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Explaining the increase in risk when it comes to certain drugs

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: Could you please explain the percentages that are given when a study indicates an increase for a particular risk? For example, say a person with mild coronary artery disease is at an increased risk of having a heart attack when taking certain drugs like meloxicam. It is confusing and possibly frightens a person away from beneficial therapy when there isn’t a full explanation of what these numbers mean. — B.C. ANSWER: Understanding worsening risks in a medical context can be challenging because advertisements often talk about relative risks, whereas most people ...

What no one will tell you about the national debt (but I will)

Columns

The U.S. national debt just crossed a once-unthinkable threshold on the way toward breaking the record set in the wake of World War II: It now exceeds 100% of America’s gross domestic product. As of March 31, our publicly held debt was $31.27 trillion, while America’s GDP in 2025 was $31.22 trillion. This puts the ratio at 100.2%, compared with 99.5% when the last fiscal year ended Sept. 30. That 100.2% figure will likely climb, because the federal government is running historically large annual deficits of nearly 6% of GDP, which add to the debt. The final tally will depend on ...

Experts miss Trump’s enduring presence in American politics in Indiana races

Columns

Tuesday evening’s primary race in the Hoosier State once again proved that the press, both local and national, still does not understand the impact that President Donald Trump has on the electorate. Nor do they understand his enduring appeal, as Indiana Republican voters unequivocally sided with the challengers over those who voted down congressional redistricting last year. So far, the results from Tuesday’s primaries saw incumbent Republican state Sens. Travis Holdman of Markle, Jim Buck of Kokomo, Linda Rogers of Granger, Dan Dernulc of Highland, and Greg Walker all go down, and ...

Dear Annie: Drawing lines, finding peace

Columns

Dear Annie: My husband and I have been married for eight years, and every vacation we take somehow turns into a group trip. He used to only invite his brother or his parents, but now the expectation is basically that we travel as one big extended family. The problem is, I don’t enjoy these trips. His family is kind but overbearing. I feel like I can’t relax. They also bicker, constantly arguing about where to eat, what to do and who’s paying. I’m dying for a peaceful getaway with just my husband. I’ve hinted that I’d like a trip for just the two of us, but he says, ...

False Promises

Letters to the editor

Doug Keith State College Many Americans supported Donald Trump because they believed his promise to avoid foreign entanglements and improve everyday life at home. Instead, many families are facing rising costs, growing economic uncertainty, and fears that aggressive tariffs could push inflation even higher. Global instability—including threats to critical oil routes like the Strait of Hormuz—only adds to those pressures. Even more troubling is the growing possibility that young Americans could once again be drawn into war—despite Trump’s repeated promises to keep the United ...

Family planning in an age of anxiety

Columns

“Why so few babies?” asked a New York Times essay that sounded oddly familiar to me. In my college days, it seemed that everybody was talking about “The Population Bomb,” the 1968 best-seller in which Stanford biologist Paul R. Ehrlich predicted worldwide famines and other dire consequences allegedly facing our baby boom generation. The Times essay, by contributing opinion writer Anna Louie Sussman, is drawn from her forthcoming book “Inconceivable: The Impossibility of Family in an Age of Uncertainty.” In contrast to Ehrlich, whose predictions fortunately did not play ...