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Could Trump care less about you and me?

Columns

Camelot, it’s not. King Arthur, not even close. Donald Trump is a pretender president who doesn’t even pretend to do right by the people. In all candor, this city, graced by garden squares, memorials and museums, feels like a crime scene, with his fingerprints everywhere on it. Places we held dear are demolished (the White House East Wing) or closed (the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts). But who knows what’s in the knave’s heart? Trump also dumped toxic debris from the East Wing site onto a popular public golf course. His visage scowls from windows at passersby on ...

Specific pottery artists can command premiums

Columns

Kitaro Shirayamadani, also spelled Kataro, was born in Tokyo, Japan, and came to the United States as a young man. Already an accomplished porcelain painter, he initially worked for Fujiyama, an importer and decorator in Boston; then he accepted a job at the Rookwood Pottery Company in ...

Dear Annie: Reality check on a changing friendship

Columns

Dear Annie: I’ve been friends with “Mark” since high school, which was over 15 years ago. He actually feels more like a brother than a friend. But over the past year, there’s been a shift in him. He’s gotten deep, deep into conspiracy theories. Every conversation somehow turns into a rant about the government’s hidden agenda or the evils of the pharmaceutical industry. I brushed it off for a while, but it’s constant. It makes me not want to be around him. I’ve tried joking it away and even telling him directly it makes me uncomfortable, but he either doubles down or ...

When businessmen enter the beltway, it’s business as usual

Columns

Something strange is happening in Washington. A generation of investors and entrepreneurs who built careers championing private capital and intuitively understood the power of market discipline and limited government have joined the Trump administration, taking charge of hundreds of billions of dollars of other people’s money. They assure us that they are deploying it strategically, with accountability and a businessperson’s rigor. From Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (who is apparently convinced he can rearrange the American economy through tariffs and industrial policy as if it ...

How mental illness, homelessness and crime intersect

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’ve seen a number of stories lately about people who’ve been arrested for behavior that doesn’t seem to be criminal, but the behavior is odd. Some of these people are homeless, and I wonder if they are mentally ill and aren’t taking prescribed medication. — P.L.P. ANSWER: Mental illness often leads to behaviors that definitely seem odd. Behaviors like hoarding, which can be found by itself or with several different mental illnesses, often affect the individual but sometimes lead to risks for others who live with them. These behaviors can lead to interactions ...

When killing becomes commonplace

Columns

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” — Voltaire (1694-1778) Last week, when the Pentagon resumed its attacks on small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, the media barely noticed. The U.S. military has now destroyed 56 vessels and killed 190 persons. The killings began in September 2025 and have continued to this month. The attacks caused a stir a few months ago when one of the strikes disabled the boat at which the attack was aimed but failed to kill all the ...