Dear Eric: My younger sister, Lucy, and I are both in our 20s and share an apartment.
Growing up, I faced a lot of double standards from our parents compared to Lucy, especially when it came to household responsibilities. Lucy was coddled to the point of depriving her of developing basic life skills.
As adults, I end up picking up the slack just like when we were kids. I also manage all of our bills. She is completely in the dark about how any of our finances work, and my attempts to get her more involved haven’t stuck. In another living situation, she’d be incredibly vulnerable to being taken advantage of, potentially paying more than her fair share simply because she doesn’t know any better.
When I try to have a conversation about these things, she gets defensive and shuts down. I can’t keep carrying everything on my own. I also would like her to learn these things for her own sake, but I’m at a loss on how to approach her in a way that won’t just result in her shutting down again and refusing to hear me. I welcome your advice.
– Oldest and Over It
Dear Oldest: Your care and concern for your sister are admirable. But, with respect, I wonder if you’ve also fallen into the family pattern of coddling her. You have the opportunity to let her learn (and perhaps fail) with a safety net. The gift of this living arrangement could be that she’s with someone who won’t take advantage of her but will hold her to account. However, you’ll have to be less accommodating.
If managing her own finances, she wouldn’t have the option of shutting down. Choose some bills that you want to make her responsibility and then put them in her name. Maybe it’s cable, maybe it’s even something larger. Give her your half of the monthly bill and tell her that you’re trusting her to take care of it. If she can’t or won’t, then the cable gets cut off and she has to figure out how to fix that and how to repair the relationship with you.
This, obviously, invites potential conflict into your living situation, but I’d argue that conflict is already quite present. You’re just managing all of the conflict and swallowing the resentment that comes from it. She is your sister, but she is also an adult and your roommate. Give her the chance to live up to all three of those roles.
Read more Asking Eric and other advice columns.
Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at [email protected] or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.
Read MoreWASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s long-threatened tariffs against Canada and Mexico finally went into effect Tuesday, putting global markets on edge and setting up costly retaliations by the United States’ North American allies.
Starting just past midnight, imports from Canada and Mexico are now to be taxed at 25%, with Canadian energy products getting tariffed at 10%. In addition, the 10% tariff that Trump placed on Chinese imports in February is doubling to 20%.
In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would slap tariffs on more than $100 billion of American goods over the course of 21 days. Mexico and China didn’t immediately detail any retaliatory measures.
The U.S. president’s moves raised fears of higher inflation and the prospect of a devastating trade war even as he promised the American public that taxes on imports are the easiest path to national prosperity. He has shown a willingness to buck the warnings of mainstream economists and put his own public approval on the line, believing that tariffs can fix what ails the country.
“It’s a very powerful weapon that politicians haven’t used because they were either dishonest, stupid or paid off in some other form,” Trump said Monday at the White House. ”And now we’re using them.”
The Canada and Mexico tariffs were originally supposed to begin in February, but Trump agreed to a 30-day suspension to negotiate further with the two largest U.S. trading partners. The stated reason for the tariffs is to address drug trafficking and illegal immigration, and both countries say they’ve made progress on those issues. But Trump has also said the tariffs will only come down if the U.S. trade imbalance closes, a process unlikely to be settled on a political timeline.
There is the possibility of the tariffs being short-lived if the U.S. economy suffers, just as there is the possibility of more tariffs to come on the European Union, India, computer chips, autos and pharmaceutical drugs, as Trump has promised. The American president has injected a disorienting volatility into the world economy, leaving it off balance as people wonder what he’ll do next.
“It’s chaotic, especially compared to the way we saw tariffs rolled out in the first (Trump) administration,” said Michael House, co-chair of the international trade practice at the Perkins Coie law firm. ”It’s unpredictable. We don’t know, in fact, what the president will do.’’
Democratic lawmakers were quick to criticize the tariffs, but even some Republican senators raised alarms.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she’s “very concerned” about the tariffs going into effect because of her state’s proximity to Canada.
“Maine and Canada’s economy are integrated,” Collins said, explaining that much of the state’s lobsters and blueberries are processed in Canada and then sent back to the U.S.
The world economy is now caught in the fog of what appears to be a trade war.
Even after Trump announced Monday that the tariffs were going forward, Canadian officials were still in touch with their U.S. counterparts.
“The dialogue will continue, but we are ready to respond,” Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair said in Ottawa as he went into a special Cabinet meeting on U.S.-Canada relations. “There are still discussions taking place.”
Shortly after Blair spoke, Trudeau said Canada would put 25% tariffs against $155 billion Canadian ($107 billion U.S.) of American goods, starting with tariffs on $30 billion Canadian ($21 billion U.S.) worth of goods immediately and on the remaining amount on American products in three weeks.
“Our tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. trade action is withdrawn, and should U.S. tariffs not cease, we are in active and ongoing discussions with provinces and territories to pursue several non-tariff measures,” Trudeau said.
To resolve the tariffs being imposed Tuesday, the White House would like to see a drop in the seizures of fentanyl inside the United States, not just on the northern and southern borders. Administration officials say that seizures of fentanyl last month in everywhere from Louisiana to New Jersey had ties to foreign cartels.
Damon Pike, technical practice leader for customs and trade services at the tax and consulting firm BDO, suggested that how other countries respond to the tariffs with their own import taxes could escalate the tensions and possibly increase the economic pain points.
“Canada has their list ready,” Pike said. ”The EU has their list ready. It’s going to be tit for tat.’’
The Trump administration has suggested that inflation will not be as bad as economists claim, saying that tariffs give a reason for foreign companies to open factories in the United States. On Monday, Trump announced that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the computer chipmaker, would be investing $100 billion in domestic production.
Still, it can take time to relocate factories spread across the world and train workers with the skills they need.
Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of The Toy Association, said the 20% tariffs on Chinese goods will be “crippling” for the toy industry, as nearly 80% of toys sold in the U.S. are made in China.
“There’s a sophistication of manufacturing, of the tooling,” he said. “There’s a lot of handcrafting that is part of these toys that a lot of people don’t understand … the face painting, the face masks, the hair weaving, the hair braiding, the cut and sew for plush to get it to look just so. All of that are very high hands, skilled labor that has been passed through generations in the supply chain that exists with China.”
For a president who has promised quick results, Ahearn added a note of caution about how quickly U.S. factories could match their Chinese rivals.
“That can’t be replicated overnight,” he said.
___
By Josh Boak, Paul Wiseman and Rob Gillies Associated Press
Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Anne D’Innocenzio in New York and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
Read MoreIt was a moment Jacari Lane had dreamt of since he was a kid.
After a dominant 90-64 win over Austin Peay in the ASUN Conference tournament quarterfinals, the Huntsville native was given the opportunity to put the team’s sticker on the winning side of the bracket.
“For me to have that moment, for my teammates to give me that moment? Man, it felt amazing to me,” Lane said.
It was a well-deserved reward for Lane, whose dominant 31-point performance helped the Lions complete a rout of Austin Peay on Monday to advance to the ASUN Conference tournament semifinals.
No. 2-seeded UNA will host No. 4 Jacksonville on Thursday at 6 p.m.
How long did it take to predict that kind of night for Lane?
“The first shot,” head coach Tony Pujol said of Lane’s performance. “You could tell he had that balance as soon as he hit the first one. I want to say it was Ben Ray, he and I were walking, and Ben mentioned that ‘Man, Jakari looked so confident after that first shot.’ Do you know why he’s confident? Because he’s put in the work.”
Lane’s night saw him shoot 9-for-13 from the field and 7-for-8 from beyond the arc, also knocking down all six free throw attempts in the lopsided victory.
A back-and-forth beginning saw UNA eventually break out on a 15-2 run with blistering shooting from the field; the team made five of its first seven shots from 3-point range, with Lane already having double figures seven minutes into the game.
“I was feeling really good,” Lane said. “I feel like it all came down to my shootaround. In, shoot around, I had a great shootaround. Shots were feeling good. It all came down to me just going out there, playing with confidence, shooting the ball with confidence, and it led to that success tonight.”
While it was just a point shy of his career-high mark (32 points against Samford), it was more than enough for hi and the rest of the team in a dominant showing.
Donte Bacchus shined off the bench with 16 points and 5 rebounds, while Corneilous Williams had 14 of each for another double-double in the win and Taye Fields (12 points) and Daniel Ortiz (10 points) also scored in double figures.
“One thing I can tell you about working with younger guys, is their focus, right? Neil’s one that has come in, and everything we ask him to do, he does,” Pujol said of the redshirt sophomore. “Our job now as coaches is to continue to make sure that he understands, ‘Hey, listen, this is what’s needed from you, from your team, lock in, stay focused, and just make sure you’re bringing that,’ and man, he’s been doing it all year.”
Pujol credits the team’s efficiency in the win with being able to wear teams down, especially in the second half of the victory; he noted the Govs’ Issac Haney — who averaged 13.4 points per game this year — as a threat on offense that his Lions shut down.
“You’ve got a lot of good players over there,” the coach said. “I’ve got a ton of respect for Haney. I’ve been dealing with him for the last two years. Man, I told him after the game ‘You’re a problem, you’re so hard to guard. All their players. LJ, does this the same way. It’s just a hard matchup, but I think our guys found a way.
“They really dug down and they did a great job of taking them out of their action.”
The true highlight everyone involved was a reported sellout crowd of 3,000, which celebrated the victory on the court with the players after the win.
Austin Peay returned 256 of its ticket allotment of 300, which North Alabama sold to fans within two hours.
“I drove past the gym, and I saw everybody at the door, and I’m like, ‘Golly, this is gonna be a big game.’ Like Jacari said, it’s been packed, but like, packed all the way out, all the way up through the whole gym? It was crazy,” Williams said. “The atmosphere was good, and like Jacari said, we need y’all to come back out Thursday if y’all can come support again.”
“Some of the students had to pay to come out and watch the game, and they’re still dedicated to come to watch us. They paid the money and came and watched the game, so it was only right for us to come out there and have fun with the crowd and invite them back to Thursday’s game.”
It was another moment of bliss for Lane, who stayed on the floor and celebrated with fans after his ESPN+ interview, which was crashed by his teammates.
“I was just so excited,” he said. “I couldn’t stop smiling, because the love that we just felt out there, just the thing that we built like I always say, I’ve been here since day one, so I’ve been watching this program just build and build. It wasn’t like this last year or the year before last. For us to just be able to have a crowd like that and show unbelievable love, it definitely feels good to us.”
Pujol credited a lot for the excellent crowd support on Monday, but noted that UNA’s softball team showing up to basketball games was key in starting the support between every team on campus.
“I’m very thankful for the people that put it together, very thankful for the community for coming out, very thankful for the student body and the student section. I thought that was amazing. They were telling me they were there early, so to me, I just love the way that this community, this university, has embraced this group.
“Man, they work their tails off, and as you can see, I told them back in June, we planted the seeds. Now here we are in March, and there the harvest is starting to come in, right? So what we got to make sure we’re doing right now is to continue to grow.”
Read MoreDolly Parton’s husband of almost 60 years, Carl Dean, died Monday in Nashville at the age of 82.
As PEOPLE pointed out Monday night, Dolly Parton‘s most famous song, “Jolene,” was based on a woman who had a crush on Parton’s late husband.
Per the report, the 1973 hit song “chronicles one woman’s jealousy surrounding her significant other’s interest in another woman.”
According to past interviews by Parton, the woman didn’t try to take Dean, but flirted with him at the bank.
“(The) song was loosely based on a little bit of truth,” she said during the 2014 Glastonbury Festival, per The Independent. “I wrote that years ago when my husband… was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be.”
The woman’s name was not Jolene. Parton confirmed she decided to use the name of a young fan.
“One night, I was on stage, and there was this beautiful little girl — she was probably 8 years old at the time,” Parton told NPR.
“And she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding, you know, for an autograph. I said, ‘Well, you’re the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?’ And she said, ‘Jolene.’ And I said, ‘Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene.’ I said, ‘That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I’m going to write a song about that.’ ”
Parton told the story of the song back in 2008.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton told NPR. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”
“She had everything I didn’t, like legs — you know, she was about 6 feet tall. And had all that stuff that some little short, sawed-off honky like me don’t have,” Parton told NPR, per PEOPLE. “So no matter how beautiful a woman might be, you’re always threatened by certain… You’re always threatened by other women, period.”
Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.
Read MoreA shooting at a Huntsville apartment complex Monday night left one person dead.
Huntsville police are investigating the fatal shooting at a complex in the 200 block of Martin Road, WHNT reported.
Efforts by AL.com to reach Huntsville police were not immediately successful.
Further information was unavailable.
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Read MoreAn Alabama couple filed a nearly $15 million federal lawsuit claiming Tennessee authorities unjustly took their children from them after they were arrested on DUI and child abuse charges they alleged stemmed from insufficient evidence.
Nicholas and Elizabeth Frye said it took them nine months to regain the custody of their two children, according to the lawsuit they filed Tuesday against the city of Sevierville, the Sevierville Police Department, three Sevierville police officers and the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.
The suit, which accuses the defendants of violating the parents’ and children’s rights against illegal seizure, among other claims, seeks $14.98 million.
A spokesman for Sevierville said the city “does not generally comment in regard to ongoing litigation.”
On Feb. 24, 2024, the Fryes were at a Tennessee resort celebrating one of their children’s seventh birthday when Elizabeth Frye slipped and fell on concrete. The family then headed to the Walmart in Sevierville to pick up medical supplies.
After exiting the parking lot, the lawsuit claimed, Sevierville Officer Laura Franklin stopped the family’s car for “no justifiable reason sounding in reasonable suspicion or probable cause.”
Franklin, the lawsuit claimed, accused the Fryes “of being intoxicated and/or impaired,” and the parents “explained the situation and denied any level of intoxication or impairment.”
Officers Jacob Rademacher and Camden Davis helped Franklin helped Franklin test the parents’ sobriety.
The lawsuit claimed blood was taken from Nicholas Frye but it was not an immediate test to determine if he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol “as the ultimate blood results for Nicholas Frye show the absence of drugs and alcohol in their system at the time of arrest or otherwise that would show probable cause that Nicholas Frye was intoxicated.”
Yet probable cause was determined to exist and both parents were arrested, the lawsuit alleged.
Franklin arrested the parents on numerous charges, according to the lawsuit, “including DUI, public intoxication, child abuse and neglect and aggravated child abuse and neglect.”
After taking the parents into custody, Franklin or another Sevierville officer notified the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services while the Fryes’ children were taken to police headquarters “where they were detained until their grandmother arrived from Alabama,” the lawsuit claimed.
A Tennessee DCS agent allegedly prevented the Fryes from seeing their children and took their custody away “without any evidentiary basis and without probable cause.”
“From Feb. 25, 2024, it took more than nine months for the Frye parents to regain custody of their minor children,” the lawsuit stated.
The Fryes and their children, according to the lawsuit, are undergoing mental health treatment for their “significant mental and emotional anguish.
While the parents “suffered deleterious effects to their reputations,” the children have had similar struggles in school and have fear of police officers and government officials, the lawsuit claimed.
Read MoreOne of the top targets in Class 5A is headed to the Big 12 Conference.
Guntersville wide receiver Dadrien Waller has committed to play football at Cincinnati, he announced on social media Monday night.
The 2026 prospect picked Cincinnati over offers from Troy, Tulane, Jacksonville State, UAB, Western Kentucky, Samford and North Alabama.
A 6-foot-5, 200-pound wide receiver, Waller totaled 34 catches for 712 yards and six touchdowns, averaging 20.9 yards per catch last year for a Guntersville team that averaged 39.7 points per game.
The Wildcats ranked No. 6 in Class 5A in the final ASWA football poll, with their season ending in a first-round playoff loss at eventual semifinal team Leeds.
He also helped lead Guntersville’s boys’ basketball team to an appearance in the 2025 Class 5A state semifinals, scoring 10 points against Vigor.
Read MoreThe No. 1 seed-seeking University of Houston Cougars will try to add a strong win to their resume tonight when they host Kansas, a perennial power struggling through a rough patch, on Monday night. Sports fans can add to the action with a guaranteed $150 sportsbook bonus for the game if they register with today’s bet365 bonus code ALBET365.
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Read MoreCarl Dean, country music icon Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years, died Monday in Nashville. He was 82.
Parton announced the news on Instagram in a post on Monday evening.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
Dean will be laid to rest in a private ceremony for immediate family. The family has asked for privacy during this time, Parton’s statement read.
Parton’s publicist confirmed the news of Dean’s passing to The Associated Press.
Parton met Dean outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat the day she moved to Nashville at 18, reports AP.
“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” Parton described the meeting. “He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”
The pair married in 1966 in Ringgold, Georgia.
Dean, who was born in Nashville in 1942, was one of three children born to Virginia “Ginny” Bates Dean and Edgar “Ed” Henry Dean.
Not much is known about Carl Dean’s personal life. Parton kept her marriage with Dean, who was a businessman, mostly private.
Dean occasionally offered rare public statements about their relationship, including a 2016 reflection on their marriage published in Entertainment Tonight.
My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl. My second thought was, ‘Lord, she’s good lookin.’ ” And that was the day my life began. I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”
Parton and Dean renewed their wedding vows for their 50-year anniversary during a private ceremony in Nashville.
In 2021, Parton reflected on their decades together during an interview with People Magazine.
“My husband and I, we’ve been together 56 years,” Parton said. “But we still have our little times, like in the springtime when the first yellow daffodils come out. Even if there’s still some snow around it, my husband always brings me a bouquet. And he’ll usually write me a little poem. Which to me, that’s priceless.”
Dean is survived by Parton and his siblings Sandra and Danny.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Read MoreAuburn men’s basketball could be without its starting point guard when it travels to play Texas A&M Tuesday night.
Denver Jones was listed questionable on Monday’s Southeastern Conference availability report after leaving Auburn’s win against Kentucky Saturday in the first half with a right ankle injury.
Head coach Bruce Pearl initially told reporters after the game that Jones had suffered a bone bruise, but clarified Monday that Jones has a soft tissue injury. He did not give a timeline for Jones’ recovery.
Jones is arguably Auburn’s best perimeter defender and averages 10.7 points per game. He’s also the Tigers’ most efficient 3-point shooter, making 43% of his attempts from beyond the arc.
Freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford filled in for Jones at point guard Saturday and would likely start in his place against Texas A&M if Jones is unavailable. When asked for more details on how Auburn would make up for Jones’ potential absence, Pearl said Auburn will “worry about that when it comes to game time.”
Tuesday’s matchup with Texas A&M is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m
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