DEAR HARRIETTE: My 30th birthday just passed, and it was awful. I hate to sound ungrateful, but what should feel like a major milestone felt completely overlooked. Honestly, I’ve had a rough year, so I was OK with having a quiet birthday this year – just some reminiscing, goal setting and maybe some quality time with friends. Someone asked me if they could plan a surprise for me. While the thought was sweet, I expressed that I didn’t want anyone spending money on me, but they insisted on doing something. They asked what I would want, and all I asked was that it be low-budget and that my parents be present. I found out that everyone who attended had to pay, despite it being in my friend’s home, my parents were not invited and the host had a program full of her favorite activities for the gathering. It didn’t feel like this party was for me at all.

John McLaughlin is not sugarcoating the problem. A longtime Republican pollster who has worked closely with President Trump, McLaughlin writes on the conservative website Townhall that the current government shutdown is “a potential political catastrophe for the GOP.”

Responded to a animal call of a calf out in the area of Oklahoma and Hughes St., Thomas.

One of the main themes of the second Trump administration has been the explosive collision between the president’s determination to enforce federal immigration law and many Democratic leaders’ determination not to enforce federal immigration law.