ArcaMax

DEAR ABBY: I am a 62-year-old man. I was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate. Growing up, I had several surgeries and much dental work to improve my appearance. I had wonderful friends who never teased me about it. Now, looking back at my childhood, I realize that my father hated me because of the way I looked when I was born. He has never asked me to spend time with him and was always angry with me. Even now, when he sees me, I can feel the hatred he has toward me.

MINNEAPOLIS — The mass shooting that killed two and injured several others this week at Shoreline Plaza in downtown Minneapolis has been a tragic step backward for a neighborhood trying to improve safety. It also thwarts efforts by a building owner who was proactively trying to remove tenants engaged in unruly conduct and criminal activity. Shoreline residents Dale Henry Spry and Muse Abdi Afrahwere killed in Wednesday’s mass shooting.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A blistering grand jury report describing how top DeSantis administration officials diverted $10 million from a Medicaid settlement into Republican political activities is also notable for something that got just a brief mention — Florida was shortchanged by almost $1 million. State officials signed a deal with the Centene Corp. in September 2024 to reimburse Florida $67 million because of alleged overbilling on its Medicaid contract.

Jameela Jamil has urged people to "listen to your bodies" after a "fluke bad luck thing" led to her cancelling her live podcast show. The TV presenter turned actress had been due to host a live recovering of her Wrong Turns podcast on September 11, with guests including singer Paloma Faith. However, in a post on her Instagram page on Friday (04.09.26), Jameela told her followers that she has had to cancel the show due to her ill health.

A former ABC News employee is asking a court to drop CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman from her wrongful termination lawsuit, which claimed she was sexually harassed by him when they were colleagues. Samira Said, a field producer for ABC News for four years, included the claims related to Gutman in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed Aug.

LOS ANGELES — Dodgers manager Dave Roberts' tone shifted slightly Friday, as he addressed Shohei Ohtani's absence from the lineup for the second straight day. After describing a stint on the injured list as "unlikely but not impossible" on Thursday, Roberts said Friday that he was "hopeful, but I wouldn't say confident," that Ohtani would avoid the IL. Still considered day to day, Ohtani did not play in the Dodgers' 5-3 win over the Washington Nationals.

As a resident of Boryspil, a satellite town of Kyiv, Kostyantyn Kuts has grown accustomed to regular night-time air raids. This past week has been different. Since late August, Russia has ramped up the frequency of its air assaults on the Ukrainian capital using jet-powered drones that are harder to intercept. With barrages now around the clock rather than mostly at night, life has once again been turned upside down for the city’s more than three million inhabitants.

Ben McKenzie would be "up for" a reboot of his beloved TV show The O.C. The actor found fame playing Ryan Atwood in the US programme, which ran from 2004 to 2007 and launched the careers of stars including Rachel Bilson and Mischa Barton. Appearing on a radio show on Australia's KIIS 1065 station on Friday (04.09.26), Ben was asked about the possibility of bringing the series back - to which he admitted he isn't averse to the idea.

NEW YORK — Giants tight end Isaiah Likely said this week that “hearing how Giants training camp was in the past was kind of mind-boggling to me.” All Likely knew prior to signing in New York this spring were John Harbaugh’s high annual expectations for the Baltimore Ravens. “If I wake up, I’m putting on cleats,” Likely said, describing how he was conditioned to work in Charm City. Quickly, Likely said this Giants team “embraced” the summer grind that was new but necessary for this franchise.

LOS ANGELES — A man in his mid-50s died at Burning Man this week after suffering a medical emergency, according to festival organizers. The attendee, who has not been identified, was taken to the festival's on-site emergency care center where he was pronounced dead, the Burning Man Project said in a Thursday statement. The Burning Man Project, a nonprofit that manages the 70,000-person event, did not provide specifics about what medical emergency the man suffered at the festival.