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The preposterous case against the new defense bill

Congress has been known to slip indefensible special-interest provisions into large must-pass bills when no one is looking. What it has never done before is use such sleight of hand to hand over control of the U.S. military to a foreign country. But that’s what we’re told is on the verge of happening on Capitol Hill. The House just passed the National Defense Authorization Act, a sprawling $1.15 trillion bill that supposedly includes a provision buried in it “merging” the U.S. and Israeli militaries. This provision, known as Section 219, has united some of the most fervent ...

Severe storms battered Pittsburgh twice as often as usual this spring – a meteorologist explains why

It’s no secret: This year has been a bad one so far for severe thunderstorms around Pittsburgh. In fact, it has been quite an active season throughout the Ohio Valley and a large part of the Midwest. How bad has it been? In the months of March, April, May and June 2026, Pennsylvania saw a whopping 852 reports of severe weather. By my calculations, that is more than twice the average for the same four-month period during the past 30 years. These severe weather patterns are similar to 2025 as well, so it’s no wonder that Pittsburghers feel there’s been a lot of severe weather ...

Dear Annie: Faux pas costs me a friendship

Dear Annie: Recently, I had a major social misstep that has essentially pushed one of my best friends out of my life. During the week of my birthday, I had a mid-30s crisis; a string of bad memories from dating and bad luck with women hit me and put me in a very emotionally weakened state of mind. In front of this friend, I was reduced to what felt like a whimpering fool, complaining about my bad luck with dating and women. Two days later, I was back to my normal self and saw her at my birthday dinner with friends. During the dinner, she was distant from me, which was fine, and I gave ...

Meclizine fails to reduce tough symptoms of vertigo in woman

DEAR DR. ROACH: I got vertigo for the first time; not knowing what was happening, I went to the hospital fearing that it could be an aneurysm or a stroke. The hospital told me it’s “just” vertigo, showed me the Epley maneuver, and prescribed meclizine for me to take for three days. A follow-up visit to my primary care doctor a couple days later confirmed the hospital’s diagnosis and treatment. Since the hospital visit a month ago, I’ve had vertigo two or three times a week. Some episodes are so severe that I get nauseated and vomit, and it often takes me out for a full day ...

New genetic approaches raise hopes for restoring the American chestnut to its former glory

The American chestnut tree was a dominant and iconic species in many Appalachian forests until it was devastated by an introduced fungus from Asia called chestnut blight. A majestic forest tree, an American chestnut was typically 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 meters) in height, but could grow as tall as 150 feet (45 meters) over its several-hundred-year lifespan. Its leafy canopy provided shade and beauty from Maine to Mississippi. The chestnuts it produced had helped to nourish wildlife, Indigenous peoples and European settlers alike. Its rot-resistant wood was also prized for ...

Bring back ‘nattering nabobs’

President Trump’s performance at last Friday’s retooled White House Correspondents’ Dinner made me nostalgic for the days of Vice President Spiro Agnew, President Richard Nixon’s media attack dog. In a speech, Agnew called politicians critical of Nixon administration policies “nattering nabobs of negativism,” a phrase written by his speechwriter William Safire, and later usurped by media to apply to journalists. That was mild compared to the disgusting personal insults Trump hurled at journalists who were at the dinner to support the White House Correspondents ...