Check out Mary Walrath-Holdridge at USA TODAY here.

Avery Davis Bell was 18 weeks pregnant with a little boy.

The 34-year-old woman, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, is already the mother of a 3-year-old who could not stop watching the "Daniel Tiger" special on becoming a big brother.

Bell and her husband, Julian, had dreamed about the family they would build since they got together at 19 and 20 years old.

On Oct. 17, Bell found herself lying in a hospital bed as blood hemorrhaged from her body in dinner plate-sized clots. Amniotic fluid began to leak as she approached her 20th hour of waiting for life-saving medical care…more

Boar's Head, generally considered a premiere deli meat brand, continues to grapple with a listeria outbreak − the largest since the cantaloupe outbreak of 2011 − that has left 10 dead.

As of late September, 59 people have been hospitalized across 19 states because of the outbreak tied to Boar's Head products. With lawsuits and investigations still pending, many consumers might be wondering: is it safe to eat Boar's Head deli meat again?

While there is at least one ongoing investigation that may have legal ramifications, Boar's Head has said that affected foods were removed from shelves "swiftly," and that products currently available for sale are not part of any recall and are safe to eat….more

A Virginia family is remembering a beloved father, grandfather, community member, master hair designer and Holocaust survivor who they say died as a result of the ongoing listeria outbreak linked to Boar's Head deli meats.

The outbreak, first reported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on July 19, has resulted in at least 43 illnesses and hospitalizations, including three deaths, across 13 states as of Aug. 8, according to the CDC investigation…..

On Aug. 8, the CDC reported a new death in an update on the investigation. This case, confirmed by the CDC as the third death in the outbreak, was that of Günter “Garshon” Morgenstein, an 88-year-old German native and pillar of his Newport News community. His family has spoken out to tell his story….more

Have your kids come home singing their ABCs to a familiar tune - but one that somehow sounds just a bit off? You're not imagining it: the alphabet song is changing.

The original song most of us grew up singing (and many of us probably still sing in our heads more often than we'd care to admit) was set to a sing-song melody with pauses between "G," "P," "S," "V" "X" and ended with "Y and Z." Of course, the song closed with the triumphant line, "Now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me?"

The newer version, which has become increasingly common in American primary education, takes the same tune but restructures the phrasing…more

Concerned about climate change? How about ethical consumption under capitalism? Hoping to build your retirement plan investments but also feeling guilty for funneling your money into companies with questionable motives?

This (entirely fake) product has got you covered.

The new (not real) TerraDome portable ecosystem, part of the (completely made up) Many Happy Returns Climate Adaptation Toolkit, is a cutting-edge technology that allows you to invest in fossil fuels while also enjoying a guilt-free view of a world not impacted by agents of climate change…more

On Wednesday, every cellphone in the United States will emit a distinct, grating sound.

The noise, an emergency notification from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is a test of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System, which is meant to alert every TV, radio and cellphone in the country in the event of a national crisis.

For many, the disturbance will be nothing more than annoyance. But for survivors of domestic abuse and those in risky situations, the safety test could lead to danger…more

Cookie the Pitbull mix puppy was only 8 weeks old when she got sick. Still small enough to fit in the cupped palms of two open hands, she started showing symptoms no pet parent wants to see: lethargy, lack of appetite vomiting, diarrhea.

Her owners promptly brought her to see the clinicians from The Fix Project, a non-profit clinic specializing in parvovirus as part of Fix Long Beach Pets’ facility in Long Beach, California.

There, a test confirmed a diagnosis dreaded by owners, vets and animal welfare activists alike: Cookie had contracted parvovirus…more

Animal welfare organizations are bracing for another kind of impact when student-loan payments resume for millions of borrowers next month: While people are facing another monthly bill they potentially can't afford, their pets are staring down the possibility of losing their homes.

Shelters have already had it rough in the past few years, with many now existing in an ongoing status of crisis. Shelters and rescues have seen more animals coming in than leaving, especially in the years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving them at a critical level of resource strain…more

t’s a hot summer day. You head to the store to grab a few items; maybe groceries, maybe a few things you need for that home project. You walk through the doors into the much-needed air conditioning and then you spot it: a jack-o-lantern staring at you atop an orange and black display dotted with fun-sized candy and grinning skulls.

If your first thought is “Halloween already!? It comes earlier every year!” you are certainly not the first. While many stores hold off on fully stocking for the spooky holiday until at least late August or early September, it’s not exactly unusual to see displays popping up as early as the first or second week of July…more

A soft island breeze, the smell of sunscreen and fruity drinks, the warm touch of the sun, and a blindfolded young man giving his own mother a sensual massage one beach chair over. This scene, while it sounds like something out of a painfully on-the-nose 30 Rock skit, played out to millions of viewers on MILF Manor, TLC's latest venture into the salacious, joining the ranks of 1000-lb Sisters, Hoarding: Buried Alive, and Seeking Brother Husbands…more

A first birthday party, a meltdown, bathtub playtime, potty training, a first heartbreak — how much is too much to share online about your kids? Digital privacy experts and psychologists have long since offered a bevy of opinions on what is safe and appropriate for the average parent who wants to post the occasional baby photo or prom video to their Facebook friends. But what about when those posts attract thousands of eyes and start making money? Safety remains an obvious issue, but far from the only one. The complicating matters of child labor, a right to privacy, and the distribution of earnings arise in tandem with a rise in follower counts, views, and payouts…more

TikTok, the social media giant that reportedly saw 1 billion monthly users in 2021, is known for incubating and popularizing fast-burning online trends. From the classic music and dancing fads to those with more real-world consequences, TikTok is no stranger to a break-neck content cycle or the controversy that can come with it.

Cue the "Boyfriend Haul" or "Husband Haul," a trend that started gaining traction in early July. In these videos, creators "show off" their significant others, speaking to the camera as if they are reviewing a product after a shopping trip or "haul" and touching on their partner's "features" and "specs”…MORE

TikTok is known for being ahead of pop culture, and recent updates to its terms of use might also be putting it ahead of legislation. The app made waves on Tuesday when it announced a policy banning content that "depicts or promotes Ponzi, multi-level marketing, or pyramid schemes." TikTok called the ban a means to stop users from "exploiting the platform to take advantage of the trust of users and bring about financial or personal harm."…MORE

Like many social media platforms that have become part of the online influencer boom, TikTok, especially in the U.S., has followed the trend of skyrocketing a certain kind of person to fame. These accounts boast hundreds of thousands of fans, such as Charli D'Amelio's famous 100 million follower count, and are often run by young, wealthy, attractive and thin people.

The comments section of many of these accounts, like Charli's, are often full of users lamenting their own appearance in comparison to that of the influencer. Some go so far as to say they "won't be eating dinner" after seeing tight abs and thin tummies doing viral dances on their screens….MORE

Parler, known as the alternative social media platform of the conservative right, is hardly the platform you would expect to call for the GOP's "destruction." With tensions flaring after the presidential election and the Trump administration's subsequent legal battles, the influx of users wasn't unexpected, but the growing anti-Republican sentiment very well might have been.

The "free speech social network" has been flooded with increasing anti-GOP sentiment and calls to destroy the party from within. Far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos posted a promise to "burn the Republican Party to the ground" in early December, saying he was "dedicating the rest of his life to the destruction of the Republican Party."..MORE

Five decades ago, Rosalyn Binday was at a dinner party with her husband. A petit, attractive young woman with fiery red hair and a visibility pregnant belly, Rosalyn was a recent graduate of the fashion institute of technology and married to Ron Binday, a top personal and commercial lines agent at a major insurance company. While mingling and making small talk with the dinner party crowd, someone suggested to Ron he could save some money and write off a room in his Quaker Ridge house, even a car too, if his “cute, little pregnant wife,” as she remembers it, would become a licensed insurance broker.

It was never meant to turn into anything else…MORE

“The Wolves,” Sarah DeLappe’s Pulitzer-nominated play, has caught fire since its off-Broadway premiere in 2016. Though not collecting “Hamilton”-style accolades, the all-female show has been picked up at a rapid pace by theaters across the country, with requests for the rights piling in not long after overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics made the 10-person production a quiet success. Jill Abusch, director at The Playgroup Theatre in White Plains, said their requests for the script were denied two times before they were finally able to secure permission to put on their current production, running from Nov. 17 through Nov. 24.

The play tells the story of nine high school girls through their weekly pregame soccer exercises. Set somewhere in suburbia during indoor soccer season, the plot follows the group of high school juniors, identified only by the numbers on their jerseys, as they chat during their warm-ups each Saturday morning, eventually creating characters that are unique and familiar even in spite of their lack of names or pretext….MORE

Theater has long been a place that welcomes and represents colorful members of society. Shows like “Hair” and “RENT” brought countercultures front and center and foundations like Broadway Cares addressed issues like the AIDs crisis in a time when the LGBTQ+ community was left largely to suffer alone and in fear.

Indeed, theater has long been known as a home not for the few, but the many.

And yet, the theater industry continues to face criticism for its deficiencies in diversity and inclusion. Though hits like “Hamilton” and “On Your Feet” raised the bar three years ago, an independent study conducted by the Asian American Performers Action Coalition saw a decrease in minority representation in mainstream New York theater in the 2016-17 season…MORE

For fans of hit The CW comedy series “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” the name Pete Gardner will conjure images of the beloved bisexual character Darryl Whitefeather. Some residents of Scarsdale, however, might remember Gardner better as the class clown who was sometimes in the ensemble of Scarsdale High musical productions. They might even remember him as the kid on the cover of a local paper when the Scarsdale pool first opened back in 1969.

Before becoming a successful actor and fan-favorite character in a comedy musical, Gardner was just another hometown boy. After graduating from Scarsdale High School in 1982, he went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan before moving upstate to attend Skidmore College. He took 11 months off after graduating to travel to Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal and India, something he says he needed to do to get some life experience under his belt.

On one of the first warm Saturday mornings of spring, Rae’s Institute of Dance was bustling with teens in leotards and tight buns and parents shuffling them in and out. Music from a hip hop class and loud, high pitched chatter could be heard from a studio hidden in the back of the building. Outside, cars pulled into the wet gravel parking lot and the woman at the front desk smiled, looking out the window.

“Here comes Ethan,” she said.

Ethan is 12 years old, full of spunk and very outgoing. His mother, Chelsey Oot, helped him change out of his shoes as he announced to the room that he recently lost a tooth and, yes, the tooth fairy did come.

“This is, like, the sixth tooth he’s lost recently,” said Oot, making knowing eye contact with another parent. “He’s sucking the tooth fairy dry.”..MORE

If there is one thing historians in Rochester know, it’s that the Flower City has more interesting ties to significant people and events than the average person would expect. Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, George Eastman, and all of their respectives graves/houses/museums/estates/historical landmarks are grandiose pieces of history that have the power to overshadow some of the more quant community stories. In a city whose story can be viewed through many lenses, the Medical Museum and Archives within the Academy of Medicine at 1441 East Avenue is here to provide Rochester a new way to look at the past.

Audience and community members gathered at Syracuse Stage after a recent performance of “Possessing Harriet” to discuss the lasting impact of slavery in America. A panel consisting of scholars Christian DuComb, John Ernest and Joan Bryant; Syracuse Stage director Tazewell Thompson and Bass himself, fielded question about the play and its interpretation of a piece of history that played out more than a century ago in our city.

In the play, playwright Kyle Bass re-imagines the real-life conversation between Harriet Powell and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1839, his interpretation fueled by his own lineage. “My family has a history of being enslaved,” Bass said. “I had about 200 years of built up rage I needed to work with.”

A Foggy Bottom tent community — referred to by advocates as a “secret” encampment, due to how long it had gone unnoticed — was evicted by the District on Oct.18. Such “sweeps” are organized and overseen by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS) as a continuation of procedural clean up efforts that began receiving increased attention from the Bowser Administration in November 2015. The encampment was both out of sight and less than safe — nestled on a grassy island between expressway off-ramps and city streets. Both entangled in groves of trees and bushes and only viewable by motorists zipping by at full speed off of the traffic circle, the encampment was only discovered when the City received a complaint from the public, reported DMHHS representative Ben Link.

While most other cities and towns across the country are in the process of striking existing anti-panhandling laws from the books, Syracuse has recently introduced a new one. 

Onondaga County Legislature Chairman Ryan McMahon, R-Syracuse introduced the legislation in late August with a goal of curbing “aggressive panhandling.” As reported by Syracuse.com, McMahon claimed the bill was an attempt at making the streets safer from those seeking donations who may become too aggressive.

“If I walk by and ask you for a dollar, that’s not illegal. But if you start chasing me down, or walking down the street with me, that’s not allowable,” McMahon was reported as saying in an August article on Syracuse.com…MORE

Hundreds of protesters crowded into a small park sandwiched between busy streets. Ignoring the honking of passing cars and screaming of police sirens, they gathered to honor the life of Terrence Sterling and to demand information about the details of his death at the hands of D.C. Metropolitan police.

“We’re here for a young man who can’t speak,” said Steven Douglass, an organizer introduced as Sterling’s friend.  ”Terrence Sterling laid his life down for all of us.”

“We have questions!” shouted speakers. “We want answers!” answered the crowd.