Author: Lance Garrison

Are Kroger Co. and Albertsons Companies Inc. titans of the grocery business or actually not so big? A court’s answer to that question will be pivotal to whether a merger of the two supermarket chains is allowed to go through.The Federal Trade Commission, which sued on Monday to block Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons, says they are indeed huge. “The proposed acquisition is by far the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history,” one that would unite “the No. 1 and No. 2 traditional supermarket chains in the United States,” it says in its complaint. It’s seeking a federal court’s preliminary injunction…

Tonight, before you head to bed, check your thermostat. Set it somewhere between 60 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit.People sleep better in that temperature range. “Not only in terms of maintaining sleep, but also of falling asleep,” says Alon Avidan, MD, MPH, director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center. That also goes for how long you sleep and how well.The exact number is hard to pinpoint. It varies from person to person. But a 5-degree range is easy enough to experiment with.  If someone told me that they slept in a temperature between 70 to 75, I’d say that’s a range…

On Monday, at a hip Arab coffee shop in Dearborn, Mich., Nihad Awad, a co-founder and the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, told me that as a Palestinian American Muslim who voted for Joe Biden in 2020, he feels “betrayed bitterly” over the administration’s position on the war in Gaza.So he was in the Detroit area this week to support the campaign to get voters to choose “uncommitted” in Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday. But as our conversation progressed, it became clear to me that his objective is not simply to send President…

Doing chores is a tradition in many families. Chores help kids learn responsibility, and sharing chores gives you help around the house.Not sure your kids will go for it? Take heart! There are ways to make chores a little bit, well, less of a chore for everyone.Parenting expert Jim Fay, co-founder of the Love and Logic website, says we all need to feel needed and to know that we’re making a contribution — even kids. “But they can’t feel that way if they don’t have chores and make contributions to the family,” Fay says.Roger W. McIntire, University of Maryland psychology…

We all know sibling rivalry is common among kids. But it can last decades after childhood has ended.Scroll through online message boards and forums, and you’ll find a slew of stories. Grown-up brothers and sisters bicker. Push each other’s buttons. Steal money from one another. Play cruel pranks. Even physically fight. Some just squabble. Others cross the line into sibling abuse.These fights may come as a shock to parents. Clinical psychologist and professor Laurie Kramer, PhD, once asked her students at Northeastern University to write down the worst thing that had happened between them and their siblings that their parents…

There may be a contagion effect, too, in which one coup provides a permission structure for the next, though as Singh notes, historically juntas have operated less according to external logic than internal motivation. And while many American commentators blame the end of a Pax Americana and a resulting vacuum of geopolitical leadership, those closer to the Sahel tend to see the American war on terrorism, particularly the U.S.-led invasion of Libya in 2011, as a major contributor to regional instability. On the ground, animosity toward the French is also pervasive, and there is influence jockeying and obvious strategic meddling…

Feb. 28, 2024 – We know that we have to exercise. It boosts our cardiovascular health, strengthens muscles, and ultimately contributes to our longevity and quality of life. But according to new research, women may benefit more from physical activity than men do. Does that mean there should be sex-based guidelines around exercise? It turns out, when it comes to recommending different exercises based on sex and gender, there isn’t an expert consensus. Weight training, for example, should be an essential part of anyone’s exercise regimen. But it’s especially important for women to incorporate weight training into their routines, says Phillip Williams,…

To the Editor:Re “Why Can’t More Children Get the Treatment That Saved My Son’s Life?,” by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett (Opinion guest essay, Feb. 24):Our three children, ages 5 and 7, battle a rare, relentless and ultimately fatal disease called cystinosis. We recently found hope in the initial phase of a gene therapy clinical trial that was shown to be safe and yielded very promising results — a therapy that could one day save our children’s lives. Our biggest fear is that it will not be accessible to them or others in desperate need.Dr. Currid-Halkett beautifully articulated the fears of parents like…

While shopping for breastfeeding gear, you may have noticed lactation massagers in addition to breast pumps, nipple cream, and nursing pillows. What are they? And do you need one?A lactation massager is a handheld device that’s intended to help women overcome certain breastfeeding challenges, like engorged breasts or clogged milk ducts.Should you get one to help induce lactation? That’s up to you. Breastfeeding experts say that the device doesn’t do anything that you can’t already do by yourself.“I do not recommend lactation massagers as essential breastfeeding equipment,” says Pierrette Mimi Poinsett, MD, a pediatrician in Sonoma County, CA, and medical…

By Dawn Brown, Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine Services, as told to Danny BonvissutoMy son, Matthew, was rare in that he was diagnosed when he was 8 years old. Most often, schizophrenia manifests in the late teens or early 20s.At 18, he had a psychotic break and required hospitalization. Eventually he found treatment that was effective, but it took quite a while.Once we found something that seemed to address his symptoms on several levels, he became treatment-compliant, which means he’s taking his medication on schedule. But medication is a small part of the treatment plan. He’s also…