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Grandparents' Importance
Q: My husband and I frequently take care of our grandchildren for our son and his wife. They both work full-time and have extremely busy lives -- probably too busy. We love being with the kids. But do you think this is a healthy arrangement?
Jim: It's obvious that you love your grandkids and their parents, and there's certainly nothing wrong ...Read more
Middle Age, Spare Tires and Clean Plates: Something's Gotta Give
I'm too young to have an arthritic hip.
That's what I tell myself while I rub prescription gel in to numb a sharp, insistent pain that is most certainly not from arthritis.
I'm too young to need reading glasses, let alone go up in magnification, I say as I shop online for 1.5 strength "cheaters."
These lidocaine patches ...Read more

Stop posting about 'camping,' Colorado abortion advocates say — and get involved these ways instead
DENVER -- Abortion advocates want Coloradans moved to action by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn of Roe v. Wade to know there are many ways to help in the fight for women’s reproductive rights, but some options could do more harm than good.
Employees with Cobalt, a Colorado-based nonprofit organization focused on bridging ...Read more

Radio show host Cassandra Ferguson raises up others with her Elevation media brand
BALTIMORE -- Cassandra Ferguson, a radio show host and owner of Elevation Global Media Group in Towson, Maryland, overcame a turbulent early life and now works to inspire others.
“I was tired of seeing other women not motivating women,” Ferguson said. “So I decided to follow Gandhi’s [apocryphal] quote, ‘Be the change you want to see ...Read more

Doctors on why Florida’s youngest kids should get COVID vaccine
Doctors are urging Florida parents to get the COVID-19 vaccine for their babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month recommended child-sized Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots for young children, from babies as young as 6 months to 4-year-old preschoolers. It’s the last age group to ...Read more

Tribe members react to Supreme Court decision that strikes at the issue of tribal sovereignty
CHICAGO -- Within a week’s time the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and ruled that law enforcement officers can’t be sued when they violate the rights of criminal suspects by failing to provide the familiar Miranda warning before questioning them. And on Wednesday came the ruling that Oklahoma has the authority to prosecute non-...Read more

Ukraine family reunites in Miami after 7 years -- and it involves borscht and the beach
MIAMI -- As Roman Zhenzhirov organized his apartment, Coldplay’s “Daddy” blasted from his playlist.
You’re so far away. Oh, you’re so far away.
Tears dripped down his face. Zhenzhirov, 30, couldn’t bring himself to eat lunch. He sobbed at the table beside his husband, Roman Shyshkin, 37.
But his tears didn’t stream from sadness...Read more
The New Words We Need Now
In 1879, when dropout-turned-linguistic genius James Murray was assembling the Oxford English Dictionary, he asked citizens to send him words he might have missed.
In a dictionary definition of "better late than never-ism," here you go, James:
T'weed: Cannabis used in a legal, professorial or corporate setting.
Eloncholy: To feel sad after ...Read more

Ex-etiquette: With a wedding bonusdad dilemma, sometimes truth is the simplest solution
Q. My father and mother broke up when I when I was 10, and a few years later my mom married my bonusdad. He is truly a bonus to my life and has been there for me through everything, just as my father has. I’m getting married next month and I'm struggling with the same problem so many face. Who walks me down the aisle? I would like to honor ...Read more
Debra-Lynn B. Hook: I may be wrinkled, but with it comes inner wisdom
I am not a Karen.
I am a sky hawk.
I am not just a withered-up prune.
I am a sun goddess.
I am not an empty-brained senior woman with nothing to say.
I am a treasure trove of wisdom and experience, a keeper of tradition and story.
In other cultures, my status as elder wise woman would be a given:
In pagan circles I would be a crone, ...Read more

Lori Borgman: The Boston Tea Party you never read about
I witnessed the Boston Tea Party, the Battle at Concord and Paul Revere's Ride.
You didn't think I was that old, did you?
I was a kid at the time, living in a Kansas City, Missouri neighborhood that went all out for the Fourth of July.
Old, fuzzy black-and-white snapshots of the Battle at Concord sharpen the memories. Redcoats are lined up in...Read more

Back off on daughter's eyeliner use
Q: Our 14-year-old daughter is a rising high school sophomore. We let her wear eyeliner this past year, but she is wearing entirely too much. She is well-adjusted (plays sports, good grades) but seems insecure to go out in public without her makeup. When we tell her she looks prettier without it, she becomes defensive. Should we lighten up or ...Read more

When an infant dies, some women find comfort in donating breast milk to help other babies
PHILADELPHIA -- Her baby was dead.
There was nothing she could do to change that heart-shattering fact.
But then she learned of a way that other women have found to ease the pain, to add meaning to an unthinkable tragedy.
She began to pump the milk her baby would have had, and she donated it to a nonprofit milk bank, which screens, processes,...Read more

Infant psychiatrist is worried about the mental health of Philadelphia’s youngest
This story contains multiple references to suicide, mental illness, and self-harm. If you or someone you know is thinking of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text TALK to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
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PHILADELPHIA -- America’s youth are struggling. The U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, has...Read more
Controlling Anger
Q: I have to admit that my temper gets the best of me. When my husband or kids push my buttons, I just "let it out" (with words, not violence). That's how my parents lived and how I was raised. Is there any way I can change?
Jim: Many people see anger as an uncontrollable emotion. But that's false. You can control how you express your anger -- ...Read more
The Oily Reason I'm Worried About Flying
I'm planning an overseas flight with my kids this summer, and I have a bad feeling.
Not because of COVID (though that promises now to, forever, be a problem), not because of tensions between Turkey and Greece (though that could get ugly fast) and not because I've seen post after post warning that travel this year will be hellacious.
It's ...Read more

Researchers’ vaccine for metastatic breast cancer moves to clinical trials
Sandra Hartman has endured an onerous course of treatments for her stage four breast cancer — six months of chemotherapy, a mixture of pills and infusions that required her to get a tube implanted under her skin, giving doctors perpetual access to her veins.
Comparatively, her most recent treatment venture was comically easy.
“You just go ...Read more
The World is a Better Place Because a Boy Walks to School!
A Michigan story getting a lot of attention for reasons you can probably figure out on your own is headlined: "10-year-old Grosse Pointe Park boy walked to school every day for 4 years. He plans to keep the streak going"
Yup. Real headline, real kid, real indication of all sorts of rather depressing things about America. But first off, let's be...Read more

New moms keep dying in the weeks after birth, and the risk remains highest among Black women
PHILADELPHIA — Keisha Jenkins had been in labor for hours. She was exhausted and in pain, with a pounding headache.
Her doula looked for the nearest nurse and, for at least the third time, said, "I need you to write this down: She has a headache."
A persistent headache during labor or pregnancy can be a sign of pre-eclampsia, a potentially ...Read more

New Kids on the Block are older, wiser and still hangin' tough
DETROIT — The New Kids on the Block were still new kids on the block, relatively speaking, when the teenage heartthrobs hit the Palace of Auburn Hills on Dec. 2, 1989, for not one but two sold-out concerts.
"Yeah we used to do matinees back then, too," says New Kid Donnie Wahlberg, who fondly recalls that chilly December day and meeting ...Read more
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