First Inklings of Fame

It is graduation season, and luminaries like Tina Fey, Oprah, Tom Hanks and Barack Obama are giving advice to graduates about starting their next chapter. Of course, this year, in the midst of the pandemic, the gatherings of family and friends must happen online. Instead of hugging classmates and celebrating years of hard work with…

Turning Your Backyard Into a Vacation Spot

Savannah Shyne has big plans for the summer, and none of them involve leaving her backyard in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. On her quarter-acre lot, she’s managed to squeeze in a 15-foot-wide inflatable pool, a 10-foot-wide trampoline, a vegetable patch, a climbing dome and a butterfly garden, all while leaving enough space for the new family puppy…

Reported Coronavirus Cases Top 5 Million Worldwide

Here’s what you need to know: ImageA family, wearing protective equipment at a Srinagar graveyard in the Kashmir Valley on Thursday, offered prayers for a woman who died of Covid-19.Credit…Tauseef Mustafa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A million new infections were confirmed in less than two weeks. More than five million people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus,…

‘Jaw-Dropping’ Fraud Reported as Jobless Claims Reach 38.6 Million

Here’s what you need to know: ImageVolunteers with the Los Angeles Unified School District provided meals to families in their community at a drive-by grab-and-go on Monday.Credit…Ryan Young for The New York Times A fraud network siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars in unemployment funds. A sophisticated fraud network targeting Washington State’s unemployment system claimed…