My son and daughter-in-law stopped speaking to me after I joined my grandkids’ PTA. What should I do?
Advice columnist Carolyn Hax (@carolynhaxadvice ) weighs in.
Read more of Carolyn’s columns by tapping the link in @washingtonpost ’s bio.
Police in Florida are investigating vandalism at a historic, predominantly Black cemetery where 17 gravesites were damaged, with headstones knocked down and "Trump" and "DeSantis" spray-painted in red letters on tombs.
Detectives believe the incident in Palmetto occurred within the past few weeks.
No arrests have been made, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office said.
During her Feb. 24 shift at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Merla, a federal employee with the Beagle Brigade, detected 100 illegal sandwiches. In 1984, USDA created the brigade to help safeguard the agricultural industry and public health system from potentially devastating pests and pathogens concealed in animal products, fruit, plants and other organic matter.
Eric Trelstad, a CBP agriculture specialist, said beagles are the best breed for the job because of their high food drive and sharp sense of smell. According to USDA, their noses contain about 220 million scent receptors, at least 40 times more than humans. In addition, the hounds, which come in two compact sizes (13- and 15-inch), are disarmingly cute.
“They have a very gentle disposition,” he said. “The public generally likes to see the beagles.”
After six months to a year of experience, USDA said beagles will correctly recognize banned materials about 80 percent of the time. After two years, their accuracy rises to 90 percent. Merla, who is 7½ years old, has been on the force for roughly half her life.
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60 percent. That’s how much the levels of plastic-associated chemicals dropped in people’s urine after one just week of changing their diet, according to a new study.
And for a topic that can generate a lot of anxiety, the study’s results offer a glimmer of hope that everyday dietary choices can actually move the needle on our health, says Dr. Trisha Pasricha (@trishapasrichamd ), a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and The Washington Post’s Ask a Doctor columnist.
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President Trump was months late in disclosing tens of millions of dollars in stock trading, according to his latest investment filings.
The president is required to publicly disclose stock transactions exceeding $1,000 within 45 days. He was assessed a fee of $200 for his tardiness, records show. He was fined for the same infraction in March and in August, according to his investment filings those months.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization said the president’s investment holdings are managed exclusively by independent third-party financial institutions.
In 2024, the year he was elected to his second term, Trump reported more than $600 million in income and $1.6 billion in assets. The president has yet to make publicly available his 2025 financial closures, which are due Friday.
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MIT is doing less research and enrolling fewer graduate students as a result of federal actions, the university president warned.
Federally funded research on campus is down more than 20 percent compared to this time last year, said MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth. The number of new federal research awards is also down more than 20 percent.
"That is a striking loss for one of the most influential and productive research communities in the world,“ Kornbluth said.
Graduate student enrollment will also decline significantly in the coming academic year, she said; outside of two programs that are still in the midst of admissions, the number of grad students will be 20 percent less than it was in 2024.
MIT is one of the leading scientific institutions in the world, said Brendan Cantwell, a professor of higher education at Michigan State University, so if it is scaling back how it does research, that means universities across the country should be thinking about scaling back and adjusting. That’s happening at the same time that China continues to invest in research, he said.
“There’s also a real economic and geopolitical dimension to what’s happening, in terms of the shifting away from the scientific enterprise and the leading global role that the United States has played for decades,” he said.
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President Trump said his administration had selected D.C.’s West Potomac Park as the site of his planned “National Garden of American Heroes,” raising questions about whether Congress would need to approve the project.
Trump has previously said the project will feature life-size statues of roughly 250 Americans, including presidents, civil rights leaders, scientists, athletes and entertainers. The list of figures, outlined in earlier executive orders, has included names such as John Adams, Martin Luther King Jr., Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein and Kobe Bryant.
West Potomac Park, which sits along the Potomac River near the Jefferson Memorial and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, is among the most tightly controlled federal lands in D.C.
The National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, two federal panels on which Trump has installed allies, would probably need to review plans for the garden.
Read more about the plans by tapping the link in our bio.
After the giant ice sculpture spectacle Drake had in Toronto, listeners were ready for him to drop his album “Iceman.”
But on midnight Friday, the rap legend didn’t just give fans “Iceman.” He also blessed them with a second and third album: “Habibti” and “Maid of Honour.”
With three new albums and 43 total new songs, Drake fans have a lot to unpack — and debate — after one of the most ambitious rollouts of his career.
The question remains: After the Kendrick Lamar beef, will the albums be enough for a Drake comeback?
Read more at the link in our bio.
It’s 6:15 in the morning when 50-year-old Terry Laird starts work for the day. The moon illuminates the path he drives from his house to his little red-and-white boat, The Captain Jason.
Little Terry, as he’s known on the island, unspools a thick brown rope and sets the boat free. He hops in the front seat and jets off.
Terry is one of two ferry operators that serve Smith Island's 200 full-time residents. It’s a role that Terry always knew he would occupy. For roughly 40 years, Terry’s father, known as Big Terry, and uncle, Larry Laird, presided over a small ferry dynasty on Smith Island.
But, in late 2024, Terry’s father and uncle died within weeks of each other. He leaped into the captain’s seat of his father’s boat and took over his uncle’s route. But who will take over after Terry?
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It’s hard to imagine ‘N Sync performing with a Justin Timberlake cardboard cutout onstage. Or picturing the Backstreet Boys getting their fans riled up about their work visas. Or any boy band — even Boyzone or 98 Degrees — asking an audience to confirm that they existed. But Boy Throb is not like other boy bands.
Unlike the factory-assembled boy bands of the past, all four members met online. Each of the boys — Darshan Magdum, Zachary Sobania, Evan Papier and Anthony Key — had been posting videos of their songs and dances for years.
The viral pop band is proving that they’re not a hoax.
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Wearable technology, like glasses and socks, may soon be helping people with dementia live more independently. CrossSense, a U.K. company, is developing glasses that prompts wearers to safely carry out tasks at home.
“Shaving, teeth cleaning — it's easy to forget them, and a prompt for that would be very useful,” said Leslie Price, a support group member and dementia patient.
After years of public debate about the value of higher education, a new study provides fresh evidence that going to college pays off financially for most students.
It found that the benefits depend greatly on the type of degree, major, quality of the institutions, demographics of the students and whether students complete the programs.
The study also found students who pursued a bachelor’s degree gained more in earnings than they spent on school within 15 years, regardless of their major.
Read more about the report at the link in our bio.
