Breaking News

Opinion

A case of a symptomatic mensical tear might call for surgery

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: About eight months ago, I was diagnosed with a torn meniscus in my right knee. Over the course of six months, I received physical therapy and two cortisone shots and had fluid drained from my knee, but I still have pain when I walk. The pain level is about a 2 on scale of 1-10. But it’s discomforting, and I walk with a limp. The sports medicine doctor I saw didn’t recommend surgery and said to come back if the pain becomes unbearable, at around a 5 or 6. Should I get a second opinion on whether surgery will correct this? I’m 66 years old, and the pain/discomfort ...

Earth Day 2026 is a clarion call to action

Our View

When’s the last time you had a cup of orange juice? When you think of orange juice, you probably think of Florida — although, of course, they are hardly the only place that produces oranges. Here’s the thing: Florida oranges are doomed. There is an outstanding piece published by Slate which just came out on the subject, and we’d recommend tracking it down and giving it a read — it’s fascinating. It’s also damning. This isn’t an editorial about oranges, though, or at least, not precisely. According to figures in the Slate story, Florida’s orange groves ...

Man considers hyperbaric oxygen for post-COVID symptoms

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: My husband is considering a hyperbaric chamber to see if it can possibly help him for possible post-COVID symptoms. He contracted COVID this past July, and his atrial fibrillation also started to act up at this time. He spent a week in the hospital and was so weak that he had to use a wheelchair to get home. Two days after arriving home, my husband spent a week or so in a local hospital with continued pneumonia symptoms and sepsis. Then he went to rehab for three weeks to get his strength back. He is now in a research study following the replacement of his aortic valve ...

Trump, the pope and the gospel of ‘Pulp Fiction’

Columns

It is hardly surprising that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s explicitly Christian monthly worship services monthly in the Pentagon have raised alarm in some quarters about the separation of church and state. But who expected to find him quoting lines of alleged scripture that were lifted from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 cult classic “Pulp Fiction?” The flap begins with a prayer. At an April 15 worship service, Hegseth recited a prayer he said was sent to him by the lead mission planner of “Sandy One,” of the Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) mission in Iran that saved a ...

Yes, of course, war settles things

Columns

Countless protest signs have informed us over the years that “war is not the answer.” We hear this message, with varying levels of sophistication and differing underlying worldviews, from institutions and people ranging from Code Pink to Pope Leo. “War does not solve problems,” the pontiff said in an Angelus address last year. “On the contrary, it amplifies them and causes deep wounds in the history of peoples — wounds that take generations to heal.” Now, there are many things that can be said about the tragedy of warfare without crediting the blatantly ahistorical ...

Dear Annie: Bitter divorce threatens to break up family

Columns

Dear Annie: My wife and her sister have always had a close but delicate relationship. They can talk for hours, laugh about old family stories and check in on each other several times a week. But every so often, something shifts, and my sister-in-law becomes sharp, angry and deeply hurtful toward my wife. The source of it almost always goes back to her divorce. Even though the marriage ended 15 years ago, she still carries enormous bitterness toward her ex-husband and blames him entirely for the breakup. During their marriage, however, we grew close to him as part of the family. More ...