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1 week ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
Rep. Melissa Hortman was gunned down in her own home. The 55-year-old Democratic official from Minnesota died of her injuries, along with her husband, Mark, who was also shot in the attack. Fellow state-level lawmaker Sen. John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot the same day in what police say was a related incident.
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2 weeks ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
Singer Billie Eilish is bisexual – she has said so herself. Sometimes even in, shall we say, “colorful” terms. But now that she’s dating actor Nat Wolff, a familiar and rather groan-worthy trend is once more rearing its ugly head: Perpetuation of the idea that Eilish, like other bisexual women who frequently date men, is not an actual member of the LGBTQ community.
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2 weeks ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
Greta Thunberg will never be silent, or silenced. Since taking her first public stand against world leaders’ inaction around climate change at age 15 – by way of a series of school strikes she implemented and inspired – the Swedish political activist has remained a prominent force for progressive causes.
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2 weeks ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
Good news (or, perhaps I should say, good “brews”): Coffee consumption can come with benefits, particularly for aging women. A new study announced just last week, at this year’s meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, found that women who imbibed moderate amounts of coffee were found to have fewer physical and mental health problems as they got older.
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3 weeks ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
Singer Halsey’s new song, “Hand That Feeds,” debuted late last week. It features Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee – an exciting collaboration of voices that I was eager to enjoy. But then I watched the video. Halsey herself is the focal point at first – she croons to camera between long shots that are trained on her’s and others’ lean, lithe bodies, all of them dressed as ballet dancers navigating a violent, post-apocalyptic urban landscape.
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3 weeks ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
In this tumultuous time of conservative, oppressive international politics, Jacinda Ardern is suggesting a gentler alternative. Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand, has been a celebrated progressive leader during her time in office on issues such as gun reform and climate change, and was an exemplary shepherd for New Zealanders through the era of Covid lockdowns. She stepped down from the role two years ago – but as it turns out, she’s not done leading yet.
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1 month ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
A new study reveals another way that climate change could disproportionately harm women. The research effort, published this week in the journal Frontiers, revealed a spike in cancer rates over the past 20 years among women living in several Middle Eastern and North African countries – a region that is particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change. The increase in diagnoses occurred in tandem with rising temperatures.
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1 month ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
As the LGBTQ community continues to struggle amid a troubling national landscape under President Donald Trump, one state-level adoption win serves as a beacon of hope. Rep. Barbara Rachelson of Vermont sponsored a new law that will streamline the process for parents whose children were born through some form of assisted reproduction, such as surrogacy, and are seeking an official adoption decree.
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1 month ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
Over Memorial Day weekend, swimmer Riley Gaines made headlines by taking on a new adversary: Kermit the Frog. His offense was serving as a commencement speaker at the University of Maryland last week, where Muppets creator Jim Henson earned his degree decades earlier.
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1 month ago | 
thestoryexchange.org | Candice Helfand-Rogers
The Trump administration is going after the Department of Education, a political tetherball for decades. Women educators, founders and more are fighting back.
Since re-assuming the presidency in January, Donald Trump has been on the offensive against the U.S. Department of Education. Here’s a breakdown of what we know – good, bad and ugly. In late March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education.
