The latest numbers show that teen tobacco use is now at 8% — the lowest rate in 25 years — e-cigarette use by high schoolers hit its lowest mark ever measured.
Today’s Top Good News Story
Photo: via WSB-TV 2
After her late husband told her women shouldn’t vote, an 81-year-old Georgia widow just voted for the first time ever
Betty Cartledge turned 82 yesterday, but cause for celebration came a few days earlier in the week, when the then-81-year-old voted in her first election.
Cartledge told a local news crew that she had never voted before, despite having the right to for her whole life, because her late husband “didn’t think she should.”
After he passed away in 2023, she realized that it wasn’t too late to exercise her right to vote. So, arm in arm with her niece, she entered the early voting location in Georgia to see the inside of a voting booth for the first time ever.
Why is this good news? While women in the U.S. have now had the right to vote for more than a century, “heads of households” (and even politicians) who believe women should not vote have suppressed a subset of women from exercising their rights.
Still, women are a force in elections, registering and voting at higher rates than men in every presidential election since 1980.
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New data shows a significant increase in the number of fathers taking parental leave in the Netherlands
In the second year of its new parental leave program, there was a 20% increase in the number of people applying for parental leave in the Netherlands. Around 170,000 applications were received from August 2023 to August 2024 — compared to 140,000 the year prior.
Notably, around 40% of the applications came from fathers — a significant increase from the 33% of applications the previous year. This shows that while parental leave is still more often requested by mothers — that gap is closing.
On average, parents took 8.2 of the 9 weeks of paid parental leave available to them. That time is in addition to the 16 weeks of maternity leave available to new mothers, six weeks of partner leave available within the first six months of birth, and 17 weeks of unpaid parental leave available until their child turns eight.
Studies show immediate and long-term benefits to both children and parents when parental leave policies are in place — and they are taken advantage of.