When two third-grade girls began trading insults while lined up for the bus, Shelby Rideout, an educator in Tennessee, stepped in before the argument could escalate. Within minutes, the tension had dissolved, the girls were chatting easily, and what had threatened to become a hallway standoff ended on a distinctly kumbaya-like note. Rideout shared her disarmingly simple approach in a TikTok video: if you go looking for a problem, you will almost always find one; look instead for common ground, and conflict often loosens its grip.
When your partner explodes in anger-blaming, threatening-you find yourself living on edge, walking on eggshells, trying not to trigger the next eruption. The emotional toll is heavy: confusion, pain, resentment, and a growing sense of helplessness about what to do and how to be. Being in a relationship with an angry partner is profoundly stressful and can undermine your well-being and the foundation of the partnership itself.
A Border Patrol agent killed Alex Pretti, 37, a US citizen who worked as a nurse at the local Veteran Affairs hospital, on Saturday morning. Pretti had been filming federal immigration agents when the confrontation began. Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul have been the site of continuous protests since the Department of Homeland Security flooded the cities with immigration agents in December.
For more than two hours, deputies gave repeated verbal commands and attempted to de-escalate the situation, deputies reported. Members of the Sheriff's Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) also responded to assist in managing the crisis. When the driver continued to ignore all de-escalation efforts, deputies used what they described as "several less-lethal tools and projectiles to prevent the use of deadly force."
Humans have hated since the dawn of, well, humans, but these days it seems like we've elevated hate to a competitive sport. Whose hateful words, memes, and shouts gain the most views, shares, and comments? Whose amass the biggest following and build the strongest coalitions? Whose lead to election wins? But let's remember that sports rarely result in assassinations, murders, and war; hate too often does. We are regularly witnessing hate lead to actual violence. In turn, violence is leading to ever more hate.
I would hope that Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah is the voice that wins out at the end of the day. I don't know that I'm optimistic, but I think he's largely been pitch-perfect in this. And I'm still remembering, there is a 31-year-old man, who I didn't necessarily agree with on many things, but who's dead today and whose wife doesn't have him, and kids will be raised without him.
But Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican who has become a measured voice of the investigation into Kirk's killing, has urged Americans to resist "rage" in the wake of the shooting. Driving the news: Cox said on CNN's "State of the Union" that the country does not need to "sing Kumbaya and hold hands" - but rather, people must continue to engage with those with whom they disagree.
Since George Floyd's murder, calls have grown louder for accountability-essential but incomplete. Yes, we absolutely need to hold officers accountable and ensure that officers are punished for wrongdoing. But accountability is reactive-it comes only after a tragedy. Rarely does it drive prevention of the next tragedy. In fact, the threat of being sanctioned often creates perverse incentives-driving employees to cover up misconduct that helps explain why punishment alone fails to prevent the excessive use of force.
"I've heard some of the frustration and concerns [from people in Northwest]. I've also heard some of the appreciation expressed by Portlanders in terms of the approach we took on Monday to try and deescalate things as the incident unfolded."
