Over 12,000 students across Virginia walked out of school on Tuesday in protest of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed restrictions on transgender students’ rights.

Similar walkouts have been happening all year, as students protest anti-LGBTQ policies in their states.

🧵A thread: Last year, the Virginia Department of Education, under former Gov. Ralph Northam, passed model policies intended to protect transgender students from discrimination in schools. However earlier this month, VDOE released its new policies, which are a reversal from the 2021 law.

#HurricaneIan devastated communities in Florida and is set to hit other coastal states. Here are some quick tips on how to donate after a disaster. (THREAD) Your intentions might be good, but shipping a pile of old clothes, shoes or toys might not be the move. A lot of charities will be straight up with you: donating cash, if you can, is probably more useful. on.LX.com/RqSa6fH

STDs are on the rise in the U.S., with no signs of slowing down. 2.5 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported in 2021, according to preliminary data from @CDCgov.

Here’s what you should know with the help of @DrAkshaySyal: Q: Why are we seeing a rise in STD cases right now?

You might think Dungeons and Dragons is a roleplaying game with low stakes: rolling dice, using your imagination and sinking into a fantasy world. But you’d be wrong: D&D has had real, therapeutic effects for these players. on.LX.com/R9QfEzq Liam O’Brien (@VoiceOfOBrien) returned to D&D as a founding star of @CriticalRole, a well-known show following the D&D adventures of a close-knit playgroup. In the show’s 1st campaign, the storyline came “surreally close” to an issue O’Brien was dealing with in real life.

Thousands of migrants from border states are being sent to northern places like Massachusetts and Washington D.C., in what seems to be a political stunt by Republican governors.

🧵A thread: Two planes carrying about 50 migrants arrived on Martha’s Vineyard unannounced Wednesday night, sent by Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The migrants initially came from Texas, according to Massachusetts officials.

This isn't the lost city of Atlantis, but it's pretty close! Let's go on a dive through history with LX News Host @tabithalipkin, and learn more about how the environment sunk what was once known as the "Las Vegas" of ancient Rome. (THREAD) on.LX.com/ujubS9T Due to a nearby volcano (Sulfatara) this area near Naples, Italy, known as "Baia", sunk over hundreds of years and now lies in about 15 feet of water. But it was thriving about 2,000 years ago!

School districts around the country are dealing with a teacher shortage. That means there aren’t enough certified teachers to fill open roles. Here’s why it’s happening. on.LX.com/BWHs4ym #BackToSchool @AsToldByJalyn This isn’t a direct result of the pandemic. People who study these kinds of trends say they started to notice an increase in open teaching positions more than a decade ago. on.LX.com/BWHs4ym @AsToldByJalyn #BacktoSchool2022

Meet the historic athlete who just 🏳️‍🌈 came out 🏳️‍🌈 at the age of 95. (THREAD) on.LX.com/uFw53si
@TheSanjeshSingh @phishphan24 Maybelle Blair has helped pave the way for women and girls in baseball since the mid-1940s — and her legacy continues to grow today. @baseballhall @amazon
@LeagueOnPrime @AAGPBL

Eeekkkk... Don’t be too surprised if you see snakes, cockroaches, or mice closer to your home. Experts say it could happen more now all due to
climate change. on.LX.com/lAWjeAt @NBCLX @janinedoyon Imagine a real-life Tom & Jerry chase in your living room! The population of white-footed mice usually decreases in the cold winter, but now with milder winters, fewer die and have expanded their territory north.

In his first #StateOfTheUnion tonight, President Biden is expected to urge Congress to act on parts of his Build Back Better bill, which has stalled since Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he'd oppose it. Manchin won his election in 2018 by .3% of the vote. trib.al/y6EJ6rG Other Congress members have gotten their jobs with even smaller margins of victory, like Republican Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks' 6 votes. Her win reduced Dems' advantage in the House to 9 seats, limiting how aggressive Biden can be with his agenda. trib.al/gFo03FB

In 2020, Black women were 2.9x more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women, up from 2.5 in 2019, per new @CDC data. On the last day of Black History Month, NBCLX looks at how these staggering stats influenced one pregnant Black woman. trib.al/zuHxyO2 First-time mom-to-be Laila, who's in her second trimester and lives in Atlanta, told NBCLX she grew up hearing about the risks pregnant Black women face, from racism in health care to death during delivery. trib.al/zuHxyO2

Name, image and likeness (NIL) payments, labor laws and the football arms race are throwing college athletic budgets into chaos. And it could spell trouble for the NCAA, the minor leagues for America’s Olympians. trib.al/QTNi704 NCAA universities cut 289 teams last year – most of those in Olympic sports – and many in the NCAA and Olympic communities told @NBCLX’s @NoahPransky they worry who will be next. trib.al/QTNi704

Wondering who to root for to win at the upcoming #WinterOlympics?

The last episode of #MyNewFavoriteOlympian dropped today so now you can binge all the episodes to get to know the most inspiring members of #TeamUSA. Figure skater Timothy LeDuc will become the first publicly out non-binary #WinterOlympian.

Listen to Timothy’s episode of #MyNewFavoriteOlympian: link.chtbl.com/LeDuc

The Beijing Winter Olympics start this week, and they're marred in controversy for several reasons. Topping the list, as the @WhiteHouse put it, are the "ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity" in China's Xinjiang region. trib.al/qYT1RRM The U.S. is participating in a political boycott of the Olympics, sending athletes but no government officials. So if you're planning to cheer on Team USA, how can you also show support for the people of Xinjiang? trib.al/qYT1RRM

Today, a PA court struck down a vote-by-mail law. Last week, the Senate blocked sweeping election legislation. Last year in GA, restrictive changes to state elections became law. "[America] is in a moment of crisis," @LindsayLangholz of @acslaw told NBCLX. trib.al/kyYScMa Voting as a right is not distributed equally to Americans. For example, in CA, you are automatically registered to vote, receive ballots by mail and are eligible for paid time off to vote. In TX, voter registration and mail-in ballots aren't automatic. trib.al/kyYScMa

A new NBCLX analysis details the high cost of low vaccination: In 2021, the states with America’s lowest vaccination rates lost residents to COVID at a rate two to five times higher than states with high vaccination rates. trib.al/axssiq7 "The majority of people got exposed [in 2021], either to the virus or to the vaccine,” said @DavidWDowdy of @JohnsHopkinsSPH. “But one of the downsides of a herd immunity policy, or we can call it an infection policy, is more people die." trib.al/axssiq7

NEW: New data suggests young voters are growing more frustrated with elected leaders. Some may be on the verge of ditching both political parties altogether.

That’s a big problem for leading Democrats as well as their House majority.
trib.al/AYreln6 Gen Z’ers who cast ballots in 2020 – more likely than any other generation to vote Democrat – are also the generation that’s grown the most sour with President Biden and other liberal leaders

lx.com/politics/young…

Shout out to all the elder millennials accepting their dwindling relevance
trib.al/2GdTry1 "Reading the list, I envisioned schoolchildren delightedly flipping through the fresh pages of a new dictionary (was that just me?)"

Yeah, that might just be you @mkhh09 😅.

lx.com/entertainment/…

Disinformation about the flu shot is a problem too. Let’s fix that. trib.al/RPVdmUa Fact: Flu shots save thousands of American lives every year lx.com/coronavirus/di…

Tens of millions of voters disenfranchised by census data.
With more extreme candidates created as a byproduct.
Gerrymandering is one of America’s biggest problems, but here’s how Congress can fix it right now: trib.al/USOkgaa You may not understand how complex census data is going to be used to disenfranchise voters…but everyone understands candy. So we combined the two into one voting rights story: trib.al/Gb5rGjv

Do you remember the ‘90s movie “Shazaam” that stars the comedian Sinbad as a genie who appears to a pair of kids to help them deal with a tragic time?

If so, Sinbad’s kids say you might want to double-check your memory on that one.
trib.al/pZ2NYEe But if you’re “absolutely certain” you’ve seen Sinbad in "Shazaam," you aren’t alone.

Sinbad’s son Royce Adkins said even “people the closest to us who know everything about our family” have sometimes second-guessed whether the movie exists.

Read more: trib.al/tEHy3GE