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Americans seeking retirement or survivor benefits from the Social Security Administration will no longer be able to apply over the phone, starting on Monday. Instead, they will have to seek services online or travel in-person to a local Social Security field office, which a new analysis from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, or CBPP, found amounts to a "45-mile trip for some 6 million seniors." The group wrote this change "will close off an important mode of service for millions of people" who are eligible for services. Agency officials have said these new measures "will further safeguard Social Security records and benefits against fraudulent activity" by creating "stronger identity verification procedures." The millions of seniors inconvenienced by the odious ...

Richard Chamberlain, who rose to fame as the heartthrob star of the television series “Dr. Kildare” in the early 1960s, proved his mettle by becoming a serious stage actor and went on to a new wave of acclaim as the omnipresent leading man of 1980s mini-series, has died. He played the dashing 17th-century romantic lead in “Shogun” in 1980, seducing a new generation of fans. He followed that in 1983 with his portrayal of Ralph de Bricassart, the tortured young priest in the saga “The Thorn Birds,” making him a 49-year-old sex symbol and the undeniable holder of the unofficial title “king of the mini-series.” Mr. Chamberlain received Emmy Award nominations for “The Thorn Birds” and “Shogun,” as well as for “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story” (1985) — in which he played Raoul Wallenberg, the Wo...

A record 48 percent of U.S. adults — 121.5 million people — have some form of cardiovascular ailment, which includes coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and high blood pressure, according to a new report from the American Heart Association (AHA). Cardiologist Ivor Benjamin, AHA volunteer president and director of the Cardiovascular Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, attributed the increase to a new definition of high blood pressure, which says a reading of 130/80 indicates hypertension, compared with the previous benchmark of 140/90. The new report, based on 2016 data, is published in the AHA journal Circulation. Without taking high blood pressure into account, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease among U.S. adults was 9 percent overall, or about 2...

Coffee’s one of the most complex substances humans consume, right up there with red wine in terms of the number of flavor and aroma compounds it contains. The sheer number of compounds would be overwhelming to us, but we mentally associate the many tastes and smells with familiar sensations to help us make sense of the experience. The notes listed on your coffee bags are identified through a tasting process called cupping, which is a process coffee industry folks use to record both coffee quality and characteristics. Here's how the terms printed on the bag translate to what’s in your cup?

With a budget above $250 million, “Snow White” had set out with higher ambitions, particularly since it returns Disney to its very origins. The 1937 original “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the company’s first animated feature, and paid for its Burbank studio lot. But this “Snow White” struggled to find anything like a fairy tale ending. The runup to release was plagued by controversies over the film’s handling of the dwarfs, who are rendered in CGI, and backlashes over comments by its star, Rachel Zegler. The PR headaches prompted Disney to pull back on its premiere. Also working against the film, directed by Marc Webb: poor reviews. Critics were largely not impressed with Disney’s latest live-action remake, with reviews coming in just 43% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. ...

New requirements that Social Security recipients access key benefits online or in person at a field office, rather than on the phone, would be nearly impossible to meet without help. The requirements, set to go into effect March 31, are intended to streamline processes and combat widespread fraud within the system, according to President Donald Trump and officials in his administration. They say that’s why it’s vital for people to verify their identity online or in person when signing up for benefits, or making a change like where the money is deposited. But advocates say the changes will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable Americans. It will be harder to visit field offices in rural areas with high poverty rates. Often these are the same areas that lack widespread internet ...

Tesla said Thursday it would recall nearly all the Cybertrucks it has produced to repair a stainless steel trim panel that the carmaker said could become detached from the vehicle while driving. It’s the eighth recall for the distinctive all-electric pickup, which hit US roads just over two years ago. Unlike many other Tesla-related recalls, though, this one cannot be fixed with an over-the-air software update; the trucks must be brought into a service center for repairs. The recall affects more than 46,000 Cybertrucks manufactured between November 2023 and late February 2025. The recall is related to a cosmetic applique on the vehicle’s exterior, which is attached to the rest of the truck by a kind of glue. On affected Cybertrucks, the adhesive can separate from the rest of the truck...

After you file your tax return, you may be wondering how long you need to hold on to your tax records. You might be tempted to shred everything and toss the debris in the trash. Or you might assume that you need to hold on to every tax return and supporting document forever. Turns out, you do need to keep certain tax documents for a period of time in case the IRS or state treasury department has questions about the information you provided on your return — or you get audited. But don’t worry — you don’t need to turn your basement into a storage facility for decades’ worth of tax records. To protect yourself, follow these record keeping guidelines.

Since the start of 2025, over 27 million egg-laying hens — 9 percent of the entire national flock — have died from the bird flu or have been (horrifically) killed to slow the spread. It’s led to egg shortages and price spikes, with a carton of a dozen eggs today costing double what it did in early 2022, when this latest bird flu outbreak began. But each year, whether there’s a bird flu outbreak or not, far more chickens are brutally killed. The egg industry hatches around 650 million birds annually, but because half of them — the males — can’t lay eggs, egg companies kill them the day they’re born. They’re typically shredded alive or gassed with carbon dioxide! But here’s the good news: Technology to end this grisly practice is finally coming to the US. Known as “in-ovo sexing” (“in-o...

The crafts retailer is closing all 800 of its stores and laying off 19,000 employees. The news comes after the retailer’s restructuring plans failed and a liquidator opted to purchase its assets. Joann is far from the only retailer in its death throes. Recent data shows that the number of retail-store closures is expected to double during 2025, to roughly 15,000 from the 7,300 or so in 2024, including companies such as Red Lobster, Big Lots, and Party City, which have each announced plans to either completely close up shop or enact big restructuring in recent months. And a commonality between many of them? Private equity firms are playing a large role. Critics say that private equity, often simply referred to as PE, tends to come in and strip a company for parts and eventually kill it...