Ask Amy: Skeptical Mom Longs For Female Friendship

Every year, Apple and Google announce major software updates that bring new features to our smartphones, such as cosmetic overhauls to the home screen, stronger privacy protections and fun messaging tools. This year, the changes will feel more radical because the companies are focusing on reinventing our phones with artificial intelligence. At its annual software developer conference Monday, Apple showed a host of enhancements coming this fall to iOS 18, its operating system powering iPhones.

When David De Clercq traveled to San Francisco last year, he had a few musts on his itinerary: Go to Alcatraz. Try new restaurants. And ride in a self-driving car. Self-driving cars, also known as autonomous vehicles or, colloquially, robotaxis, have been driving the streets of San Francisco in some form since 2009 and have been operating commercially since August.

At what age should kids be on social media? Should they be on it at all? If they aren’t, will they be social pariahs? Should parents monitor their conversations? Do parental controls work? Navigating social media as a parent — not to mention a child — is not easy. Using social media platforms is still the default for most American teenagers, with the Pew Research Center reporting that 58% of teens are daily users of TikTok, including 17% who describe their TikTok use as almost constant.

First, the Nuggets went two and ’que in the playoffs. Does that mean they are one-and-done when it comes to NBA titles? When the postseason began, Denver harbored aspirations of a dynasty. It has been the posture of the front office to take a macro view, focused on winning multiple crowns over a swath of time. There is no denying this wider-lens philosophy cost them in May.

A recent Denver Post article by Meg Wingerter (Colorado clinics, mental health providers are seeing more uninsured patients — and they’re worried that’s the new normal,) did a good job of capturing the real challenges faced by our state’s “safety net” for the most vulnerable Coloradans. We opted to speak out together on this critical issue because we represent a large swath of what people euphemistically call the safety net — community mental health centers across the state. To respond to these needs, we call on the state leadership to use unspent federal pandemic funds to make sure providers can keep their doors open and continue to provide all the care our patients require. To recap the problem: in recent months, many community mental health centers — the safety net clinics that care for individuals with the most serious mental illnesses — are seeing higher numbers of uninsured patients than they have in five years.

Dear Readers: Before I leave at the end of the month, I’m going through my files and choosing some of my favorite “vintage” columns from over the years. The following Q&A are both from 2020. Dear Amy: This is a “trivial” subject that has nonetheless bothered me for years. My parents have the original Trivial Pursuit game, circa 1983. At various get-togethers, my mom will drag out this relic, and enthusiastically try to rally us around a good old game of “General Knowledge.” I feel like she should upgrade her game, at least to a game from this century.