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Dear Annie: One parent’s dream, another’s heartbreak

Columns

Dear Annie: My husband and I are in a painful disagreement about our children’s education. He went to boarding school as a teenager and says it was one of the best things that ever happened to him. He talks about the independence, friendships, the sports, the teachers and the confidence it gave him. I did not go to boarding school. I grew up coming home every day to my parents, eating dinner at our kitchen table and being part of the ordinary rhythm of family life. To me, sending our children away at 14 or 15 feels heartbreaking. I know boarding school can be wonderful for some kids, ...

Birthright citizenship is not just for immigrants

Columns

Now that we’ve completed our celebration of America’s 250th birthday, it’s time to prepare for the 300th — the tricentennial. I will not live to see it, but I hope the nation will. At least, I hope a certain kind of America will celebrate its 300th year — one that has regained its moral equilibrium and turned its back resoundingly on illiberalism in all its ugly forms. If the United States does not reverse its current retreat from the principles and traditions that ennobled it, if it becomes the kind of predatory, grubby and aggressive nation that Donald Trump champions, or ...

If you don’t love the World Cup, you haven’t heard the right story

Columns

At this point, my family members are accustomed to my weird European sporting interests. Short of watching “Heated Rivalry,” you can’t get me into hockey, but I can give you a 15-year history of the F1 race team that was Force India. And when it comes to football, the only team I’ve watched compete at Soldier Field is Olympiakos, the Piraeus soccer team. So, when the World Cup rolls around every four years, I settle in. Greece didn’t qualify and I always had my doubts about the U.S. squad, so I quickly adopted Cape Verde as my team. I wasn’t alone, which is why it was ...

The future of gorillas depends on zoos working together

Columns

Two Western lowland gorillas just arrived at Louisville Zoo’s Gorilla Forest from Zoo Knoxville in Knoxville, Tennessee. Obi and Andi are half-sisters and will hopefully create Louisville’s next family group with 29-year-old male gorilla, Kicho. Their arrival piqued my curiosity about how zoos coordinate for breeding purposes as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan Program. The Louisville Zoo once again welcomed me in to spend time with Steve Taylor, their assistant director of conservation. The zoo’s Gorilla Forest opened in 2002 and is considered ...

Dear Annie: Holding the office together alone

Columns

Dear Annie: I work in a small office where our boss is almost never there. She comes in late, leaves early, works from home whenever she feels like it and is often “unavailable” when problems come up. Meanwhile, the rest of us are expected to answer clients, meet deadlines, handle emergencies and keep everything running. The frustrating part is that she still takes credit when things go well. When something goes wrong, however, she wants to know why “the team” dropped the ball. Last week, we had an upset client waiting on a decision only she could make. She finally showed up at ...

How Pennsylvania towns are protecting themselves from the noise, heat and utility costs of massive data centers

Columns

Pennsylvania has become a hot spot for data center proposals and public backlash about where to build them. I’m a law professor and executive director of Penn State’s Center for Energy Law and Policy. I’m also a native of Archbald, a borough of 7,500 residents in the Lackawanna Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania. My hometown has drawn national attention because of proposals for multiple data centers that would cover 14% of its area. Because of my professional and personal interest in data centers, I have been researching local responses to data center proposals across ...