Connie S. Thomas, MA, LMFT

04/08/2026

Tongue-Out Tuesday 😛

Sometimes when cats are relaxed, their tongue just… stays out.😂

Caroline has perfected her blep! 🧡

What she hasn’t found yet?
A forever home.

At 2 years old, she’s past the kitten chaos and ready to just be your cat. Caroline is gentle and easy going, but still loves the occasional play session.

All she needs now is for you to come and take her home!

If you're not looking to adopt, please share Caroline to help her find her perfect person!

Caroline is currently residing in her adoption center at PetSmart, 23602 El Toro road, Lake Forest. You can meet her at our adoption events this weekend, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. or if you can't make the event, meet and greets can be made available, just reach out to us!

You can fill out an application to be pre-approved in advance.

https://tinyurl.com/Swtkadoptapp

04/08/2026

There is still compassion and caring in the world.

Seven-year-old Ben O'Reilly is deaf and has other special needs. The only deaf student at Campton Elementary, in Campton, New Hampshire, Ben felt isolated, until an act of kindness from his classmates marked a transformation that spread through the entire school. Steve Hartman reports.

04/08/2026

What do you think?

The parents of a toddler are facing child endangerment charges after the 17-month-old stuck his hand into a wolf enclosure and was injured at a zoo in Pennsy...

02/20/2026

02/20/2026

02/20/2026

More than 300 Woodbridge Senior High School students who walked out of their school last week to protest ICE have been disciplined with three-day suspensions.

02/19/2026

02/19/2026

37.6K likes, 186 comments. “Always adventuring ☀️😎”

02/19/2026

OC residents are celebrating Black History Month as Lunar New Year, Lent and Ramadan all converge around the same time this year.

02/19/2026

The nonprofit's FeedLA program continues to distribute millions of pounds of food to Angelenos across the city.

09/23/2025

When money is the only currency of the realm, we must vote with what matters most. More of this. Vote with your paycheck, with your wallet. Demand better. Support those who support the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Fair, Just, and Equal Treatment of persons residing in the United States of America.

Jimmy Kimmel wins! He is heading back to late night as ABC and Disney announced his show will return on air this Tuesday after a weeklong suspension. This decision is a huge victory for both Kimmel and the public, powered by the outrage and collective action of everyday people. Fans spoke with their wallets, canceling subscriptions and boycotting Disney until their demands were heard. Damon Lindelof, creator of ABC’s Lost, put it simply: “I refuse to work with Disney in any capacity unless they reverse Kimmel’s suspension”. Actor Tatiana Maslany urged, “Cancel your Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN subscriptions,” and people across the country did just that.

Prominent voices joined in, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who called the whole situation “North Korea-style stuff,” aimed directly at Trump, “This is being done because this is a weak, thin-skinned man,” Walz said. The legendary David Letterman also weighed in: “You can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian administration in the Oval Office; that’s just not how this operates”.

For Trump, this is an unmistakable and humiliating loss. He tried to celebrate when Kimmel was sidelined, but now looks powerless after the people’s boycott forced Disney to bring Kimmel back almost immediately. This episode proves that united voices and financial pressure can hold both corporations and politicians to account, ordinary citizens changed the outcome.

09/23/2025

Meanwhile, families continue to be exploited by junk science.

RFK Jr’s latest press conference with Trump and Dr Oz put junk science in the spotlight again, with leaders of the so-called MAHA movement blaming autism rates on Tylenol use during pregnancy, despite a total lack of credible evidence. RFK Jr himself declared, “The FDA is responding to clinical and laboratory studies that suggest a potential association between infant use during pregnancy and adverse developmental outcomes, including later diagnosis for ADHD and autism”. This misleading statement is a perfect illustration of how junk science is elevated at the expense of real public health guidance, and it’s been widely mocked by medical experts for distorting basic facts.

Trump struggled to pronounce acetaminophen and declared that women should avoid Tylenol while pregnant, even as medical experts and the very makers of Tylenol flatly rejected any proven connection to autism. He also said, “The Amish have no autism,” which is complete BS. In reality, not only are these claims unsupported, but the company behind Tylenol should consider suing the federal government for presiding over such a farce, with reckless statements by high-profile figures threatening both public trust and patient safety. The makers of Tylenol have already publicly lobbied to stop these groundless allegations and expressed outrage at being scapegoated for a public health issue that science does not support.

The grift was front and center, as Dr Oz helped announce the approval and insurance coverage of leucovorin as an autism treatment—a move that is already controversial because Oz is a major shareholder and advisor for iHerb, a supplement retailer that stands to profit from increased demand for leucovorin. This kind of self-dealing is typical of the MAHA crowd, who have collectively made careers out of selling unproven and often dangerous “solutions” to worried families.

Despite rising autism diagnoses, research points overwhelmingly to increased awareness and better screening as the main reasons, not any common medication. The real danger is how these MAHA figures exploit uncertainty and peddle misinformation for personal gain while vulnerable families are left to sort out the facts from a cloud of profitable lies.