Blog Posts by Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine

When we asked Yahoo! and Yahoo! Shine readers to submit questions for us to ask First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, one of the things many readers wanted to know was this: Why have military families become such a priority for this administration?

"I'm not from a military family," Mrs. Obama said candidly. "but I had the opportunity to meet many spouses over the course of the campaign, and truly their stories will take your breath away."

"When you think about the struggles that the average working spouse has, holding down a job, and dealing with daycare, handling sickness, worrying about school and graduation and college for your kids," she continued, "when you take that and you multiply that by five, six, seven deployments, where a loved one is in harm’s way, or you multiply that by nine or 10 schools that a child has had to attend, because that’s the average number of schools that a military child will go through in the course of their educational experience… all of that just

Read More »from Michelle Obama on military families: "There should be no pride that limits them from getting the help that they need"

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and his, wife, Susan, stand on their porch to thank supporters gathered outside their home on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011.I get that football programs are major money makers for many colleges. Really, I do. But why are some people more outraged that a football coach lost his job than they are about the fact that a 10-year-old was raped and no one helped him?

On Wednesday night, about 2,000 football fans rioted in the streets of State College, Pennsylvania, protesting the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. They chanted "We want JoePa," "One more game" and "F*** the media!," among other things, ABC News reported. The crowd of students flipped over a CBS news station television van and kicked out its windows. They knocked a lamppost onto a car, threw rocks and bottles at the police and set off fireworks-all in support of a person who reported the rape of a child to his superiors, but who has admitted that he didn't do anything to help the victim or stop the rapist, his assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, from harming others. Sandusky has been accused of assaulting eight boys over the course of 15

Read More »from Paterno Gets Fired, Football Fans Riot. But Where's the Outrage Over the Rape of a Child?

The honey you're buying may not be 100 percent honey.First we find out that we're getting ripped off in the fish department. Now, a new study commissioned by Food Safety News shows that most of the honey on supermarket shelves isn't really honey.

More than 60 types of honey from several major supermarkets, drug stores, and shopping clubs--including  Stop and Shop, Safeway, Wegman's,A&P, Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, Sam's Club, and Walmart--were  tested by Vaughn Bryant, a professor at Texas A&M University. He found that most of them had all of the  pollen filtered out. Without any pollen, it's impossible to figure out whether the honey came from a safe  source, or whether it's even actual honey at all; much of the ultra-filtered honey may come from China,  may be contaminated, or may be diluted with High Fructose Corn Syrup.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a product that has been ultra-filtered and no longer contains any traces of pollen cannot be considered honey. As Food Safety News points out, though, the FDA isn't

Read More »from That Honey You Just Bought Might Not Really Be Honey

Yahoo! and Yahoo! Shine readers recently offered up nearly 5,000 questions for us to choose from for our exclusive interview with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden. The First and Second ladies answered some of them in clips that aired earlier this week (you can watch them share their families' holiday traditions here, and talk about what they'd do differently as parents here). And, on Veterans' Day, November 11, we'll share what Dr. Biden (a Blue Star mom herself) has to say about helping military families, and how the First Lady says she'd react if her daughters wanted to join the armed forces.

But readers asked questions about other things: opposition to the White House campaign against childhood obesity, whether Mrs. Obama feels pride in her country now that her husband has been in the Oval Office for three years, and how Dr. Biden maintains her own identity and career in spite of her husband's high-profile job. Here's what they had to say:

On maintaining their own

Read More »from Yahoo! Readers Ask Michelle Obama and Jill Biden About National Pride, Let's Move, and Keeping Their Careers

Do you know what it's really like to live in a military family?While the White House's Joining Forces initiative has galvanized civilians hoping to help the families of U.S. servicemen and women, there are plenty of people who have little idea of what it's really like to live in a military family. Sometimes, it's too easy to focus on political differences instead of the people who are actually dealing with deployment-and more.

Dena Provenzano, a Chicago-area mother of four whose husband is a commander in the Army reserves, is dealing with deployment for the third time.

"It is such a challenge when they are preparing to go," she tells Yahoo! Shine. "He left January 4th. You can imagine our Christmas-everybody wanting to come see him, but everyone trying to give us space."

"You feel very anxious because you're counting down," she continues. "You're just trying to make all of these days memorable, but yet everyone is just feeling… there's this heightened sense of him going. It's very stressful on families."

1. Deployments come with plenty of

Read More »from Life in a Military Family: 5 Things You Might Not Know

Yahoo! Shine went to the White House for an exclusive interview with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, where they talked about Joining Forces, the White House initiative to support military families. But Yahoo! and Yahoo! Shine readers submitted nearly 5,000 questions, and so we touched on a few other topics as well. Parenting in the public eye can be tough, but both the Obamas and the Bidens have certain traditions that help keep things simple and down-to-earth during the hectic holiday season, and they shared their secrets with Shine:

During the interview, the First Lady and Dr. Biden also offered up some insight about what it's like to parent while being a public figure. "I don't think that the challenges that we face or that the mistakes or worries or concerns... I don't think it has anything to do with this, right?
" The First Lady said, gesturing to the White House and the cameras and the handlers packed into the room during the interview. "It just has to do with

Read More »from Exclusive: Michelle Obama and Jill Biden Share Their Families' Secret Holiday Traditions

Yahoo! Shine went to the White House this week for an exclusive interview with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden. The conversation focused on Joining Forces, their initiative to support military families, but we had a chance to ask Dr. Biden the question that has Washington abuzz: Will Ashley Biden have a White House wedding?

Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden's daughter, Ashley, accepted Philadelphia physician Dr. Howard Krien's proposal in September after dating for about a year. Last week, during an event in Delaware, the Vice President kept proudly calling Krien his "future son-in-law"-and Washington's social circles caught fire. Courtney Diesel O'Donnell, Dr. Jill Biden's communications director, confirmed the rumors earlier this week.

"Ashley recently got engaged and the Vice President, Dr. Biden and their entire family are thrilled," O'Donnell said in a statement.

Ashley Biden, 30, earned her master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of

Read More »from Exclusive: Ashley Biden to wed in Delaware, Dr. Jill Biden tells Yahoo! Shine

Ashey Biden gives her dad, Vice President Joe Biden, a kiss after receiving her master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice in May 2010. (Photo: Charles Fox/AP)The rumor started thanks to one of the Vice President's infamous slip-ups, but the happy news has officially been confirmed: Ashley Blazer Biden, the only daughter of Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, is engaged.

The lucky guy is Dr. Howard Krein, a Philadelphia-based ear, nose, and throat doctor who specializes in facial and reconstructive surgery. He and Ashley Biden, 30, a social worker, have been dating for about a year; Krien popped the question in September, the Huffington post reported.

On Friday, during an event in Delaware, the Vice President repeatedly referred to Krien as his "future son-in-law," sparking chatter about the engagement. A spokesman for Dr. Jill Biden confirmed the rumors on Monday.

"Ashley recently got engaged and the Vice President, Dr. Biden and their entire family are thrilled," Courtney Diesel O'Donnell, Dr. Biden's communications director, told CNN.






Also on Shine:

• What would you ask Michelle Obama or Jill Biden? Shine is

Read More »from Ashley Biden, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden's daughter, is engaged