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Dear Annie: Faux pas costs me a friendship

Columns

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 ...

The preposterous case against the new defense bill

Columns

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

Columns

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: Feeling the sting of supporting daughter’s family

Columns

Dear Annie: My husband and I have a 34-year-old daughter who has lived with us all her life (except for maybe a year). She brought her freeloading boyfriend in. I had cancer at the time and they didn’t even bother to do anything, so she ended up pregnant. I kicked her boyfriend out of the house after finding out he couldn’t even take her to the hospital to have his baby. The baby brought such joy to our lives, but she works at a very part-time job, doesn’t help around the house and stays in her room while we watch the boy. She wanted to get him a dog, so we helped her. If we ...

Physician orders Mounjaro for woman, but with a safety issue

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a 73-year-old female who has Type 1 diabetes that began as Type 2 diabetes more than 30 years ago. I have a very strong family history of coronary artery disease, and I personally have a cardiac stent. I use an insulin pump and have good control with carb counting. I struggle with my weight (160 pounds at 5 feet, 2 inches tall) and with controlling my insulin dose. My A1C is 5.8%. I have ocular hypertension and some diabetic retinopathy. I receive Avastin injections in my eye approximately every two years. My physician has ordered Mounjaro for weight loss. My ...

Bring back ‘nattering nabobs’

Columns

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 ...