Some wellness gurus speak of coconut oil as if it was an elixir of the gods. They tell us to use it unabashedly in the kitchen and on our skin. They advise we put it in our smoothies, our morning coffee, and in all our baked goods. Use it on cuts in place of Neosporin; use it for moisturizer and on your hair.

They claim this magical oil will help us lose weight, make our hair shiny and our skin glow.

On the other side of the coconut-oil-champions are the naysayers. …

In 2020, the first round of relief funding provided support to small businesses, (including independent contractors) impacted by Covid-19. As a freelance writer, I would have been eligible for this first round, but I didn’t realize it until it was too late.

I wasn’t the only one. Although businesses with less than 20 employees account for 98% of American small businesses, they collected only 45% of the funds.

The second round, announced by President Biden on February 22, has been upgraded to help the smallest of businesses. The good news for the gig economy: This includes freelancers. …

On Monday, my daughter went back to in-person school for the first time in almost a year. Two half-days per week, but she is thrilled. So far, splitting up days is the best way her school can follow the CDC guidelines for social distancing.

As we pulled up in the car line, I saw everyone had their mask on, and nobody seemed to be complaining about it. When I picked her up that day, she hopped in the car and announced, “this was the best day of my life.”

We’re not anywhere close to normal yet, but here, in northern Illinois, the snow is melting, the sun is shining, and my kid is back in school.

Here’s something I wrote last year about missing out on things:

If you watched the third season of American Horror Story, you might recall a certain jazz-loving character that killed with an axe but spared anyone listening to his favorite music genre.

Based on a real-life serial killer, that left six dead and six injured in New Orleans from May 23, 1918, to October 27, 1919, the fictional Axeman from the TV show skipped over houses where jazz music was playing.

In real life, the killer was never caught, nor was his identity discovered. The mystery of the New Orleans Axeman remains.

The attacks were brutal. All of the victims were…

Before we talk about how certain foods can reduce inflammation, it’s helpful to understand why you want to. Inflammation is the latest buzzword as the enemy of all things healthy. But inflammation is a perfectly normal and healthy immune system response.

Without it, we’d never heal after an injury or illness. It’s our body’s response to fight when something affects our immune system. Where things go wrong is when inflammation levels rise in your body and stay there.

So what causes inflammation to show up and linger in our bodies? Research has discovered, psychological stress can lead to chronic inflammation…

I hadn’t even finished my first cup of coffee. I was sitting at the kitchen table when I heard one of my pugs making loud chewing noises behind me. Looking closer, I saw it; one of those round plastic squeakers that they sew into dog toys sticking half out of her mouth.

Thinking I had caught the trouble in time, I reached out to take it from her. But she wasn’t about to give up her prize. Missy the pug ran under the dining table and continued to chew.

My next plan was to open the front door. Front door…

Texas is experiencing extreme record-breaking weather this week. The winter storm that is wreaking havoc across the nation has left millions in Texas without power on Tuesday. With record low temperatures, the state’s electric grid is not able to keep up.

Scientists have long been warning us of extreme weather due to climate change, and while many factors contribute to one weather event, we are now seeing the effects that climate change will bring us.

The Green New Deal takes the blame

But rather than focusing on why so much of the U.S. …

Emmett was 14 years old when he visited family in Mississippi; he had begged his mother to allow him to go. The year was 1955, and Emmett wanted to spend the summer with his cousins. But after his mother put him on the southbound train from Chicago, Emmett never returned to his home alive.

Emmett’s only crime was misunderstanding how a young Black boy needed to behave to survive in the deeply racist south. And because of this misunderstanding, he was taken from his bed in the middle of the night and brutally murdered.

The motive? Emmett had allegedly flirted…