Military spouses navigate one of the more demanding lives in the American civilian experience: frequent moves, solo household management during deployments, career restarts and community-rebuilding from scratch every two to three years. The benefit package attached to that life is more substantial than most spouses realize, and most of it has nothing to do with Tricare. Here are 10 benefits that fall outside health care entirely and are consistently underused. 1. Commissary and Exchange Access Military spouses with a valid military ID have full access to commissary grocery stores and exchange retail outlets on base. Commissary prices average 20%-30% below…

The next time you’re about to upload a video from your hiking trip, take a moment to consider the following: Is it possible I’m doing something illegal? That clearly wasn’t on the minds of a hiking couple in Banff National Park who had a risky run-in with a grizzly bear. The couple posted a 90-second video of the encounter to TikTok account twohumanstwodogs on July 21. It swiftly went viral: The couple yells and backs away from the burly bruin while their small dog barks in agitation. While many online spectators expressed sympathy for the scary situation, others noted an…

On Sunday, a shooting at a Seattle food festival left three people dead and another five injured. It was an undoubtedly traumatizing event for everyone in the vicinity, but it wasn’t the kind of mass shooting we typically see make headlines. This wasn’t the result of some disaffected jackwagon who wanted to make a name for themselves, or who hated the world and wanted everyone to die. This was a shootout between two parties. Two people with no respect for human life decided to shoot up an event meant to be about enjoying good food,…

The Navy is once again requiring flu shots for a wide range of sailors and civilian employees, quietly reversing course three months after the Pentagon made the vaccine optional across the force. New guidance released Friday in a Navy administrative message, or NAVADMIN, restores the requirement for recruits headed to boot camp, sailors in officer training pipelines, certain deploying sailors and reservists, health care workers and some civilian employees. It takes effect immediately, and covered personnel must be vaccinated by Jan. 15, 2027. The order does not mention what happened in between to cause such a reversal. In April, the…

I heaved the fully loaded Exped Lightning 50 off my back onto the ground, right in the middle of a gem of a creekside Colorado campsite. It was packed to the absolute limit with gear and food that was quickly extruded into a neat pile beside us. Within moments, I had alpine charcuterie served, camp chairs pitched, water heating, and a diaper changing station deployed. With a new baby in tow, the demands on my day hiking pack have grown exponentially. 20 liters? Forget about it. I nabbed a sample of the freshly updated Exped Lightning 50 to pull double…

Stories about the stupidity of zero-tolerance policies in schools are hardly uncommon, but you’d think they’d at least slow down during summer break. The parents of a Georgia first-grader, though, are speaking out their son was suspended from school after biting his sandwich into the shape of a gun (or the letter L) and allegedly pointing it at a classmate.  In fact, that’s just one of the punishments delivered to the child by school administrators, who the parents say should be more accommodating because of their son’s autism. School records show Sara Harp Minter Elementary administrators issued…

American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) is one of the premier names in off-road tuning. Beyond selling individual aftermarket parts, the company also offers complete kits for folks looking to create their own adventure rig. Its latest creation is the AEV FX370, which is based on the Ford Super Duty, and is for anyone who needs to carry heavy payloads well off the beaten path. The complete kit starts at $19,999​​​​. A $20,000 Upgrade With Some Serious Off-Road Potential Credit: AEV The AEV FX370 is a complete upgrade package for the Ford Super Duty. The company believes that owners of these trucks often…

A fuel tanker in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen was hijacked by Somali pirates.  The Tanzanian-flagged fuel and chemical tanker MT Asana has a crew of 20 on board and was seized on Friday. Iran Accuses The US Of Acting Like “Pirates” After departing the Yemeni port of Mukalla, seven armed pirates reportedly boarded the MT Asana and forced it into Somali territorial waters near Puntland, according to the Associated Press, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the incident. While Tanzanian authorities have not confirmed any details yet, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has stated…

Imagine you’re a first responder. Your patient has just broken their leg and is wet, underdressed, and nearly hypothermic. If you don’t have any clothes to change them into, you may have to offer your own, or some purchased for the occasion. And if the injury is serious enough, those nice base layers might get cut right off, never to be used again. That was the scenario that merino wool brand Minus 33 tackled head-on when it launched a program in 2017 to donate its factory seconds to a local search-and-rescue organization. The Search & Rescue (SAR) kit program repurposes…

Bans on so-called assault weapons are popular in anti-gun states, to say the least, but those days might be numbered. The Supreme Court has agreed to finally hear a couple of assault weapon ban cases, and I think everyone knows more or less how those will go. There’s almost no chance that the same Court that gave us Bruen will uphold bans on modern sporting rifles. But before the Supreme Court decided to hear it, numerous anti-gun states had passed such laws. Virginia, this year, became the latest.And, at the Washington Post, Stephen Gutowski has…

Tickets to the 2026 League of Legends World Champions are being resold for significant markups ahead of the annual competitive event. Credit: Game Rant | Source Images: Riot Games Originally published by  Game Rant Tickets to League of Legends’ upcoming World Championships are being resold for a staggering markup, with some priced over $100,000. The annual League of Legends event is set to begin in October and run through November. League of Legends remains one of the biggest competitive games in the world, even nearly seventeen years after its original release. Riot Games supports competitive circuits for the game in several…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is “fomenting hate” after calling for the Israeli ruler’s arrest. Mamdani has described Israel’s military campaign against Palestine as genocide and called the Israeli prime minister a “war criminal.” The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the enclave, including “starvation as a method of warfare” and “other inhumane acts.” Obviously, neither has been arrested, and Netanyahu and Gallant are still out committing the crimes they’ve been accused of.…