Blog Posts by Dory Devlin, Shine staff

Getty ImagesWondering when the government's "cash for appliances" program unveiled in the summer is actually going to start? Unlike the "cash for clunkers" program, which was administered directly by the federal government through automobile dealerships, this rebate program is being run by individual states. So if your state has applied to be a part of the program, you can find out how much money your state has to divvy up for appliance rebates here.

California, for example, has been allocated $35.2 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, and the program will be run by the California Energy Commission. Three appliances will be eligible for rebates--clothes washers ($100 rebate), refrigerators ($75 rebate), and room air conditioners ($50 rebate)--beginning sometime in early spring. The good news: Those rebates are in addition to any retailer, manufacturer, and the state's existing rebates for buying energy-efficient appliances. New York, meanwhile will run its program

Photo credit: Matthias Vriens-McGrath for Glamour/ First lady Michelle Obama with White House internsWhen Glamour set out to name the magazine's 12 Women of the Year for 2009, there was one woman who made the editors' difficult job just a little easier: Michelle Obama. She is the first first lady to appear on Glamour's cover in its 70-year history, and she is out front not because of her instantaneous rise as an American style icon, but for the remarkable way she is making mentoring young women a priority at the White House.

"Just nine months into her job, our nation's first African-American first lady has thrown open the doors of the White House to local children and families, determined to show young people that, in her words, 'there's no magic to being here'--that with hard work, any one of us can rise to greatness," Glamour Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leivi writes. "The first lady is establishing mentor relationships between top women in the administration and girls in need in DC, and is encouraging women leaders around the country to do the same where they live."

Glamour is honoring

Getty ImagesMaybe Wi-Fi in the sky is not such a good idea.

The Northwest pilots who overshot their destination by 150 miles last week during a San Diego-to-Minneapolis-St. Paul flight took connecting anywhere, anytime to new heights. It turns out they were both on their computers, checking out their new work schedules (against company policy) because of the company's merger with Delta Airlines.

Yeah, yeah... not a terribly original pun, I know. But this story sure does illustrate how connected we are to our connected devices, at all ages, in all professions. We can't seem to put down cell phones when we drive, and now we learn that even pilots charting the skies with passengers in tow are a little too at ease losing track of time with the help of an Internet connection and a tech device in hand.

Federal investigators say the pilot, 53, and co-pilot, 54, are both experienced pilots, with no records of accidents, incidents, violations, or medical problems. They have been suspended until the

APWhat do you know? It turns out that some people do actually get fired when news hits the tabloids of affairs with younger employees in the workplace. ESPN fired Baseball analyst Steve Phillips, less than a week after he admitted having an affair with a production assistant at the cable network.

It didn't help, of course, that the 22-year-old production assistant started calling Phillips' wife, sent her a graphic letter about their involvement, and showed up in the family's Connecticut driveway in August after Phillips broke off the affair, according to police reports. Still, it makes you wonder: Why did ESPN fire Phillips, 46, when...

.... a sitting president (Bill Clinton) survived in office after stories of his involvement with a White House intern?
.... a sitting governor (South Carolina's Mark Sanford) hasn't left his job behind after disappearing from his state over Father's Day to go to Argentina to see the woman he was having an affair with?
... David Letterman admits past

Getty ImagesThe government's plan to limit executive pay for the leaders of the troubled and rescued companies that took bailout money to survive is on the table. In the end, it will affect only 25 executives at seven companies because the other companies who took loans while the economy was in free fall have paid the money back to avoid pay dictates like this.

One of the main aims of the plan is to sync the executives' personal interests with the long-term financial health of their companies, not a short-term gain via astronomical bonuses. The cash portion of these execs' pay will but cut by about 90 percent, replaced mostly with company stock that cannot be sold for years.

The companies in question are Citigroup, Bank of America (where the CEO has resigned and will not take his pay or bonus for 2009, but could reap a pension of $52.3 million), American International Group (AIG), General Motors, Chrysler, and the financing groups of the two auto companies.

Among the not-affected-at-all:

Getty ImagesOh, I remember it well, one of the first times I held my sweet, non-talking baby girl while listening to another parent lose it with her older talking, walking child. I'll never do that, I thought to myself, I'll never scream so crazy nastily at my little girl.

Yeah, right.

I'd love to be able to say I have never raised my voice to earsplitting levels, or never had a tantrum to match a toddler tantrum that drove me to scream back at a screaming child. Even my kids still laugh retelling the story about how when they were teeny tiny (ages 2, 4 and 6), they got me good one April Fool's morning; my 4-year-old son yelled from the table into the kitchen: "Mommy, B spilled the milk again!" They knew I'd lose it, and at least they dissolved into giggles yelling "April Fool's" when I didn't fail to disappoint.

That's why I have to agree with Hilary Stout's New York Times article that says shouting is the new spanking, for some parents, which basically calls out my entire parenting generation

NBC/The Today ShowToday's reports from "A Woman's Nation" focused, interestingly, on women and religion. As women's lives have gotten busier and filled with more breadwinning responsibilities, women continue to turn to religious institutions and religions for spirituality and support.

Some religions have responded more than others to women's needs and have embraced women as leaders in their clergy, not just in the volunteer ranks, researchers Kelly Morgan and Sally Steenland write in "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything."

One big change researchers have noticed in recent years is that women (and men) are more frequently switching religious affiliations, "moving among different faith traditions-and in and out of organized religion altogether." A recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that about half of all Americans change their faith at least once during their lives. And the reasons are many: marriage, moves, the search for a faith that better fits their

NBC/The Today ShowAs part of her week-long broadcast blitz on "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," Maria Shriver focused today on what men think and the roles they play in the changing landscape at work and at home.

What emerges from this and other studies is that men are definitely more involved at home, taking care of the kids and doing housework, and are more comfortable with women working outside the home. But balancing a home where both parents work, both sexes agree, is an ongoing negotiation.

The Shriver/Center for American Progress report found that 84 percent of couples today are negotiating the rules of relationships, work, and family. And lots of men, particularly younger men, are happy to do so. "They were raised by working mothers, they want to be more involved with their kids, they don't really like the model they saw with their fathers, but they are struggling to be able to do it all just like women are," Shriver told Matt Lauer on the Today Show.

While men are