Allison Torres Burtka

To my parents' generation, "being healthy" included fatphobia. So much unhealthy diet culture.

The number of times I have gasped at red carpet photos of women who haven't always looked like that....

Iffy about camping? Here's what a guided camping trip can offer. For families who want to go camping but hesitate at the thought of figuring everything out on their own, guided camping trips can help the experience go smoothly.

“Our family loves the outdoors. We just don’t like sleeping in it.” This is what I heard my 11-year-old daughter telling another girl on our camping trip, who had asked where else we’d been camping. The answer: Nowhere.
www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/artic...

Replanting the Future: Trees for Days and the Rise of Regenerative Travel Discover how Trees for Days is replanting forests and revitalizing communities through regenerative travel initiatives around the world.

On tree planting, meaningful community involvement, and regenerative travel, in Sri Lanka: wander-mag.com/articles/tra...

Full list of awardees here: besttravelwriting.com/award-winner...

Happy that two travel articles I wrote were chosen for Solas Awards:

-In NatGeo, a story on guided family camping trips
(bronze award, Family Travel category)
-In Wander, on a tree-planting program that uplifts struggling communities around the world
(silver award, Travel and the Environment)

Claudio Visco, LLM ’83, Leads the International Bar Association | University of Michigan Law School The International Bar Association (IBA) serves as the global voice of the legal profession, made up of bar associations, law societies, and individual lawyers across more than 170 countries. At its he...

In an interview with Allison Torres Burtka for Michigan Law (@umichlaw.bsky.social), 1983 alumnus Claudio Visco discusses his role as #IBA President, his vision for upholding the #RuleOfLaw, advancing diversity and addressing artificial intelligence.

Read: michigan.law.umich.edu/news/claudio...

Incredible shot of Rep. Al Green holding up a "BLACK PEOPLE AREN'T APES!" sign with Trump in the foreground from photographer Kenny Holston (Getty)

A look at how climate change is affecting Michigan, from forests to trout to flooding to asthma

💚💚💚

How a federal water pollution bill could jeopardize Detroit’s drinking water The PERMIT Act could weaken Clean Water Act protections, affecting drinking water and ecosystems in Detroit and other areas.

The PERMIT Act, a bill in the Senate, would roll back many of the Clean Water Act's protections that have cleaned up our waters over the last 50 years.

Thanks to @flowtc.bsky.social and @freshwaterfuture.bsky.social for their insight on what this might mean.
planetdetroit.org/2026/02/detr...

“I think everybody knows about the redwoods of California, but so few people know about the pines of Michigan or the beech or maple forests," Antonio Cosme, cofounder of Black to the Land Coalition, told me.

“You can experience those majestic, awe-inspiring natural places up here.”

Michigan's northern forests may feel far from Detroit — but they filter the water we drink, clean our air, and buffer us from climate change.
We've been reporting on those connections. Now we're bringing the conversation live.
Join us Thursday at noon.
Free. 👇 donorbox.org/events/90622...

A 7-year-old child should never be put in jail. Ever, for any reason.

good news for (fully caffeinated) coffee and tea drinkers!

There are a lot of people who are going to complain about being unfairly vilified by that halftime show and it's because they know in their hearts they're on Team Hate.

And all these things have been apparent for decades. There are many individual moments that should have been the end of him as a viable candidate (like grab her by the p*ssy, mocking John McCain), but here we are.

There isn't a non-white group that he hasn't been racist toward--repeatedly and publicly.

Agreed, but also, basic white people (not just powerful ones) have been doing this throughout our country's history. It's just that most of them don't do it publicly.

Trump is a child rapist and a vile racist who is tanking the economy and mobilizing ICE to kill and terrorize people.

We see all these things at the same time--we're not distracted.

Maybe someone told them that vile racism matters to many Americans.

Trump Posts Video Portraying Obamas as Apes

Karoline Leavitt: “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

Well, KKKaroline, vicious racism actually matters to many Americans. But probably not any you know.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/u...

This is not important, but could that hat possibly be any uglier?

Walz: "To Americans who are watching this, I've got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, & kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such govt?"

Terrorizing children

The visual of that thug's hand holding on to the boy's tiny backpack--to keep him from what, running?!--should have stopped anyone involved.

ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy arriving home, say school officials Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to Texas

A 5-year-old boy has been snatched from his driveway in Minnesota, flown to Texas, and put behind bars. How does terrorizing children "protect America"? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

school being canceled because the president sent armed thugs to harass and imprison the populace for voting against him should be the biggest domestic scandal in american history