely caught my attention. First reported by Bloomberg with the title “Tinder Offers $500-a-Month Subscription to Its Most Active Users,” the new service from the popular dating app is called “Tinder Select” and is only...Read more

Many students consider them "forced outing" policies. And they are already creating fallout.

The recent spate of regulations passed by school boards in conservative pockets of California requiring schools to notify parents if a student does something to indicate gender nonconformity is seeping into campus culture in ways some students describe ...Read more

WASHINGTON — College presidents and admission experts are expecting a significant increase in applications at historically Black colleges and universities following this summer's Supreme Court decision outlawing race-based affirmative action policies.

At a time of heightened social divisions with race relations at the forefront, school ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Google's Chromebook has become ubiquitous in classrooms across the United States, often considered the go-to option for digital learning given its relative affordability and web-based programs — a combination that proved even more valuable for distance learning during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since Chromebooks' ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

My question is about lunch. I am an elementary school principal. I used to enjoy being at lunch, but I no longer do. I feel like I used to be able to wander around the lunchroom and talk to kids and help them open up packaging and help them to clean up messes. I was happy to warm up prepackaged meals that required ...Read more

We are past due for a review of basic manners and civic responsibility.

Such reviews used to happen every nine weeks when schools sent report cards home. At the bottom of the report card was a box titled "Citizenship."

Teachers placed check marks indicating "satisfactory" or "needs improvement" for categories like: courtesy, self-control, ...Read more

Camilla Zezima sleeps with the fishes. Those eternal nappers include the first two Camillas and the countless other fish that have been part of our family, if only briefly, over the years.

Camilla III, as she (or he) was dubbed, lasted 12 months and was predeceased by the original Camilla, a female who went belly-up after only 48 hours, and her...Read more

In a novel conservation strategy, the small South Pacific island state of Niue is offering individuals and institutions the opportunity to sponsor its marine sanctuary, home to pristine coral reefs, sharks, whales and hundreds of fish species.

For a one-time fee of $148, you can sponsor a square kilometer of the Niue Moana Mahu Marine Protected...Read more

You can spend hours watching dermatologists pop pimples, furniture restorers fix aging cabinets or crane operators move heavy materials from hundreds of feet in the air — all from the comfort of your own home.

Many types of professionals have chosen to spotlight their careers on social media, whether it's to garner interest in their work, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- For several years, Oswaldo Rafael Cabrera touted his services as an immigration attorney in advertisements, social media posts and interviews with Spanish-language news outlets.

Unfortunately for his many clients, Cabrera was not a lawyer. He wasn't legally qualified to offer any kind of help on immigration matters despite the ...Read more

LAS VEGAS -- Two years ago, Sherwood George was living in a tent in downtown Las Vegas when officers asked if he wanted to go to rehab.

George, who had struggled with drug addiction for nearly four decades, said he initially didn’t want to try another treatment program or attempt to get clean. But the officers still handed him a business card...Read more

This year has been like the Great Begonia Awakening for The Garden Guy. First it was this year’s debut of Surefire Cherry Cordial begonia. Holy wow, it has been almost like a shrub and has persevered planted in the ground even though it is in direct assault from Tootie the bichon's daily chase of the chipmunks.

Surefire Cherry Cordial ...Read more

SEATTLE — The evergreen forests and churning waters of the Pacific Northwest have a tendency to take on a more sinister aura in video games. The shadowed forests of Alan Wake’s fictional Bright Falls, Washinghton, are the definition of oppressive, terrifying both in what they hide and what they don’t. The waters of the fictional Arcadia ...Read more

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and former First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko reflected on the 18 months since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 during a trip to Chicagoland to speak on the history of the years of Soviet-occupied Ukraine.

The pair spoke to a packed room at Evanston’s Rotary International for the 90th ...Read more

MIAMI -- A new treatment center could be key to solving the mental health crisis plaguing Miami-Dade’s jail, which serves as the largest psychiatric institution in Florida.

About 3,100 people in Miami-Dade County jail, or 70%, are classified as undergoing treatment for a mental health condition — this is as many as all state, civil and ...Read more

When Priscila Sánchez was a young student in Florida’s public school system, she excelled academically, fearing that if she didn’t her teachers might call her parents in — and the authorities would find out her family was undocumented.

“I never wanted my parents to come in and be called for something that I did wrong. So my thought ...Read more

Believe it or not, Tinder was introduced to the world in 2012. Hinge followed shortly behind in 2013. And Bumble entered the scene in 2014. (Plenty of other dating apps entered the scene around that time too, but one only has so much time!)

With the introduction of these apps, who knew that our entire lexicon as it relates to dating would ...Read more

CHICAGO — Beside the long blue hearse on the corner of East Grand and North Wabash avenues, the little yellow signs read “No Parking — Funeral.”

Dozens of funerals were underway at the offices of Havas Chicago — one every 11 minutes. The River North ad agency transformed its lobby into a funeral space last Thursday, the pop-up ...Read more