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When the guardrails are destroyed

Columns

People of a certain age were taught to respect the police, obey the law and other rules and regulations mostly practiced by our parents and grandparents. They believed such things would lead to better lives for themselves and for the nation. For many, they did. Today we look at the lawlessness, the antisemitism, the hate speech directed at the president, teen takeovers, attacks on police officers and others and we might ask: why is this happening? The answer can be found on the side of the road. To use a metaphor, the guardrails have been removed. Guardrails are crash-tested barriers ...

1976 and 2026

Letters to the editor

Jim Newton Itasca In 1976, the TV cop series Barney Miller featured a bicentennial episode. The 12th precinct worked crowd control at a celebration-turned-protest. One officer announces, “We got some trouble on the harbor.” A frustrated Captain Miller replies, “This is beautiful. Rioting, fistfights, vandalism. It’s a lovely way to celebrate the bicentennial.” In 2026, is it safe to assume that we can relate? My personal recollection of 1976 is mostly positive: A Major League Baseball game in Chicago, fireworks and more festivity than protests. Watergate ended in 1974, ...

Dear Annie: Is more than co-managing marriage

Columns

Dear Annie: I have been married to my husband for 18 years, and in many ways he is a good man. He works hard, pays the bills, shows up for our children and has never been cruel or unfaithful. From the outside, I am sure people think I have nothing to complain about. But inside our marriage, I feel painfully alone. My husband is emotionally and physically distant. He rarely holds my hand, hugs me without being asked, kisses me in the kitchen or says anything tender. We can sit on the same couch for an entire evening and feel like two people waiting at the same bus stop. If I try to talk ...

Who remembers Oliver?

Columns

I still listen to Oliver Anthony. He was the rednecky guy who played guitar outdoors with bugs and dogs. His songs are mournful and angry, lamenting his struggles with addiction, his poverty and the changes in America. In his song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” welfare queens on one side and a Washington elite on the other were wasting his life. The song became what Fox News called “The Conservative National Anthem.” Biden was president then. They even played a bit of it at the first Republican debates in August of 2023. The politicians appeared a bit mystified when asked to ...

Why only 13% of surplus food gets donated by US supermarkets and other retailers to help hungry people — and how food pantries are trying to gather more

Columns

Low-income Americans need more help getting enough to eat, but not much of the food retailers that sell groceries could potentially donate is given away. Only 13% of it ends up at food banks, according to a 2026 report produced by ReFED, a nonprofit that studies and tries to prevent food waste. The rest is composted; turned into animal feed, biofuels and other industrial products; sold at a deep discount shortly before its use-by date; or disposed of in landfills and incinerators. Given that millions of Americans are losing access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ...

Young malnourished man experiences constant intestinal pain

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: My son, who is 28, has always had issues with his gut. Almost everything passes through his intestines quickly. He frequently sees undigested vegetables in his stool. He had intestinal pain and underwent upper and lower GI scopes because the doctor suspected Crohn’s or inflammatory bowel disease. But he found nothing other than inflammation in his stomach, for which he ordered Protonix; this helped with the pain. His BMI is below 18 and has always been this way. He says that if he eats healthy, it makes his gut worse, and if he eats fast food or other non-healthy ...