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Ask Amy: Pressing “pause” on a negative friend

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

Dear Amy: What is the right way to put a friendship on pause?I have known “Lara” for many years. We don’t have a lot in common and it can be trying to spend time with her — she monopolizes conversations, tells inappropriate stories and can be extremely negative.However, she was very persistent about befriending me, so I saw her casually and also spent many hours supporting her after a job loss a decade ago.While she has now stabilized, she never returned to her prior career and remains very angry.After COVID struck, I decided to focus on my closest relationships and began seeing Lara far less often.Earlier this year I lost my own job. It hasn’t been all bad — I’ve been able to help my ailing parents and found some part-time work — but some days it takes everything I have to stay positive.Lara is the absolute last person I want to see right now: I just can’t listen to her complaints about not seeing me or about the terrible job market.But she’s been reaching out to me for...

25 visionary female leaders driving the climate change revolution

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

In this groundbreaking feature, we delve into the inspiring lives and accomplishments of 25 remarkable women shaping our planet’s future. This article by solarempower.com will highlight these trailblazers’ contributions to renewable energy and climate change. Through their bold strategies, innovative solutions, and fearless leadership, these women are not only breaking barriers in traditionally male-dominated fields, but also leading the charge towards a sustainable and resilient future.Get ready to be inspired by these champions of change who demonstrate that a greener future is not only possible but is being created right now, by those with the vision and courage to drive it forward.25 women who are leaders in fighting climate change and promoting renewable energyHere are 25 women who are the planet’s defenders and those who need help exercising their rights. Their story and experience are worth telling for our future global leaders.Christiana FigueresFormer Executive Secretary o...

How a home sale can be ruined by uninvited ‘house guests’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

Question: We are waiting to put our house up for sale. However, we need help. Squatters took over a rental property within eyesight of our home. The house was vacant. It was for rent. The squatters moved in and changed the locks. This turn of events has the neighborhood in disarray. Evidently, the owner of the property has hired an attorney. Now we are waiting for the court system to evict squatters almost directly across the street. It makes no sense. Police moderated confrontations between the owners and the squatters.Our house will be vacant and on the market when the squatters are gone. We must sell our home. We have a deposit on an out-of-state house under construction. Timing is critical. We will lease a house while our new home is under construction. Finances will be tight. A legal drama with squatters is unthinkable. How can our seller’s agent protect our house from being taken over by squatters?Answer: Congratulations on thorough, proactive thinking while entering the real ...

Bridge: Sept. 2, 2023

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

“Simple Saturday” columns focus on basic technique and logical thinking.Entries are the means of placing the lead where you want it to be. As declarer, you may be short of entries to dummy; in that case, you may need to create some.In today’s deal, South’s bidding showed a balanced 23 or 24 points. Against 3NT, West led the ten of clubs, and declarer won and wanted entries to dummy so he could finesse in hearts. After Trick Two he tried a spade to dummy’s ten.FINESSEEast took the queen and returned a club. South won, led a spade to dummy’s ace and returned a heart to his queen, winning, but he was fresh out of entries to dummy. He took two hearts, two spades, a diamond and three clubs: down one.At Trick Two South should let the jack of spades ride. If West had the queen, South would be sure of at least nine tricks. When East takes the queen, South can get to dummy twice with the ace and ten of spades for two heart finesses. Again, the contract is ...

Dear Abby: I don’t want to hear her fantasies about the priest

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have been together for six years. Until about 18 months ago, my mother-in-law and I got along swimmingly. Unfortunately, that relationship has become troubled.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: She offered no remorse for grabbing the spotlight at the engagement party Advice | Dear Abby: My friend’s personality changed, and now she’s stalking me Advice | Dear Abby: Should I consider this my husband’s strike three? Advice | Dear Abby: I want to leave my wife but I’m afraid she’ll hurt somebody if I do Advice | Dear Abby: I’m sick of explaining I have a plain phone, not an expensive toy The cause is her deep involvement with her church, indoctrinating our toddler with her religious beliefs and, finally, (ironically) her deep physical attraction to her priest. She believes this last topic is acceptable to confide to me. Needless to say, it has ...

Floaters: Our Reflection in the Rio Grande

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

The media was filled this summer with news of migrants blocked and wounded by orange buoys and sharp wire that the governor of Texas placed on the Rio Grande, the river bordering Mexico. A poll taken in August found that 51 percent of Americans approve of these hostile barriers — including four of every 10 Democrats. This is so even though it’s increasingly dangerous for migrants to try to enter the U.S. without going through official ports of entry. During the last three fiscal years, more people have died trying to cross the border than at any other time in recorded U.S. immigration enforcement history.The dead include hundreds of adults who’ve expired from heat, vehicle collisions during Border Patrol chases, and mishaps in rivers — mostly the Rio Grande and its canals. Children, too, have died in droves, mainly by drowning. But as current polling suggests, you don’t have to like Donald Trump to be hostile or indifferent to this suffering. Join Our Ne...

2 dead, three injured in multivehicle Hagerstown crash involving 4 tractor-trailers

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

Two people are dead and three others injured after a Friday morning crash on southbound Interstate 81 in Washington County, Maryland, involving four tractor-trailers and two passenger vehicles, Maryland State Police said.A preliminary investigation revealed that a Chevrolet Tahoe struck the back of a tractor-trailer that had started to brake due to traffic, causing a chain-reaction crash between three more tractor-trailers and a pickup truck just before 9:40 a.m.Wesley Merrick, 55, and Alicia Eve Cornell, 46, both of Wellsville, New York, driver and passenger of the Chevrolet Tahoe involved in the crash, were pronounced dead on the scene.Two additional passengers in the Tahoe, Wesley’s wife Carrie Merrick, 49, and Kevin Dye, 59, were injured in the crash and transported to separate medical facilities.A third person and driver of one of the tractor-trailers involved in the crash, Darrin Wayne Shank, Jr., 55, of Williamsport, Maryland, was hospitalized with injuries.Southbound I...

Labor Day Holiday Weekend Forecast

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

The long holiday weekend of Labor Day and the first weekend of September has arrived, and for September standards the forecast is looking great overall for South Florida.A very weak front will cross through South Florida this evening, which will usher in drier air. Before then for our Saturday, we still have enough moisture in place for scattered showers to move through.Across the metro, these passing showers will be most likely this morning and into the early-afternoon before it shifts toward the south and west and into parts of the Florida Keys for the afternoon. With an increasing breeze and northeast winds, temperatures will be quite seasonable into the low 90s for highs.Behind this front on Sunday, there will actually be a brief but slight dip in humidity levels. Given how oppressive it has felt standing outside, this slight drop should actually be noticeable, especially with the breeze holding persistent out of the northeast.For both Sunday and Labor Day on Monday, there will ...

Atomic age is over in Germany, Chancellor Scholz insists

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

Germany will not leave the door open for a possible return to using nuclear power now or in the future, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday.Responding to a suggestion from members of his own governing coalition that the country should not rule out restarting its shuttered reactors, Scholz told radio station Deutschlandfunk that “nuclear energy is over” and the issue is “a dead horse” in Germany.“The fact is that with the end of the use of nuclear power, dismantling has also begun” at the power stations that have been closed down, he said. “Any talk of resuming the use of atomic energy would imply building new power stations,” Scholz argued.“Anyone who wanted to build new nuclear power plants would need 15 years and would have to spend €15-€20 billion each,” he went on.Members of the the Free Democrats party, which serves as a junior coalition partner with Scholz’s Social Democrats, backed a policy statement calli...

Ukraine launches criminal case against oligarch Kolomoisky

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:17:53 GMT

Ukraine’s security services have formally presented one of the country’s most controversial tycoons with fraud and money laundering charges, as Kyiv renews its efforts to crack down on corruption.In a statement issued on Saturday, the country’s SBU agency said it had presented Ihor Kolomoisky with a “notice of suspicion” in the criminal case.“It was established that between 2013 and 2020, Kolomoisky legalized more than half a billion Ukrainian hryvnia [around $13.5 million] by moving it abroad using the infrastructure of controlled banking institutions,” the agency’s press service said. A pretrial investigation is ongoing, officials added.The Ukrainian-born Israeli-Cypriot national is the co-founder of PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest financial insitution, which was taken into state ownership in 2016 after regulators discovered $5 billion in missing assets. According to Forbes, Kolomoisky is worth an estimated $1 billion.Ukrainian P...