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Hints From Heloise

Owning a cat as an elderly person Dear Heloise: This is in response to Keith, the retired pastor who would love to have a dog to cuddle with but is unable to walk the dog and lives in an apartment. An adult middle-aged cat would be perfect! Most cats love to cuddle and don’t need to be walked. We are 86 and have always had a cat or two. They have given us much joy! Thank you for a wonderful and informative column! — Mary C., in Racine, Wisconsin Mary, unless a person has an allergy to cats, they can make wonderful pets. You’ll find this is especially true for older cats that ...

Crisis of affordability

At some point, the headlines turned “affordability” from a concern into a “crisis.” But what does affordability mean? For most of us, that depends on what we consider our minimum requirements for happiness. If you look at TikTok, life in New York City is a fairy tale of chic bars, eggs topped with caviar and everyone looking stylish. For much of Gen Z, TikTok is what they know of the expensive cities they and plenty of others dream of frolicking in. The music. The sunsets. The screenshot bait. They set their hearts on the pricey neighborhoods paraded across the screen. ...

The illusion of control in a time of war

In times of war, leaders often project the outcome they hope to achieve. Confidence can rally a nation, strengthen morale, and signal resolve to adversaries. Yet history reminds us that war rarely unfolds according to the plans or predictions of any single leader. The gap between projected outcomes and the complex, often obscured reality on the ground remains one of the defining features of modern conflict. Today, that gap is widening under what military strategists have long called the “fog of war.” Recent statements from President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ...

Second coming of DOGE

President Trump has signed an executive order creating a task force to crackdown on fraud in government programs. It will be headed by Vice president JD Vance. This is the administration’s second effort to reduce government misspending and overspending following Elon Musk’s effort as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. As we approach another April 15 with a $38 trillion debt (and counting) addressing fraud is something that ought to be a bipartisan goal. The fact that it hasn’t been a priority for politicians is largely because, I suspect, it isn’t their ...

MLB partners with Polymarket, makes integrity pact with federal commission on prediction markets

(AP) — Major League Baseball is entering an official partnership with Polymarket and has an agreement with the federal commission overseeing prediction markets to collaborate on integrity concerns. MLB said in a statement Thursday it has a memorandum of understanding with Michael S. Selig, the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to “further protect the integrity of baseball by ensuring swift response to incidents and anticipating emerging trends more strongly.” Prediction markets have raised concerns from sports leagues already working to combat issues around ...

Brent crude tops $119 per barrel; stocks sink

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices climbed again Thursday because of the war with Iran, tightening their grip on the global economy and sending stock markets lower around the world. Brent crude, the international standard, briefly rose above $119 per barrel in the morning before pulling back to $110.90, which is still a 3.2% rise from the prior day. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude added 2.2% to $98.40 after Iran intensified its attacks on oil and gas facilities around the Persian Gulf in response to an Israeli attack on an important Iranian natural gas field. The attacks added to fears ...