Her Daily News

I was inspired by another blogger who posted some similar information to do the same here, on this NEWS site.   If you have found this site because you are searching for storm information, storm victim information or ways to get damage information and also ideas and answers about how to help, please read on, if your question isn’t answered below, please email me and I will post the information you need as soon as I can.  Also, please feel free to leave questions in the comment section and I will answer those too.

Hurricane Gustav is forecast to hit the Southern Louisiana Coast tomorrow, with effects beginning tonight, er, NOW. (right now, Houma is slated to be the city where it makes landfall.)

If you would like to make a donation to the Red Cross to help the victims click here. Donations are tax deductible. If you would like to learn about how the Red Cross uses monetary donations, click here. A donation as small at $25 will provide five blankets at a shelter.

The Red Cross also has a website called the Safe and Well List, or call 1-866- GET-INFO. If you evacuated or didn’t and want to register so that your friends and family can find out that you are safe, go to this site and register your name. When land-line phones and cell phones do not work this is a great tool to help families connect with each other.

For current weather updates visit The Weather Channel.

There is a recorded information line in the state of Louisiana, call 1-866-288-2482 for messages issued by the state government. Also, here is a list of Parish Offices of Emergency Preparedness.

Republican Senator and Presidential Candidate John McCain has selected a female state governor as his running mate in the upcoming 2008 election. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has agreed to be his Vice President.

Palin is the mother of five children and most recently gave birth to her second son on April 18 of this year and returned to work three days later. … I have a problem with this. If nothing more than from the standpoint of a mother, why isn’t she home caring for herself and her newborn. When you choose to have children you commit yourself to them, commit to putting their needs ahead of your own, commit to being THERE. I am not saying that a mother needs to put her own needs, goals and aspirations in the deep freezer, but actually, sometimes you do have to shelve them temporarily. And one of those temporary times is when you have a newborn. You owe it to that baby to be there, not to pawn him off on his father or siblings or family members. It is possible to have a career and be a good mother but I think Palin has reached too far. It seems ironic to me that she would be accepted by the Republican party being such an ambitious woman.

When the mother of a newborn baby (4 months) leaves her family to go out on the presidential campaign trail she isn’t going to garner support from other women. Other women will say, “what are you thinking?” and “If you are THAT SUPER MOM then I cannot relate to you.”

It is particularly odd to me that a party (The Republicans) that believes women should not have the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy or that a war deserves more funding than education and that working class people should be taxed in a higher bracket than families making over $200,000 would choose a woman who has so clearly chosen to have a career at the disgrace and sacrifice of her family. She may have a working class background and her husband may be a commercial fisherman but that doesn’t mean she can relate to the greater population of soccer-moms nationwide. In fact, I find her to be untouchable, unreachable and most importantly, unrelatable.

I also have a problem with a WOMAN who is a LIFETIME member of the National Rifle Association. Just sayin’.

Source: Wikipedia
Photo Source: People Magazine

A recent article on CNN reports that Elizabeth Edwards is now being criticized for keeping her husband’s affair secret so that his political ambitions could continue and so that she could advance her own agenda.

Um. Wait. BACK UP. Did I read that right? The wife of a man with a wandering eye and hand (and … oh, nevermind, you know!) is now being put on the chopping block because when she found out about her husband’s indiscretions, she choose NOT to tell the media and the entire nation? Seriously!?

John Edwards may have had an affair and tried to hide it but where do we get off telling his wife, his cheated on wife that she did anything wrong? I get that they are political figures and that makes, by some crazy and quite arguable twist of fate, their lives public information. But I don’t buy into that.

Maybe I’m just a stupid old staunch liberal who doesn’t care who her President sleeps with at night. I prefer it be his or her spouse, but I could honestly care less if our political leaders are black or white or gay or straight. Call me old fashioned or stupid or lame but I really don’t care what my politicians do behind closed doors. I get that people think a man who will commit adultery is not strong enough and not valued enough to be our nation’s leader, but, I tend to see a larger picture, not forgiving the affair or the lack of values or moral judgment, but I guess, I just feel that a private life is just that, not really any of my business. And, it doesn’t really have any bearing on the ability to govern. Just sayin’.

I also feel pretty strongly that Elizabeth doesn’t deserve any crap from us. She was the wife who was cheated ON, she is managing terminal cancer (metastatic breast cancer), and she is a mother and a wife, she has plenty going on in her life and no doubt feels an immense amount of guilt over her husband’s poor choices and over the fact that her health is worsening (albeit slowly, but, she is terminal). I think she kept quiet on this because it was her PRIVATE life and she doesn’t deserve to be judged based on John’s actions and she certainly doesn’t deserve to be judged by us.

SOURCE: CNN

American Idol returns in January for its eighth season and Paula Abdul won’t be the only estrogen-based body on the judges panel anymore. Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul will be joined by Grammy-nominated songwriter Kara DioGuardi.

Dio Guardi is a songwriter who has written songs for Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion, Pink, Gwen Stefani and Faith Hill.

American Idol was originally intended to have four judges so don’t expect the dynamic to be too different, just expect a larger table.

Dio Guardi was born in Scarsdale, New York in 1970. She has been a contributor to many international-hit songs since 1999. She also co-owns the publishing company Arthouse Entertainment.

She will undoubtedly provide a great new dynamic of music-industry advice, not to mention shake up the stale dynamic of Randy-Paula-Simon and refocus their energies back on the contestants rather than their own drama.

American Idol was created in 2002 by Simon Fuller and has become a national phenomena. The show is hosted by an even larger Idol-built-icon, 34-year oldRyan Seacrest.

Just today I was watching some CNN, mainly for weather, because, truth is, news depresses me sometimes. I saw a story about a 15-year old Iraqi girl taken into custody by Iraqi officials because she was found wearing a belt or vest, reports are conflicting, of explosives. You can read the original CNN article here.

Is she too young to be capable of making the decision to end her life as a suicide bomber? Was she at the mercy of older adults choosing for her to be a suicide bomber? Is she a victim or a malicious-intending ill-seeking suicide bomber? Will we really ever know for sure?

Reports say that she changed her story several times but did say that other people, parents, perhaps put the vest of explosives on her. If she is changing her story, would you, as a young teenager be shaken and uneasy when questioned by authorities and what effect has the intensely hateful regime that she lives within molded her thoughts or simply scared her into submission?

What should happen to her?

CNN reports that “U.S. intelligence on the psyche of female suicide bombers suggests the women have various motives; some have links to al Qaeda — sons, husbands, fathers killed in the fighting — and are seeking revenge.

The intelligence also suggests al Qaeda is seeking out women whose families are struggling financially, making cash promises to them but not paying out. Others are young widows or women who are deeply religious and swayed by the promise of heavenly rewards.”

Photo from CNN.Com

I’m not new to the blogging world but in the past year I wasn’t too aware of all the new sites and activism in the blog world. (I was home with a newborn and my reality contact and awareness was, … slight?)

This is a big year, politically speaking. I live in Washington, DC (okay, the suburbs, but still) While I normally don’t get too involved in political debate, I feel it is often futile, I have some opinions and I do support those who lobby for change that I can get behind.

There are some great women, many of them mothers, who are taking a lot of time from their own lives, leaving their children for a few days to lobby for change that will benefit all of us. You can find them here at one of my new favorite sites MOMocrats. Many of them are actually at the Democratic National Convention this week in Denver, Colorado speaking up and taking notes. They are updating on Twitter and they have a Facebook page.  These women are awesome, check them out!

The Center for Women’s Mental Health at Massachusetts General Hospital has a fabulous website. I have been a fan of it for years checking every few months or so for new links and information. I perused the site daily for a few weeks earlier this year just after my son was born when I was really having trouble shaking the depression and anxiety I was experiencing. I am familiar with depression and it shouldn’t have taken me so long to identify that I was experiencing PPD, Postpartum Depression. However, PPD is tricky like that, it masquerades as tiredness, irritability, hating your husband, hating the lady who comes to clean your house, hating your saggy still fat body, hating everything and yelling often, saying bad things about yourself, the signs and symptoms are as different as each person who experiences this. For the record I never had any negative feelings toward the baby at all, although many women think that PPD means you are mad at your baby. I was just really unhappy with myself. Also for the record, since I seem to be “recording” things here, I did not seek medical help, I did not take any psychiatric medication (although I should have) , and once I was able to join a local gym and get out of the house, alone, and get some exercise, along with other things, mentally at least things started to fall into a much better place for me. **It isn’t this simple for many others, however.

I’m sure a lot of women go straight to the doctor and ask for a prescription of an SSRI and they get better. There are also a lot of women who seek out a good therapist and the talking helps them get to a better place.

I was not either of those women.

I was and still am nursing my son who is eight months old at the time of this article. I recall being told by one nurse in one doctor’s office that if I were to experience PPD they would “stop my breastfeeding to allow my hormones to re-regulate and then evaluate the situation” and because of this I was absolutely scared out of my DD-nursing bra that if I even hinted to anyone that I was feeling a bit, oh, irritable? that I would be forced to give up my nursing. I love nursing. It works well for me with this baby and I enjoy it. I didn’t want to give it up, not at any cost. So I didn’t tell anyone.

Turns out that was bad information. And it did me a disservice. There are many options for women experiencing anything from mild to severe PPD. There are many medication options and many non-medication options. I didn’t feel like I had anyone to talk to about it and I fear that many many many other mothers feel the same way. Being a new mom is hard. Excruciatingly difficult, terrifyingly isolating, you feel like your body is permanently destroyed, you don’t have time to finish a sentence with your spouse and you feel like the world is going on and you are chained to a chair feeding and rocking a delicate ever-needy baby.

This article about breastfeeding and psychiatric medication gives a good overview of the basis for most medical decisions regarding PPD and nursing moms.

I feel strongly about helping other women get the information they need to have an easier postpartum experience. I will write more on this topic again soon and often.

Another great postpartum website is Postpartum.net

** I fear I am oversimplifing my situation and I don’t mean to do that. I will address this topic again soon with more honesty , clarity and useful information.

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat died yesterday at the age of 58 from a brain aneurysm she suffered while driving in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Most recently she is known for her outspoken voice in Congress during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She was one of only 11 Democrats who voted against the war in the 435-member House of Representatives. She also registered a complaint after the 2004 presidential election suspecting voting irregularities that cost John Kerry a win in her state of Ohio. She had a solidly liberal voting record.

Her death will not alter the partisan balance of power in Congress because the Democrats hold a wide majority.

When she was first elected in 1998, Tubbs Jones headed the House Ethics Committee and was the first black woman to serve on the tax-writing Ways and Means committee.

A brain aneurysm is the abnormal bulging of a blood vessel in the brain. Sadly, they are most often discovered only after they rupture which causes bleeding into the brain or the space surrounding the brain. This type of hemorrhage leads to stroke, brain damage and death. Treatment functions to stop the bleeding, reduce permanent damage and reduce the risk of recurrence.

“The annual incidence of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in the U.S. exceeds 30,000 people. Ten to 15 percent of these patients will die before reaching the hospital and over 50 percent will die within the first thirty days after rupture. Of those who survive, about half suffer some permanent neurological deficit. Brain aneurysms can occur in people of all ages, but are most commonly detected in those ages 35 to 60. Women are actually more likely to get a brain aneurysm than men, with a ratio of 3:2.”
Find more information at Brain Aneurysm.com

You can read more about Tubbs Jones and her work as a Congreswomen by visiting her site.

Ellen DeGeneres, 50 and Portia de Rossi, 35 wed last Saturday evening at their home in LA. The couple exchanged handwritten wedding vows in an intimate home ceremony. Ellen announced their impending nuptials recently after the California Supreme Court ruled a previous ban on gay married was unconstitutional. Nineteen guests attended. Photos of their wedding are available in this week’s People Magazine. Sources also report the couple does talk about having children.

This past summer, Rossi sported a 3-carat diamond ring set on a pink pavé band, a gift from DeGeneres for their upcoming nuptials first noticed when the pair attended the Daytime Emmy Awards together.

In other domestic-type pop culture news, Jennifer Garner confirmed today that she and husband, Ben Affleck are expecting their second child. The couple claims that Violet, their toddler has given them a good idea of what having a baby around the house is like and that they are “excited”.

Glass of suds? Anyone? People Magazine reports Jessica Simpson is staring in a new beer campaign. This brew claims to have vitamins! Ladies … put down the Turbo Jam and drink up the vitamins! Seriously?? (WHAT!)

Heather Locklear just returned home after a brief stint in rehab for depression and anxiety. Her friends say she is looking great.

Finally, the United States women’s softball team lost their first game since September 2000 and will not be in the running for a gold medal, reports Sports Illustrated. They made two very uncharacteristic mistakes early in the game which allowed the Japanese team to take control of the game. The United States Olympic team has won three straight gold medals in women’s softball. This is quite an upset to the team and their fans.

Christina Applegate, best known for her 10-year roll on Fox’s Married with Children as Kelly Bundy and more recently as star of Samantha Who?, admitted this morning on Good Morning America that she had a double mastectomy just three weeks ago. She plans to undergo reconstructive surgery during the next year.

Diagnosed just this summer with breast cancer that was confined to one breast, she opted for the the more radical treatment of a double mastectomy. Applegate’s mother battled breast cancer and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation that has been linked to more severe forms of breast and ovarian cancer.

Since her diagnosis she has opted for a healthy diet including fish, grains and vegetables and taken a serious matter-of-fact approach in making decisions that will effect her health and the rest of her life.

“I’m going to have cute boobs till I’m 90, so there’s that,” she joked in the interview, which aired Tuesday. “I’ll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I’ll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table.”

Applegate appears to be taking things in stride although, without a doubt she is experiencing stress and anxiety on unprecedented levels.

In recent years she has stepped out of type-cast role as a dumb-blonde-bimbo and taken on some more serious and challenging rolls. Her Daily News hopes Applegate has a speedy recovery and quickly returns to the set.

This article on Newsday comments on the increase in women having preventative double mastectomies. Do you find this to be too radical? Or, do you think this is a wise decision when faced with the challenges of BRCA1-breast cancer?

Some other Breast Cancer Information Sites:

Breast Cancer Info

Susan G. Komen Race For the Cure

National Cancer Institute

Sports Illustrated:”Either way, the judging in gymnastics at these Olympics has been wildly erratic at best.”

United States gymnast Nastia Liukin won the silver medal on the uneven bars even though she had a score identical to that of China’s He Kexin. They both scored 16.725. This has brought about yet another Olympic scandal, this time in regards to the judging of gymnastics.

Sports Illustrated wrote a very detailed article about this situation when Liukin saw her score was the same as He Kexin, but He Kexin was listed first.

In other Olympic news, Dara Torres, 41 won three silver medals in swimming and Stephanie Brown Trafton won the first gold medal in women’s discus since 1932. She “laid a golden egg” at the Bird’s Nest today, throwing 64.74 meters.

There are many more remarkable female athletes, for more Olympics news, scoring updates and schedules, visit NBC’s Olympic Zone homepage.

Her Daily News has a new writer! Me!

I’m Stacy Kravitz (Although I write for 451 under my maiden name, Stacy Ochsman) and I am a freelance writer. I also write for Parent Extremis, Wedding Tactics and my personal site, The Fabulous Miss S.

I have taken over Her Daily News and I will posting at least once a day, updating with current news, stories, health information and much more. Anything that pertains to women in the news or news that women need to know will be found here. I will link to other sites and I hope other sites will link here too.

Please send me an email at TheStacy@gmail.com if you have any ideas or questions about this website or content you see here.

Some of my favorite news sites are CNN, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and Mama Pop.

A great baseball player has died. Dottie Collins played for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League which was created in 1943 to entertain the Americans at home while World War II took young men away overseas and Major League Baseball was on hiatus. Collins joined the league in 1944.

A New York Times article published on August 15 said, “She pitched underhand, sidearm and overhand; she threw curveballs, fastballs and changeups; and in the summer of 1948, she pitched until she was four months pregnant. She won more than 20 games in each of her first four seasons. She threw 17 shutouts and had a league-leading 293 strikeouts in 1945 for the Fort Wayne Daisies, when the women’s game resembled fast-pitch softball. … The All-American league went out of business after the 1954 season, and the images of the young women in their one-piece tuniclike dresses, skirt above the knees, playing before enthusiastic crowds in cities like Fort Wayne and South Bend, Ind.; Rockford, Ill.; and Kenosha and Racine, Wis., faded.”

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League has it’s own website and an exhibit at the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame which Collins helped create. She worked with curators and used her contacts to get materials donated for exhibition.

The 1992 Penny Marshall directed movie, A League of Their Own brought national attention to this great league of women who patriotically played ball when their country called on them. Unfortunately for the women who had grown fond of their league and each other, the war ended and men came back home, the women were told in no uncertain terms that they were no longer needed.

She died of a stroke. She was 84.

Library, National Baseball Hall of Fame