DEAR ABBY: I’m overwhelmed by “Barney,” my husband of 35 years. Two years ago, he decided to retire, but I am still very much part of the workforce and anticipate continuing for a few more years. For years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve successfully managed working from home, which was not an issue until Barney stopped working. Upon his retirement, I had a talk with him about the importance of respecting my work boundaries. My office is upstairs, leaving him the entire downstairs area to enjoy without disruption during business hours.

Regrettably, Barney hasn’t been considerate of the boundaries I set. He often disrupts my work by calling me downstairs to assist him or by interrupting my office time for chats. He constantly asks about dinner plans and gets agitated if I’m still working past 5 p.m. He also insists on physical affection, which is challenging while I’m trying to work. During his career, he frequently worked late and on weekends without objections from me, yet now he doesn’t offer me the same courtesy or respect.

Initially, I attempted to devote more attention to Barney because of my love for him. Now his endless complaints have grown so unbearable, I find myself reluctant to spend any of my free time with him. I’ve lost interest in any physical affection. I’ve tried discussing this with him and suggested couples counseling, but he adamantly refuses.

While I generally consider myself a happy person, my time with Barney leaves me feeling sad, and I’m weary of this emotional burden. Although I’ve contemplated renting office space as a potential solution, it wouldn’t address the deeper issue of Barney’s lack of respect. — GIVE ME SPACE

MORE STORY: Man Allegedly Threatens Nolan Wells Case Witness, Faces Charges

DEAR GIVE ME SPACE: A partial solution can still offer relief. Consider renting that office space. By reducing workday disruptions, you can better gauge the weight of the problem. With your work stress possibly out of the way, take a closer look at how Barney treats you and assess the necessary changes for your relationship. Despite his reluctance toward couples counseling, attending therapy on your own is still a viable option. You might acquire strategies to handle his disruptive behavior more effectively.

DEAR ABBY: My 40-year-old niece has lived in my sister’s basement for five years now. She has had many ups and downs since running away at 15, but she was able to get a degree in engineering, fly helicopters, etc., so she is intelligent. I don’t know why she has withdrawn to such a degree. 

Should I ask my sister or brother-in-law how she is doing when I call? I feel it’s normal and natural that I ask, but the question always brings a painful silence followed by, “She’s figuring out her life.” She does not work or look for it, hides from the public, and behaves like a 16-year-old. Should I quit asking? — UNCLE IN THE DARK

DEAR UNCLE: If you do not ask how your niece is doing, it will appear that you do not care. So, the next time you speak to your relatives and your question is met with an uncomfortable pause, consider asking whether they would rather you not ask.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren. For nearly four decades, Jeanne Phillips penned the column, which was founded in 1956 by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at or P.O. Box 270135, Kansas City, MO 64127.

In a significant legal development, a mother from New York was acquitted of charges related to the death of her two young sons after a judge accepted her insanity defense due to postpartum psychosis.

Dimone Fleming, aged 22 at the time of the tragic incident, faced accusations of fatally stabbing her sons—11-month-old Octavius Canada and three-year-old Daishawn Fleming—before placing them in a bath on November 26, 2022, as reported by The New York Times.

On Monday, Judge Audrey Stone declared Fleming, now 26, not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect during a hearing at the Bronx Criminal Court.

This ruling coincides with the anticipatory climate surrounding the verdict of another high-profile case involving Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy, who presents a similar defense regarding her alleged involvement in the deaths of her three children.

Court documents reviewed by the New York Times indicate that both Fleming and Clancy were undergoing treatment for depression and anxiety before the unfortunate events involving their children occurred.

Fleming was working at a concession stand in Queens and living in a shelter in the Mount Hope neighborhood of the Bronx with her two sons.

She was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and prescribed psychotropic medication by doctors.

However, Fleming was instead using marijuana on a daily basis, which amplified her symptoms.

Psychiatrist Dr Eric Goldsmith, who evaluated Fleming at the prosecution’s request, wrote in a report that the mom-of-two was ‘grossly psychotic and out of touch with reality’ on the night she killed her sons. 

Goldsmith said that Fleming was hallucinating and thought the world was coming to an end.

She also believed that a spirit had invaded her body, according to the psychiatrist.

A forensic psychiatric report written by doctors from the defense said Fleming thought her actions ‘were necessary to protect or cleanse her children.’

Fleming was naked from the waist up and holding a children’s book upside down while sitting on a bed when police found her in the shelter, according to prosecutors.

Unlike Clancy’s case, prosecutors did not aggressively pursue conviction, although Fleming was originally charged with first-degree murder.

‘Prosecuting mothers does not and cannot prevent these crimes from happening, but public discourse might,’ Tiffany Wichman, a Bronx assistant district attorney, said.

‘People talking about it is important, and I hope people continue talking about it.’

Fleming’s lawyer, Jodi Morales, called the result of the case ‘a result of collaboration.’

‘Everybody recognized what we were dealing with here,’ she said. ‘That doesn’t happen often when you’re on opposite sides of the table.’ 

Fleming allegedly stabbed her kids with kitchen shears and covered them with a sheet after placing them in the bathtub.

Police were called to the shelter shortly before 7.30pm after an employee noticed smoke and water emanating from Fleming’s apartment after she left a faucet running and the stove on.

The two children were initially not discovered and Fleming was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx for treatment.

However, Columbus Canada, Octavius’ father and Fleming’s boyfriend at the time, found the kids when he returned home later that night.

Canada was in court on Monday and said he forgave Fleming, who he called a ‘good person,’ according to the New York Times.

‘She was a loving person,’ Canada told the outlet. ‘She loved kids.’

Going forward, Fleming could be held at a high-security hospital for an initial six months.

That would be extended indefinitely if her condition does not improve.

Should doctors find her to be mentally ill but not dangerous, she could also be sent to a more open hospital for further evaluation.

Fleming could also be discharged if she is found to be mentally fit. However, the court would likely place conditions on her freedom.

Fleming confirmed that she understood the proceedings in court on Monday.

She is expected to return to court on September 18 after being evaluated by court-appointed psychiatrists.

Fleming’s case drew comparisons to Clancy’s murder trial, which will return to deliberations on Monday. 

Clancy’s defense team has argued that she suffered from postpartum psychosis when she killed her children and unsuccessfully tried to take her own life.

Judge William Sullivan allowed the jurors to go home for the weekend after they failed to reach a verdict following two days of deliberations.

The jury asked to see the knife that Clancy used to try to take her life, as well as bags of pill bottles found in her home, on Friday. 

Postpartum psychosis afflicts roughly one to two per 1,000 women after delivery, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Fleming’s lawyer, Morales, and the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office for comment.

The New York Jets are facing a critical issue with their kicker lineup.

Jason Sanders emerged victorious over Cade York in the Jets’ summer-long competition for the kicker position. However, with their upcoming game against the Titans on September 13, it seems likely that the team is actively scouting for additional kicking talent.

Sanders struggled noticeably on Friday night during the match against the Giants, failing to convert an extra point and missing a 54-yard field goal attempt.

His attempt at the 54-yard field goal fell significantly short of the mark.

While Sanders has struggled to inspire much confidence throughout the off-season, his performance was marginally more reliable than York’s, which led to the Jets’ decision to retain Sanders and release York last Tuesday.

That came one day after Sanders went 2-for-5 in practice field goal attempts. Sanders has not shown a big leg at all and now is even missing shorter kicks.

“Am I worried about it?” Jets head coach Aaron Glenn said after the Jets’ 23-6 preseason loss to the Giants at MetLife Stadium. “I didn’t like the fact that we missed these field goals. But the thing is we’re not going to panic and we’re going to make sure we make the right decision to make sure either we fix those issues or we get the right person in here.

“Jason’s been good for us. He’s been good in practice. I’m going to evaluate that and see exactly what direction we’ll go.”

The Jets did not re-sign Nick Folk in free agency after he had an outstanding 2025 season.

Folk instead signed with the Falcons.

The Jets now may be searching for another kicker either through a trade or on the waiver wire after teams make cuts this weekend.

Edge rusher Joseph Ossai started, one of the few players expected to have a big regular-season role to play.

But Ossai left with a foot injury after 11 plays and did not return.

Ossai was on the sideline and looked OK, but it is an injury to watch since the Jets expect him to have a role on defense after signing him to a three-year, $34.5 million contract in March.

Rookie guard Anez Cooper left the game with a shoulder injury.

CB Tre Brown (finger) and RB Dominic Richardson (elbow) also left the game.

A disturbing turn of events unfolded in Mississippi, where an Illinois man faces charges for allegedly threatening a witness connected to the high-profile case of Nolan Wells.

The accused, Edward James Porter, 40, was taken into custody in July. Authorities claim he sent menacing messages to Bart Edmiston Jr., who had been with the 18-year-old Wells on the fateful day of his disappearance and subsequent drowning.

Wells mysteriously disappeared during a boating excursion near Horn Island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast on July 4th. Although his body was discovered adrift afterward, officials ruled out foul play, leaving many questions lingering around the circumstances of his vanishing.

According to attorney Russell Latino, both Bart Edmiston Jr. and his father were allegedly subjected to these threats, intensifying the case’s emotional weight.

Court documents reveal that Porter is facing formal indictment for using interstate communication to transmit threatening messages, shedding light on yet another layer of complexity in this tragic saga.

According to the documents, Porter allegedly told Edmiston Jr that he planned to ‘come kill’ him and his family.

Porter then allegedly sent Edmiston Jr a text message of his home address and told him he was outside of the home.

Latino wrote on Facebook that Porter had allegedly also threatened to kill the boy’s father, Edmiston Sr, cut him up and stuff his body into a suitcase. 

Edmiston Jr had been on the boat with Wells when it began to take on water, according to Latino’s post.

It comes after Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce was hit with charges after allegedly threatening the mother of another of Wells’s friends who had been on the trip with the teen. 

Dumarce allegedly wrote to Warren Hudson’s mother, Judge Ashlee Cole, on Facebook saying: ‘There will be a package coming to your guys office in the next few days. It’s gonna blow you away when you see it. LoL. Probably best to have the boys there to see as well.’

Meanwhile, Ohio woman Michelle Francine Edwards was also hit with the same charge after allegedly making over 20 phone calls to the George County chancery clerk in Mississippi to say ‘the clock is ticking’ and ‘die,’ according to a federal complaint obtained by People. 

Wells’s parents have also been targeted online, with the family’s lawyer telling NewsNation of threats being sent to the teen’s mother, Christine Wonsley.

‘Sick people have been going on [Christine] company’s website giving her negative reviews,’ the hired high-powered civil rights attorney Ben Crump said.

‘They are just sick, evil people who would attack this mother and this father for simply saying, “We want to know what happened to our child.” Don’t worry, Christine, we are standing with you.’ 

Wells’s death garnered national attention, with his heartbroken family calling for an investigation into the tragedy despite law enforcement’s determination that his death involved no foul play. 

Police said that Wells had drowned, but his family demanded a more thorough investigation citing a lack of trust in Mississippi law enforcement. 

Crump said the family had a ‘distrust of law enforcement officials giving them a fair investigation where their black son ended up dead after going out on a boat with three white young men.’ 

The teen’s mother became more suspicious after getting her son’s phone back, where she checked Snapchat and saw that her son had not taken any photos of his day out, which she said was unusual for the football player. 

‘When we opened it up, there was nothing. There were no saved pictures. There were no snaps from that day, and we did open it before the 24-hour expiration,’ she said at a press conference. 

‘So we found that very concerning, only because anyone who’s ever been around Nolan will tell you at social gatherings, he’s taking videos, he’s taking pictures, he’s even come up to me when I’m getting ready to go to bed: “Hey, Ma, come on, take a picture of me.” 

‘You know, that was Nolan, so that’s why we feel that things may have been deleted, because of the fact that there was nothing in either one of his accounts.’ 

Crump also pointed out that a girl Wells was allegedly talking to had said he was going back to the boat.

However, his friends said he had decided to stay on the island when they left because their boat was experiencing a mechanical issue, one of the other boy’s mother said. 

ALSO READ: Tragic Loss: Coast Guard Lieutenant Killed in Senseless Washington Shooting, Manhunt Underway

A friend of Wells’s, Warren Hudson, addressed the speculation that the group deleted content on Wells’s phone during the trip last month. 

‘There was no reason for us to get on Nolan’s phone, no one touched Nolan’s phone. If none of us had touched Nolan’s phone then y’know there’s no reason for anything to be deleted,’ Hudson said in an interview on the YouTube show, The Officer Tatum. 

‘No one even was in contact with his phone until it was moved from the boat to the truck, and none of us have access to Nolan’s password to get on his phone and delete anything.’

‘We had no reason to delete anything. There’s nothing to hide here.’ 

Crump previously said that Wells’s friends had his phone when they left him on the island, which he alleged included a video of the teen and another individual ‘yelling at one another on the boat.’ 

The attorney also claimed that when the family got Wells’s phone back, messages had been deleted. 

However, Hudson disagreed with the sequence of events, recalling in his recent interview that many of the partygoers left their phones on the boat. 

Hudson said that he then put Wells’s phone in his truck and gave it back to his mother on the night of the Fourth of July. 

He doubled down that no one on the trip touched or deleted content on Wells’s phone. Hudson said the only time anyone came in contact with the phone was to bring it from the boat to his truck. 

He clarified that the last time he saw Wells was at 3pm on the Fourth of July, but that ‘dozens of boats’ were still anchored at the island when the group left. 

Tatum then asked Hudson a series of questions, including whether he ‘killed Nolan,’ to which Hudson replied, ‘absolutely not.’ 

When asked why he did not attend Wells’ funeral, Hudson said he did not want to take the attention off of Wells because of the speculation surrounding his friend’s death. 

‘It breaks my heart that I can’t go. And it hurts me more than anything because, I want to say my last goodbye to one of my best friends,’ Hudson said.

‘But if I’m getting crazy death threats of people saying they’re going to kill me and do crazy things to my family, and I just couldn’t bring myself to go. I gotta put my own safety first, even if that means missing my friend’s funeral,’ he continued.

‘It’s horrible and I wish I could’ve been there, but that’s what’s been going on.’ 

Hudson’s mother Chancery Court Judge Ashlee Cole previously spoke out about rumors surrounding Wells’ death, writing on Facebook that her son and his friends departed the island due to a mechanical problem around 4.30pm.

She added that her son last saw Wells at 3pm and she and her husband were not on Horn Island during the holiday weekend. 

Cole said she graduated high school with Wells’s mother and had the ‘utmost respect for her and all of the Wells family.’ 

‘We mourn the loss of Nolan with them,’ she said. ‘Our son, Warren, loved Nolan dearly. My family is hopeful that this information will help to redirect the attention to the Wells family, their grief, and their need for our community’s support.’ 

Cole added another update on July 9 that her family has received death threats and they would not be speaking to the media, but were open to a conversation with the Wells family or Crump. 

Crump shared the findings of Dr Roger Mitchell, the chair of pathology at Howard University College of Medicine, who said ‘interior neck parts’ removed during the initial autopsy had not been given to them for the second procedure.

Examining these body parts is usually only done after someone dies of a broken neck, Mitchell wrote, with Crump saying that meant foul play could not be ruled out.

Mitchell wrote in his report that he could not rule out the possibility that ‘non-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death’ without further investigation.

The Daily Mail reached out to Ben Crump and Russell Latino for comment.  

A tragic incident unfolded in Washington state, claiming the life of a US Coast Guard officer in what authorities suspect was a random shooting. The hunt for the perpetrator is now underway.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Connor Overstreet was shot and killed shortly before 12:40 a.m. on Sunday in Bryn Mawr-Skyway, a residential area located roughly 10 miles south of Downtown Seattle.

Responders arrived at the scene to find the 29-year-old lying in the street; they performed emergency medical procedures, but sadly, the active-duty service member succumbed to his injuries, as reported by Fox 13 Seattle.

The King County Medical Examiner confirmed on Tuesday that Overstreet’s death resulted from a gunshot wound to the chest, officially classifying it as a homicide.

As of now, no arrests have been made, and authorities have yet to identify any suspects connected to the shooting.

The county sheriff’s office created a tipline asking for residents to submit any surveillance footage facing the street between 12:30 a.m. and 1:15 a.m. Sunday.

Additional details about the shooting were not released because of the ongoing investigation.

Overstreet, a native of Reno, Nevada, was stationed at California’s Air Station Ventura at the time of his death.

His remains were flown back to the base Friday with full honors.

“The Coast Guard is deeply saddened to confirm the death of LT Connor Overstreet, an active-duty member at Coast Guard Air Station Ventura, following an incident in the Seattle area,” the US Coast Guard Pacific Area told KING 5. “We extend our deepest condolences to the member’s family, friends and shipmates during this tragic time.”

Overstreet’s wife, Madeleine, called for justice for her “soulmate” on behalf of his family

“Connor was my rock and I am so honored to be Connor’s wife forever and always. All Connor wanted to do was save lives by flying for the Coast Guard. His loss is a tragedy felt by countless people. He was truly the best of us,” she said in a statement to Fox13.

“We plead with you to help us find answers, justice and peace for Connor and all who loved him so deeply,” the grieving widow added.

Overstreet’s family announced a $11,000 reward to help solve the investigation into the killing.

“I plead with the public to come forward with any information that may help bring justice for Connor,” his father Brennan Overstreet told the outlet. “Nothing can bring our son back but we have increased the reward for information in hopes to bring us answers in this unimaginable tragedy.

“Our family is devastated by the senseless loss of Connor. He brought joy, love, and kindness to all who knew him and the world is a darker place without him in it,” he said