Many if not almost all of today’s parents believe in magic words. They do so because the mental health professional community has for 50 years or so told them children can be reasoned with, a claim that exposes the general lack of intellectual rigor in the mental health professions.

Magic words are words parents believe will magically change ...Read more

BALTIMORE – In the dead of winter, and the throes of the pandemic, the Berman family chose to foster a passel of puppies and their mother, all desperate for shelter. Five dogs in all clambered into their Ellicott City home — a squirming, squealing brood from the Canine Humane Network, a nonprofit rescue organization in Highland.

The 4-week-...Read more

While perched on a cold granite bench on a sunny March day, St. Cloud, Minnesota, Mayor Dave Kleis peered down to read his younger brother's name engraved in the granite.

Thomas Joseph Kleis, known as Tom to his family, died by suicide in July after showing no blatant signs of depression to his family.

"I say this often: People just need to be...Read more

CHICAGO – Angelle Cortes, a Filipino American college student living away from home, monitors the Ring video doorbell at her parents’ house in Bridgeview to make sure they’re safe.

“I just still have that fear in the back of my head that someone at the grocery store is going to be super racist to them, or just randomly that my dad’s ...Read more

One of the COVID-19 variants can infect children more easily, posing a new risk to kids, a nationally respected epidemiologist warned on Sunday.

The variant called B.1.1.7, first detected in the U.K., represents “a brand-new ballgame” in the fight against COVID-19, Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease ...Read more

CHICAGO – It was nearly two years ago that Elizabeth Oyarzun had last seen her grandparents. And every day for the past year, she prayed she would see them again.

After what seemed like an eternity, the two arrived at O’Hare International Airport from Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday night, she said.

Oyarzun, the couple’s oldest granddaughter, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools across California to close, Rosario Correa took a closing shift at a fast food restaurant partly so that she could monitor her children's in-home learning during the day.

Each night, she arrives home from work at 2 a.m. Five and a half hours later, she wakes up to get her kids ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Eight youths from Southcentral Alaska developed a serious inflammatory syndrome after recent COVID-19 infections, including some who ended up in the pediatric intensive care unit with severe complications, according to a report released Friday from state health officials.

The condition, known as multisystem inflammatory ...Read more

In the year since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, millions of families have endured the excruciating rise and fall of the U.S. outbreak — waves of sickness that leave untold wounds long after hospitalizations ebb and infections subside.

Some have borne the tragedy more than others, with multiple family members lost ...Read more

Measles. Mumps. Rubella. Diptheria. Polio. Whooping Cough. These are childhood diseases that are no longer terrifying, thanks to vaccines.

Soon there will be a new addition to the list: COVID-19.

On Wednesday, Pfizer launched its test of a childhood vaccine in a pair of 9-year-old twin girls at Duke University in North Carolina. Stanford ...Read more

In the silence of an empty house are the broken pieces of a pandemic year. Technically-still-intact lives for the lucky among us. But marred by the shrapnel of survival.

All of this was laid bare Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday of this week. The first and then the second and then the third consecutive day of elementary school — a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS – Kimberly Handy-Jones knew she wanted to create something to honor the memory of her son Cordale, who was killed in 2017 in a confrontation with St. Paul police. But it wasn't until she was visiting the North Chicago cemetery where both her son and late husband were put to rest that she was struck with an idea.

"I was crying and ...Read more

BALTIMORE – In a single week, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan lifted restrictions on restaurants, BWI airport had its busiest day in a year and spring break revelers hurtled toward bars and beaches as the promise of “normalcy” beckoned after a year darkened by COVID-19.

Meanwhile Lucy Hogan, no relation to the governor, buried her husband.

As ...Read more

Q: My 5-year-old continues to throw tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. His father and I are divorced. I have primary custody. He is with his dad every other weekend, basically. My ex has very poor emotional control and I’m concerned that our son may have inherited that from him. When he throws a tantrum, I make him sit in a “tantrum ...Read more

Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver special remarks at the Kids’ Choice Awards this weekend, Nickelodeon announced Friday.

The former California senator, who is the first woman and the first person of color to serve as vice president, is set to appear during the show’s Generation Change presentation — an initiative that recognizes ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Last spring, when the pandemic forced a global lockdown, Holocaust survivor Marion Ein Lewin wrote a moving piece for the Los Angeles Times, extolling the power of the human spirit and calling on everyone to summon their strength and resilience.

"Celebrating Passover during the COVID-19 pandemic brings back memories of Seders ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Diane Norman lost her memory twice.

The first time, it disappeared in bits and pieces. She forgot where she left her purse, searching for it dozens of times a day. She forgot how to cook and how to pay the bills. She forgot people who were fixtures in her life.

Then, last year, she lost it again when the pandemic kept her away ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Vanessa Bryant has had every reason to withdraw from the world during the 13 months since her husband, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash.

But she has three very good reasons to fight that urge — daughters Natalia, 18, Bianka, 4, and Capri, 1.

“Helping my girls ...Read more