CHICAGO -- Kevin Dekkinga’s son was going to elementary school and the family faced a decision: buy a second car, or buy a new cargo bike.

His son would attend a Chicago Public Schools magnet school in a different neighborhood. His wife worked in the suburbs. And with CPS facing a bus driver shortage after the pandemic that left school bus ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Kristen Dang’s tenuously planned child-care schedule is in full summer swing — a costly, worry-inducing logistical feat that has tested her maternal prowess. And she considers herself among the fortunate.

She nabbed a coveted six weeks of camp for her soon-to-be 9-year-old son, Brady, at the Reseda Recreation Center. Back in...Read more

Two years ago, after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos walked into Robb Elementary School with his brand new AR-15 and killed 19 students and two teachers, surveillance video was made available to the public.

The Austin American-Statesman published the footage on its website, showing the ease at which the gunman entered the school and shot his way ...Read more

If you have screen time alerts on your phone, you already know that you probably spend more time than you are really willing to admit looking at that device. And if you’re anything like the rest of the population (or just me? Can’t be just me), much more of that time is spent browsing Instagram or playing sudoku than making phone calls or ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Zarinah Lomax is an uncommon documentarian of our times. She has designed dresses from yellow crime-scene tape and styled jackets with hand-painted demands like “Don’t Shoot” in purple, black, and gold script. Every few months, she hauls dozens of portraits of Philadelphians — vibrant, bold, bigger-than-life faces — to...Read more

Dear Anna,

I'm a 28-year-old straight man living with an invisible disability — I have epilepsy. I've recently started using dating apps again after taking a break, and I'm unsure how to address my disability in my profile and conversations. I want to be open, but I'm worried about being judged or overlooked because of my condition. How ...Read more

Q. Six months ago, I married a man who shares equal custody of his three children with their mother. I get along great with the kids, and they have often asked me to join them at their recitals, open house and parent teacher conferences. Their dad and I are always careful to tell their mother in advance when I will be attending. It doesn’t ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I have a fourth-grade student in my language arts block who is very impulsive. When his mom forgets to give him his ADHD meds, he is out of control. He doesn’t focus, he gets up and walks around, he lays down on the floor, and he shouts out. I tell him to sit down and get to work over and over and over. We have a card ...Read more

We've been trying to sell our nearly 20-year-old SUV. Like most sellers, there are things we say about a used vehicle and things we don't say.

When an interested buyer asked about mileage, I said, "It has 221,500 miles on it."

What I didn't say was that I helped put a lot of those early miles on it with my dad when he bought the Ford Explorer,...Read more

This pudgy piggy went to the shoe store.

This pudgy piggy did, too.

This pudgy piggy wanted flip-flops.

This pudgy piggy bought two.

This pudgy piggy cried OMG, all the way home!

And that, boys and girls, is the story of my recent footwear adventure.

It all began when my wife, Sue, said it was time for me to get a new pair of flip-flops ...Read more

For many who grew up east of the Mississippi River, yellow twinkling lights punctuate magical childhood memories. New England natives call them fireflies, but they’re known as lightning bugs from the Midwest to the South. No matter their regional name, they are a staple of warm summer evenings.

Yet concerns about how many more generations ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- In 1984, a determined back-to-earther named Jules Dervaes Jr. brought his wife and children from a 10-acre farm in rural Florida to study theology in Pasadena but ultimately decided on a different ministry: creating a self-sufficient urban farm on a rundown residential property less than a block from the 210 freeway.

His wife ...Read more

For the first time since 2009, the Philadelphia Zoo welcomes a new baby Sumatran orangutan, courtesy of parents Tua and Sugi.

Born to 31-year-old female Tua and 28-year-old male Sugi, the infant Sumatran orangutan is the zoo’s first birth of the species in 15 years.

The Sumatran orangutan is critically endangered, and the zoo is calling the...Read more

ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. — When the coal was mostly mined out of the mountains here, and cars and trucks began to haul people and parcels more than trains, the East Broad Top’s steam whistle didn’t echo through the valleys quite as much.

Then, in 1956, the locomotives stopped altogether and were sent to slumber in a padlocked roundhouse. A ...Read more

CHICAGO -- We live in harsh and harmful times. All you need to do is look at the violence over the Fourth of July holiday. But behind the horror, good can emerge, hope survives.

Marc and Maureen Schulman have three daughters, now adults and leading successful and fulfilling lives, but the family will tell you that among the most rewarding and ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- At the end of June, 7-year-old Jana Matta-al-Sholi learned that there are four different ways to say the word “drum” in Arabic.

She listened to Arabic folktales from the “A Thousand and One Nights” and “Kalilah and Dimna” story collections, practiced self-defense, made new friends, and even got to do some traditional...Read more

The Garden Guy used to drive Mississippi’s Highway 49 from Hattiesburg to Gulfport to fall in love with the native Stokes aster. They aren’t just native to Mississippi but found throughout the South. I have loved them at homes I have owned and in places like the Columbus Botanical Garden when I was director. I promise you will be stoked over...Read more

It was a fine summer day when the past came rushing back, arriving at a street corner in the heart of Chicago's Old Town neighborhood. It came in the form of a lemonade stand and I could not remember how long it had been since I had seen one of these sidewalk businesses.

It had been quite a while, for sure, but seeing smiles crossing the faces ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I recently discovered that my girlfriend has been using a dating app. Not to make friends. Not even for hookups, but to find a new partner. We're not in an open relationship, and I made it clear from the start that I wouldn't tolerate cheating. When I confronted her, she admitted to having the profile but argued she wasn't cheating ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A bear taking the scenic route around Southern California may help researchers learn how wild animals cross freeways to get from one habitat to the next — and how they might be kept out of your backyard.

Known to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as Yellow 2291, the adult female black bear wandered into a trap ...Read more