Dear Readers: These are uncertain times, uncertainty is not a favorite topic. America has not yet reached the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, some people have lost their jobs and many of the lucky ones are working from home. Times like these can trigger emotions of anxiety ...

“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully,” said Samuel Johnson. And as it is with men, so it is with nations. Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, projected some 100,000 to 200,000 ...

It’s easy to feel depressed and scared these days. News about the impact and death toll of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, is constant. Government responses have been chaotic, ranging from near-indifference to suddenly shutting down the economy, with politicians offering to pay for ...

Al Green was famously “tired of being alone.” Me, I’m great at it. As an introvert, I can happily spend hours in my own company, behind my own walls. So I figured this period of quarantine would be much easier for me than for many of you. And I was mostly right. Until ...

I am deeply opposed to the government shutting down churches and arresting preachers. But I am also deeply opposed to churches meeting right now. Let me tell you about Albany, Georgia. There are 490 cases of COVID-19 in Dougherty County, Georgia. The county seat is Albany. There are 29 deaths ...

A reporter asked President Trump this week what he thought of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s claim that impeachment distracted Trump from tackling the coronavirus epidemic earlier. The president gave a rambling answer but ultimately settled on a firm no. “I don’t think I ...

On Monday, oil prices plunged below $20 per barrel for the first time since 2002, trading as low at $19.27 as concerns about a slower global economy and the ongoing Saudi-Russian production war continued. For nearly a month, Saudi Arabia and Russia have been racing to outproduce one another ...

We might think we have it rough with restaurants closed, “shelter in place” (fancy words for “hunker down”) and supermarkets devoid of toilet paper. Check out this Facebook post of a “Friend” from Monroe: “I’m in England and have no idea when it will be safe...to come ...

Seldom before has a major American politician endured greater ups and downs in his career than the former vice president from Delaware. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 at age 29, weeks before he was old enough to qualify and serve, he lost his young wife and infant daughter in a car ...

“There are no libertarians in a global pandemic.” So goes the smug punchline of large-government advocates who point to the necessity of collective action in the face of an unprecedented global crisis. Without government, they say, we’d all be dead. Few libertarians would disagree. The ...

Hardin County Child Abuse Prevention Coalition, Child Abuse Prevention Services of Marshall County and Prevent Child Abuse Iowa are joining communities across the state this month in celebrating the importance of great childhoods and neighborhoods during Child Abuse Prevention Month in April. ...

I confess to a certain self-interest in today’s column. The media, especially newspapers, are in trouble. Conservatives like myself have been relentless in attacking their collective bias over the years, but as more of them fold or reduce staff, it is crucial the institution be ...

My, these aging men with their bright ideas. First, it was the president, who has been openly contradicting medical experts with his pining for an early end to social distancing. This would threaten the lives of millions of Americans during the pandemic. Oh, well. As he said, via tweet ...

We have all become acutely aware in the past few weeks why masks and face shields, respirators and ventilators are so important for hospital workers and their patients. The supply is not keeping up with the need, and that could have dire consequences for the doctors, nurses and ...

For decades, critics of single-payer health care have raised the menace of rationed care, long waits, and “death panels.” Now, in our collective national effort to “flatten the curve” — to slow the spread of coronavirus to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed — we are seeing ...

The global coronavirus pandemic has thrown the United States (like most of the rest of the world) into a sort of quasi-organized chaos. All across the country, businesses, health care systems, governments and schools have been disrupted. In my own field of higher education, most colleges and ...

Dear Dietitian, I have diabetes and I recently bought a new sweetener called allulose. Can you tell me more about it from a dietitian’s view? Thanks, Jill Dear Jill, Allulose, or D-psicose, is the newest member of non-nutritive sweeteners. It is actually classified as a rare sugar ...

My sainted mother was a public school teacher until she married my father and immediately, as a married woman, was forced by local Massachusetts rules then in force to leave the classroom. (My own grade school teachers included Miss Galvin, Miss Harrington, Miss Donahue, Miss Keohane, Miss ...

To fight the coronavirus at home, France is removing all military forces from Iraq. When NATO scaled back its war games in Europe because of the pandemic, Russia reciprocated. Moscow announced it would cancel its war games along NATO’s border. Nations seem to be recognizing and ...

We live in strange times these days. Nearly every American’s life has been upended by something we can’t even see, a miniscule coronavirus that has proven most deadly to those who already have compromised immune systems due to age or existing illness. So, during this volatile time, what ...