If you are thinking about baby names you may want to make sure the names you have in mind are legal in your state.

Each state has its own naming laws and at least 11 names have been previously banned in the United States, according to USbirthcertificates.com. A list of guidelines and requirements rule out other possible names as well.

The ...Read more

STONE HARBOR, N.J. -- Lenore Tedesco doesn’t need to venture far to witness sea-level rise. She tracks its relentless advance from her window at work.

Tedesco, executive director of the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, stood by the nonprofit’s large conference room window in late May, surveying an expanse of salt marsh known as Scotch ...Read more

At the Library of Congress last month, Roberto Díaz was playing on an exceedingly rare viola. What didn’t cross his mind, he says, is just how much the hunk of maple and spruce clutched beneath his chin was worth.

Which is perhaps a good thing.

The Tuscan-Medici viola from the workshop of Antonio Stradivari was recently valued at $30 ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS ― When is a pencil not just a pencil?

When it’s on John and Amy Higgins’ lawn across from Lake of the Isles, is 20 feet tall and gets an annual public sharpening that draws crowds of more than 1,000 people.

The giant pencil, known as LOTI Pencil, will get its fourth annual sharpening on Saturday afternoon. The event kicks off...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It’s four minutes past opening time Thursday, and I’m in line for Indian Land, South Carolina’s latest sensation. Swig soda shop is still more than a quarter-mile away.

It’s been a week since the new drive-thru drink spot opened off Worldreach Drive, initially backing up traffic clear onto Charlotte Highway.

Swig ...Read more

Happy Pride Month, advice-seekers! We’re getting gay this June by answering LGBTQ+ questions. As always, send your dating/sex/relationship que(e)ries to redeyedating@gmail.com.

Dear Anna,

My girlfriend and I (both 28, together for three years) have a solid group of friends from college and work, but we're the only queer couple in the bunch. ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Reem Helou was listening attentively. It was the last day of her menu planning class in the Community College of Allegheny County's culinary program.

Her professor, Charles Wallander, an adjunct instructor and advisor at the school, was going over the final assignment, which was due before the stroke of midnight that night.

"If ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A California city is the best place in the nation to raise a family, according to WalletHub.

The personal finance website recently released its list of the Best and Worst Places to Raise a Family in the United States in 2025, based on factors including housing costs, recreation opportunties and the quality of local schools...Read more

I find myself still pondering the surprise announcement from Warren Buffett, age 94 and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, that he is retiring because he was "beginning to feel his age."

I keep wanting the man to expand. Specifics on "feeling his age" would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

He did say he noticed he was operating at a different speed...Read more

I am breaking my behavioral advice column format for the first time since I started writing it in 2014.

The normal format of answering questions about how adults can teach kids to be better people will return next week.

I have never broken format because, in my lifetime, there has never been a topic in education that was so important to the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- It was enormous, weighed 13 tons and seemed to be unmovable.

But one day in 2002, workers hoisted up and lifted away the steel, copper and bronze “Scroll” sculpture in front of the old Minneapolis Public Library at 10th Street and Hennepin Avenue downtown.

Ever since, Joe Hoover has been wondering where it went.

The old ...Read more

Q. We are in co-parenting counseling and my ex will tell a story that is almost the exact opposite of what happened. She’s so wrong! I have the text messages to prove it! The counselor is our referee, and we have made no progress. How can two people have such vastly different perceptions of what went on? What’s good ex-etiquette?

A. I’m ...Read more

As chairman of the bored in my house, a responsibility I take sitting down, I am thrilled to announce that I have a new chair in my office.

My only worry is that, as with all the other chairs I have ever had, I will lose possession of this one to either my wife or — this has actually happened before — a dog.

The stolen seat saga began many...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — For the last three decades, the Rev. Damone Jones has worked to build relationships with Philadelphia's most troubled children, the teens he says "typically nobody else loves": those charged with murder.

Several days per week, the West Philadelphia pastor visits the young men under 18 who are held in a city jail, and offers ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Even the most casual of observers can’t miss Matthew Greco.

If you’ve seen viral videos of the University of Minnesota dance team performances on their way to clinching national and world championships in recent years, you’ve spotted Greco. He’s the team’s sole and first-ever male dancer, whose dizzying spins and ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Leadership comes down to five things. Or maybe three. This day is all about you, unless it’s really about the family and friends who got you here. Live globally, but embrace the home and the hearth.

It’s commencement season, and this month, speakers sent the graduates of Maryland’s colleges and universities off to the rest ...Read more

In the campaign to keep discussions about race and identity out of classrooms, there’s a common refrain: Schools should stick to the basics.

“Teach ABCs + 123s, not CRTs & LGBTs,” campaign signs read in one Texas school board race. (CRT refers to critical race theory, a catchall phrase for lessons that explore how race has shaped America�...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Family Pride, a local LGBTQ nonprofit, was set to partner with the Philadelphia Zoo for a Pride-themed, animal-focused story hour on June 3, and had already hired a drag queen to read at the event.

But a little more than a week before it was set to take place, the zoo asked the group to uninvite the drag queen, ...Read more