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The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to approve a nearly $2 trillion economic aid package intended to ease the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak on U.S. workers and businesses. (Senate Television via AP) WASHINGTON, DC — After days of tumultuous negotiating, the U.S. Senate and the White House agreed Wednesday on nearly $2 trillion in economic aid to help American workers and businesses affected by the ongoing new coronavirus pandemic. The vote is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The package, if approved by the House of Representatives and signed into law by President Donald Trump, is intended to prop up the U.S. economy, help American households and bolster the health care system amid the growing coronavirus crisis. If approved by both the Senate and House, here are five things to know about the aid package and what it could mean for you: 1.  Checks Directly To Taxpayers:  The package provides  a one-time payment of $1,200 per person  that w...

Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says, "Life is hard - and then you die"?  I laughed the first time I saw it.  Then I wondered why I was laughing.  It must have been the element of surprise.  There was one of the great truths of life staring me in the face from the rear end of someone else's car.  It was something I would have expected to read in a book written by one of the ancient philosophers. In fact, it is one of the ancient philosophers who is usually credited with saying it first.  About 2,500 years ago,  Buddha wrote what became known as the Four Noble Truths.  The first one was "Life is suffering."  He may have been the first to write it, but I suspect that many people had it figured out a long time before he came along.  It would be hard to believe that the world's earliest inhabitants had it any easier.  Life is hard.  It always has been, and it always will be. The first three words in psychiatrist M...

I'm not particularly qualified by profession or education to give advice and counsel.  It's widely known in a small circle that I make a mean tomato sauce, and I know many inventive ways to hold a baby while nursing, although I haven't had the opportunity to use any of them in years.  I have a good eye for a nice swatch and a surprising paint chip, and I have had a checkered but occasionally successful sideline in matchmaking. But I've never earned a doctorate or even a master's degree.  I'm not an ethicist, or a philosopher, or an expert in any particular field.  Each time I give a commencement speech I feel like a bit of a fraud.  Yogi Berra's advice seems as good as any:  When you come to a fork in the road, take it! I can't talk about the economy, or the universe, or academe, as academicians like to call where they work when they're feeling kind of grand.  I'm a novelist.  My work is human nature.  Real-life is really all I know. ...

Tổng Thống Trump hôm 6 Tháng Ba ký thông qua ngân sách $8 tỷ để nước Mỹ đối phó với dịch  COVID-19. (Hình: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) Hôm Thứ Sáu, 6 Tháng Ba, 2020, Tổng Thống Trump đến thăm Trung Tâm Kiểm Soát và Phòng Ngừa Bệnh Dịch (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), thường được gọi tắt là CDC. Phóng viên truyền thông mô tả thái độ của ông Trump là tìm cách giảm thiểu mức độ nguy hại kinh tế của dịch COVID-19 bằng cách không chủ trương hủy bỏ các dịch vụ cần làm, cũng không hủy bỏ thú vui đi du lịch, miễn là không đến các khu vực bị nhiễm bệnh. Ông Trump bận tâm đến một góc khác của dịch COVID-19, đó là Virus Corona không chỉ giết người, mà nó còn đang tạo ra tình trạng suy thoái kinh tế trầm trọng đến mức đáng ngại. Giá dầu thô xuống đến mức $40 một thùng. Việc tổng thống kêu gọi người dân Mỹ đừng hốt hoảng trước cơn dịch COVID-19 đang giết hàng ngàn người cũng là một hiện tượng lạ; tối thiểu ông cũng đã chứng kiến cảnh người Mỹ không hốt hoản...