Check out Mary Walrath-Holdridge at USA TODAY here.

In late February 2015, the internet seemed to be a simpler place. Tumblr was still popular, Twitter was still Twitter and "going viral" was something of a more ubiquitous experience. And nothing that year went more viral than the infamous, argument-starting, internet-dividing, ever-enduring mystery of "the dress."

It began with a wedding. As Grace Bleasdale and Keir Johnston prepared for their Scotland nuptials, the mother-of-the-bride, Cecilia Bleasdale, texted her daughter an image of the dress, saying she planned on wearing it at the festivities…more

Texas officials announced the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade Wednesday, a grim milestone in the ongoing outbreak ravaging Texas and nearby New Mexico.

The death, which occurred in a school-age child, is the first of its kind since 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a statement, Lubbock city and Texas health officials confirmed the hospitalized patient was unvaccinated…more

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

Fluoride, the tooth health-boosting mineral that conjures images of dentists' offices for many, has been a standard additive to municipal water sources since the 1940s.

Naturally occurring in water, soil, plants, rocks and even the air, fluoride was discovered as a useful tool for preventing cavities and tooth decay by the late 1930s. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city to fluoridate its community water, adjusting existing levels in the supply to the therapeutic 1.0 parts-per-million (ppm)…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

“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

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.