If you’re like me, you’ve done more cooking during the pandemic than in any recent time period. In fact, for the first time, I got tired of cooking. This list of 19 cookbooks from the Food Tank brightened my day. The cookbooks are full of bright flavors, personal stories, and rich traditional knowledge. Read more →

Martin Luther King Jr. was such a transformational leader. Over the years, I’ve written more than a dozen articles for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They included his most famous quotes, how a day to celebrate King was finally approved, and how it’s a day of service, not a day off. Read more →

Consumers are continuing to face tremendous challenges in this, the second year of the coronavirus pandemic. I could probably write an article on 10 ways the pandemic affected people financially. I just hope it will end soon instead of continuing to drag on and on. Read more →

For me, my holiday celebration ended early. My daughters came for a Christmas celebration in early December, Lisa from Madrid and Mona from Sacramento. We had such a great time; a fabulous Christmas dinner Dec. 4 and opening presents Dec. 5. Read more →

It’s a great occasion. President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law today. People in the United States should be dancing in the streets. Nationally from 2003 to 2017, federal infrastructure spending dropped more than 20 percent. Read more →

It’s that time of year again. Advertisements for Medicare Advantage plans are flooding my mailbox and email. I’m even getting phone calls about the plans. And, every time I turn on the TV, there’s another ad about Medicare Advantage, with infomercials to be tolerated, too. Read more →

In late September, two Republican members of the commission that oversees the safety of the nation’s consumer products voted to eliminate items from the agency’s annual plan that would have developed new mandatory rules for preventing suffocation in infant cushions. Read more →

Twenty years ago, on Sept. 11, I was just beginning a vacation in Spain and Portugal with my daughters. It was frightening to be so far from home and not know what was happening. Here’s the account of my vacation that appeared in The Tacoma (Washington) News Tribune on Oct. 3, 2001: Read more →

It’s the 101st anniversary of women in the United States being guaranteed the right to vote. The 72-year-long political movement was carried out by tens of thousands of women and men working for equal rights for women. The women were called suffragists, meaning the right to vote in political elections. Read more →

As the result of an Environmental Protection Agency ban on chlorpyrifos on food, it will be illegal for any traces of it to be present on produce or food. Even in small amounts, exposure to chlorpyrifos during pregnancy and early life harms the developing brain. Read more →