Opinion

There’s good news and bad news when it comes to teen drug and alcohol use. The good news is that fewer teens are drinking, a trend that has been steadily improving over the last two decades. The negative is that cannabis seems to be picking up alcohol’s slack.

Dear Annie: My mother-inlaw is 81 and a widow. She currently lives alone. Her health is declining, and she has been talking about wanting my husband and me to move in with her and “take care of her and the house.” She is adamantly against moving into assisted living or anything similar. I already cook meals and take them to her weekly. I help with some household chores and have been maintaining the 10 acres the house sits on. My husband and I talk to her on the phone daily and have for the past two years since my father-in-law got ill and passed away.

Understanding consent starts at home, and the holiday season is a good time to visit the fundamentals and practice personal boundaries. We tell kids, “Keep your hands to yourself.” But we also need to teach kids that affection is not mandatory. They don’t have to hug that relative they only see during the holidays. They can and should say no when they don’t want to.

Today is the 354th day of 2022 and the 90th day of autumn. TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1803, the territory covered by the Louisiana Purchase was formally transferred to the United States from France.

Dear Annie: My wife of more than 31 years recently passed away. She had three children from a previous marriage. We had none. She left behind a large sum of money from her savings and IRA for them. Her eldest son has a mental condition, and most of his needs are met by the state of New York and Social Security. Her youngest son has an intermittent drug problem. Her middle son conned us by acting like the responsible son. She trusted him to look after his two brothers and to split all her money equally and empowered the middle son to act as her agent after she was gone.

Will Silicon Valley go down in history the way of the robber barons? There’s been plenty of raw material in the headlines for a sharp downgrading of the San Francisco Bay area tech industry’s reputation these last few weeks.

Paging through the latest survey research from More in Common, I came upon a phrase that deserves to be carved in stone: “conflict entrepreneurs.” You know them. They are the arsonists who incessantly inflame every disagreement in order to boost their own “brands.” They rile us up and deceive us about the danger of “the other side.”

When it comes to prosecuting former President Donald Trump and his associates for alleged malfeasance, or any conservative, left-wing politicians and their supporters like to tout the “no one is above the law” line. Yet, when one of their own breaks the law, their collective silence is deafening.

Dear Annie: About two years ago I was pregnant with my firstborn. About five months into the pregnancy, my partner, the father, cheated on me. When I found out about it, I was devastated; I didn’t know what to do with myself.

A lot of smart voices seem afraid to say outright that homeless mentally ill people should be taken off the streets, forcibly if necessary. They may easily agree that the sad humans sleeping on grates and under bridges would benefit from coming indoors for medical care and other social services. But they can’t concede that the public’s right to use sidewalks, parks and train stations should trump a homeless person’s desire to take over those spaces.