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When a dire decision is the only option left

Dear Annie: I’ve had a dear friend for nearly a decade. He has been addicted to meth, heroin, alcohol — you name it. For years, I was the savior he ran to when everything fell apart. He’s married and has two young children. Before his youngest was born, he was a full-blown meth addict. I broke into his house multiple times after he overdosed while home alone with their first child, who was only 3. He cheated on his wife, got another drug-addicted woman pregnant (she later had an abortion), and his wife threatened to leave. I tried to impress upon him the severity of the ...

Truckers, bus drivers to be required to take license test in English

(AP) — All truckers and pass drivers will have to take their commercial driver’s license tests in English as the Trump administration expands its aggressive campaign to improve safety in the industry and get unqualified drivers off the road. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the latest effort Friday to ensure that drivers understand English well enough to read road signs and communicate with law enforcement officers. Florida already started administering its tests in English. Currently, many states allow drivers to take their license tests in other languages even ...

You can give old batteries a new life by safely recycling them

NEW YORK (AP) — When household batteries die, it’s hard to know what to do with them. So they get shoved into a junk drawer or sheepishly thrown into the trash. But dead batteries aren’t quite finished. They can leak heavy metals like cadmium and nickel into soil and water once they reach the landfill. Some of them can also overheat and cause fires in garbage trucks and recycling centers. The good news is, safely disposing of your batteries takes just a few steps. They’ll get shipped to recycling centers that break down their contents to make new things. Battery recycling ...

Hints From Heloise

When planning a scavenger hunt Dear Heloise: My 4-year-old grandson and I enjoy playing scavenger hunts together, but sometimes we can’t remember exactly what he has hidden outside. To make things easier, we now line up seven or eight items that we’ve chosen to hide — usually his toys — and I take a quick photo of them on my phone before we start. As one of us finds an item, we line them up again and compare them to the photo to see which ones we’ve found and which are still missing. It keeps the game fun, avoids frustration, and helps ensure that nothing is left behind. ...

Trump’s ‘Good Cop’

My first reaction to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech, delivered on Valentine’s Day, at the Munich Security Conference, was, “Last year, President Donald Trump sent the bad cop, Vice President JD Vance. This year, he sent the good cop, Rubio. Progress.” In February 2025, the audience at Munich took Vance’s comments as insults. In February 2026, the audience, as evidenced by its standing ovation, took Rubio’s as compliments. Yet, as even journalists writing on deadline quickly discerned, Rubio’s words were no less critical than Vance’s of what have been European ...

Police search former Prince Andrew’s home after arrest

LONDON (AP) — Police searched the former home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor again on Friday, a day after he was arrested and held in custody for nearly 11 hours on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Following one of the most tumultuous days in the modern history of Britain’s royal family, the former Prince Andrew is back at his new residence on the Sandringham estate, King Charles III ‘s private retreat, which is around 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of London. Police have concluded their ...