For three decades, David Johnson has guided nature lovers in early spring to northern Illinois lakes to hear the eerie yodeling of hundreds of common loons.

Within the next 30 years, however, there may be few if any migrating loons in Illinois, according to Walter Piper, researcher and professor of biology at Chapman University in Orange, ...Read more

The Garden Guy has become completely mesmerized by a bowl of blackcurrants.

You can guess I am having a little fun with you. I am not talking about the fruit but the flowers referred to as Superbells Blackcurrant Punch.

This year most everything came through the winter, including a few plants where I am even asking, "Where did you come from?"...Read more

There's a hidden scourge making homes more harmful to the climate and less comfortable: leaky heating and cooling systems. Plugging those leaks may be the dull stepchild of the energy transition, but that doesn't make it any less important than installing dazzling solar arrays and getting millions of electric vehicles on the road.

The problem,...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philly born, Pulitzer-winning playwright Charles Fuller didn’t start writing plays until he was an adult. These high school students are getting a head start.

Philadelphia Young Playwrights, a organization that has taught Philly youth the art of playwriting since 1987, held its Spring Showcase earlier this month. At the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- South Los Angeles resident Channing Martinez recalls the days years ago when he couldn't find enough change for the bus and was forced to hop on his bicycle.

Martinez, 36, co-director of the Labor Community Strategy Center, a think tank and advocacy organization for working-class families, rode roughly seven miles to El Camino ...Read more

MIAMI -- On the outside, the Miami Lakes church looks like any other house of God, perhaps plainer than most.

The unassuming white exterior, topped by a tall bronze dome that peeks over the Palmetto Expressway, offers no hint that stepping into Christ the Saviour Orthodox Cathedral is like entering a glorious gallery of religious art — but ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Dizy Kapalka has always loved the great outdoors, so it's no surprise that she quickly mastered the artistry of casting a line in a graceful arch into a cool, clear body of water.

It's why the Cabot, Pennsylvania, resident took up fly fishing a decade ago. And the sisterhood she's found doing it? That's worth a story.

In ...Read more

At the tender age of 18, I made the decision to attend the university that offered me the largest financial aid package, through academic scholarships.

It’s been 17 years since that decision and I’m certain that it was the right call. If I had stuck with my first-choice school, I would have been saddled with nearly $75,000 in student loans ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I'm a 28-year-old woman living in Brooklyn, New York, with my boyfriend of two years, who's been getting more and more enthralled with the world of TikTok lately. He's always been big on social media, way more so than me, and he recently brought up this idea of us evolving into a “TikTok couple.” Now he's picturing us posting ...Read more

I’d like a large thin-crust pizza with extra cheese, red peppers, pepperoni and olives. But can you please make sure the cheese is covering the whole pizza because I don’t like baldness? And actually, why don’t you hold the pepperoni all together. I’d like someone who doesn’t eat processed red meat. And while you’re there, make sure ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Millie, a fatigued mother of an infant, was ready for a nap.

So she grabbed her baby, flipped it around, threw it on her belly and started grooming its tail — a soothing behavior.

Millie, a sea otter, is rearing what could be the Aquarium of the Pacific’s first orphaned pup to return to the wild. As a surrogate mom, she’s...Read more

I took the bait and I'm not even embarrassed to say what the bait was.

It was a fishing scam. Not trout, bass, anything you throw back in the water, or cook on the grill -- fishing with a "ph." Phishing.

Phishing is when online fraudsters try to scam you out of money by enticing you to open an email or text without first checking the web ...Read more

In the fall of 2022, Robin Clough and Dr. Gene Dorio were going about their lives as they had for many years, serving older adults in the Santa Clarita Valley. Clough was busy with her work as an administrator at the local senior center while Dorio, a house-call geriatrician, crisscrossed the valley visiting his patients.

In November of that ...Read more

Supporters of a proposed November ballot initiative wanted the all-important title of their measure to reflect their beliefs, a name like "Protect Kids of California Act." But Attorney General Rob Bonta saw things differently when his office chose the name signature gatherers must use: "Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth."

Among its ...Read more

Q. My 12-year-old daughter recently told me her 11-year-old stepbrother tried to kiss her before he went to bed the other night. She was already asleep, and they share a room. We gently confronted him, and he admitted to it, but he was very embarrassed, and my daughter is mortified. My husband and I have only been married six months and we moved...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I teach in a K-5 room for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs). I love my job and I run a tight ship. My students know that while they are in my room, their negative behaviors won’t work: They only get what they want with positive behaviors. However, a few of my students know that there are some ...Read more

CHICAGO — Due west of O’Hare International Airport, there is a neighborhood — formally, part of Elk Grove Village — that isn’t much of a neighborhood. It’s warehouses, drab gray offices. It’s Gertrude Stein’s point about “no there there,” a place so devoid of character, you long for a big-box logo. Companies here use “...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Matt Katz wanted to know where his Jewish ancestors once lived in Eastern Europe, so in 2016 he spit into a plastic vial and mailed in his DNA test. He expected to be 100% Ashkenazi Jewish.

Instead, he learned that half his DNA came from Ireland. He was shocked, but perhaps more jarring, so was his mother. She confirmed through ...Read more

I haven’t taken a bath since the Johnson administration (Lyndon, not Andrew) and it looks like the drought will continue because boys aren’t allowed in our newly renovated bathroom.

That is the edict handed down by our three granddaughters, ages 11, 7 and 4. Even before the renovation began, they taped a sign to the door reading:

GIRL’S ...Read more

ATLANTA — Emory University clinical psychologist Stephen Nowicki understands the pain that parents feel when their children fret that they have no friends. He’s dedicated his career to helping children foster healthy relationships, and he’s worried we’re making it harder by giving them more time on the internet than on the playground.

...Read more