Kids ‘n Kinship provides friendships and positive role models to children and youth ages 5-16 who are in need of an additional supportive relationship with an adult. Here’s one of the youth waiting for a mentor:

First name: Kory

Age: 15

Interests: Kory loves food, especially Buffalo Wild Wings, tacos, and chicken! He enjoys collecting and learning all about trains, so would love to find a mentor who is also a train enthusiast.

Personality/Characteristics: He is talkative, confident, and is becoming a teenager. His mom would love a male mentor to help support him as he grows and explores interests. He is a kind kid who makes friends easily. Mom is looking for a male role model to be a positive influence on him and be a solid presence to spend time with.

Goals/dreams: He would like a mentor, mentor couple or mentor family. If he could have three wishes he would: Get a Nike Tech Jacket, have lots of money, and get an entire box of Taco Bell to himself. When he grows up he wants to be a train conductor. He had his first job this summer at a tree landscaper and enjoyed the experience and received great reviews from his team leader and supervisor. He would love a mentor who continues to offer him guidance and direction for his future and help him pursue his goals.

For more information: Kory is waiting for a mentor through Kids n’ Kinship in Dakota County. To learn more about this youth mentoring program and the 39+ youth waiting for a mentor, sign up for an Information Session, visit www.kidsnkinship.org or email programs@kidsnkinship.org. For more information about mentoring in the Twin Cities outside of Dakota County, contact MENTOR MN at mentor@mentormn.org or fill out a brief form at www.mentoring.org/take-action/become-a-mentor/#search.

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Waiting for a mentor: Sophie

Jen Murphy, Bloomberg News

In the $6.3 trillion world of wellness, catering to women is the lowest-hanging fruit on the tree. Yet women’s wellness is an area that’s historically been underfunded and underserved. In the U.S., women were rarely included in clinical trials before 1993, and in 2020, only 5% of global research and development funding was allocated to women’s health research. Even spokespeople for the Global Wellness Institute, the largest research organization dedicated to tracking the industry, recognize their failure to collect data on what women need or want from the wellness space; they say they’ve found it more logical to focus on fitness and longevity in the past.

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Enter Canyon Ranch, the OG of American wellness retreats, founded in 1979. In September 2026, it plans to unveil its third location on the outskirts of Austin, an ambitious 600-acre ranch whose primary focus will be women’s wellness.

Two-thirds of the brand’s guests are women, says Chief Executive Officer Mark Rivers, referring to his existing resorts in Lenox, Massachusetts, and Tucson, Arizona. Yet that same demographic, he says, “is misunderstood and swallowed in general health care.”

By focusing almost entirely on relaxation and beauty, yoga retreats and boot camps, the spa industrial complex is missing a massive part of what women care about: the physiological changes women face in different stages of their life. It’s a gap that companies such as Canyon Ranch have been racing to address in recent years as people’s interest in wellness — and willingness to invest in it — has skyrocketed. To date, their efforts have typically manifested as the occasional treatment or themed retreat; there still isn’t a single wellness resort making women’s health their calling card.

The very symptoms that women’s wellness retreats address — hot flashes, vaginal dryness, hair loss — have long felt too taboo to name out loud, much less put on a marquee. But lately the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause have become buzzy talk show fodder and the subjects of bestselling books. Everyone from Oprah and Drew Barrymore to Michelle Obama and Naomi Watts, who has her own menopause health product line, is now openly talking about the stage in a woman’s life that for decades was vaguely referred to as “the change.”

By 2030 the world population of menopausal and postmenopausal women is projected to increase 9%, to 1.2 billion, with a forecasted market size of $24.4 billion. Spas will have to cater to this powerful market or risk getting left behind. It’s no wonder that wellness industry pioneers including SHA Wellness in Mexico and Spain, Ananda in the Himalayas, and Kamalaya resort in Koh Samui, Thailand, now offer programs to address fertility, pelvic floor dysfunction and more. And the growing discourse around these issues for women has made it easier for men to admit to similar concerns too.

“The rise in awareness around the gender health gap — particularly the lack of persistent data on female hormones and health—has helped normalize conversations that were long overdue,” says Anna Bjurstam, head of wellness at Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, which earlier this year introduced a female wellness pilot program in partnership with women’s health expert Dr. Mindy Pelz. “Let’s face it, the wellness industry has historically centered on weight loss and aesthetics. But women want to feel good, not just look good. What we’re seeing now is a shift toward empowerment, education and energy.”

Canyon Ranch’s Rivers claims that his resort, however, will be the industry’s first dedicated women’s wellness practice. “There’s a lot of noise in the space, but we’re actually making an investment in it,” he tells Bloomberg News. To wit, Canyon Ranch Austin is an approximately $122 million investment — of which $50 million will be devoted to the largest spa in Texas, clocking in at 40,000 square feet with 37 treatment rooms.

When Canyon Ranch opened in Tucson in the ’70s, it was a departure from the era’s trendy, weight-loss-focused “fat farms.” From the start, the brand worked with nutritionist and fitness experts to offer a lifestyle-driven approach to well-being. “We are not a hospital or medical clinic,” Rivers says. “We are a resort focused on health as a lifestyle choice.”

It’s also a global leader for all things longevity. Since its inception, the brand says it’s welcomed 1 million guests and curated a team of board-certified medical doctors including Jennifer Wagner, a medical adviser to the U.S. Olympic Committee, and Richard Carmona, former U.S. surgeon general.

“If women have been short-sold by the medical world, I also feel like they have been getting short-sold by the wellness space,” says Beth McGroarty, director of research for the Global Wellness Institute, who has no affiliation with Canyon Ranch’s forthcoming resort but considers it to be groundbreaking in its ambitions. “We suddenly saw all of these menopause programs, but many are rooted in pampering, community and celebrity-driven supplements. Canyon Ranch is adding the medical piece.”

Although Austin will focus on women’s health, Tucson will be considered Canyon Ranch’s hub for all things longevity and the Lenox location, in Massachusetts’ Berkshire Mountains, will tackle burnout. Stays at the Austin outpost will be priced from $1,400 per person, per night—including pickleball clinics, infrared sauna sessions and wine-paired tasting menus. (That price is about $200 more per night than its siblings charge, and higher yet than its global competitors, though Canyon Ranch rates cover lots of classes and programs that other wellness resorts charge for à la carte.)

Canyon Ranch Austin is the first resort the company is building from scratch; the others fill historic, retrofitted buildings. Located a little less than an hour from downtown in rural-feeling Spicewood, the project is being designed by award-winning architecture firm Lake Flato. It will have 141 hotel rooms, 134 residences, 6 racquet sports courts, 2 pools and an outdoor cooking studio centered around grilling. The onsite female health facility, called the Women’s Collective at Canyon Ranch Austin, will address the evolving needs of women from their 30s onward; it will cover a wide range of health concerns including sleep, nutrition, postpartum depression and midlife beauty.

Men will be welcome too. Blood work, bone density scans, sleep screenings and other medical tests will all be recommended or prescribed according to gender, age and individualized health concerns; the same will apply to the fitness offerings.

In a state that so heavily polices fertility medicine, Canyon Ranch has decided not to include reproductive health in its offerings and will not be staffed with OB-GYNs. But the brand’s other properties have a high-volume of babymooners, and Rivers says the Austin location will offer prenatal massages and pre- and postbirth body work. Prescription-based hormone replacement therapy will also be available.

That’s not to say that beauty will be an afterthought. Hair thinning and skin elasticity are examples that beauty and women’s wellness go hand in hand, Rivers argues, and says that the spa will be prepared to deal with these topics holistically.

The intention is also to give guests tools and techniques that they can carry home, but Canyon Ranch also says it hopes that some people will want to live the Canyon Ranch life for good. Like many of its peers, it’s currently offering two- and three-bedroom homes for sale, from $3.4 million, alongside the new Austin resort. Each residence is kitted out with wellness features such as saunas, cold plunges, recovery lockers stocked with massages guns and foam rollers, and stargazing perches with NASA-grade telescopes — plus complimentary access to the spa and the resort’s 35-plus daily activities.

That, in some ways, paints another version of the future of wellness resorts, in which people no longer vacation to establish healthy habits but relocate for them. At the very least, it’s a secondary strategy that plays to either gender.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Trump administration has disbanded its federal cultural property investigations team and reassigned the agents to immigration enforcement, delivering a blow to one of the world’s leaders in heritage protection and calling into question the future of America’s role in repatriating looted relics, according to multiple people familiar with the changes.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security established the Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities program in 2017 to “conduct training on the preservation, protection and investigation of cultural heritage and property; to coordinate and support investigations involving the illicit trafficking of cultural property around the world; and to facilitate the repatriation of illicit cultural items seized as a result of (federal) investigations to the objects and artifacts’ lawful and rightful owners.”

Looted: Stolen relics, laundered art and a Colorado scholar’s role in the illicit antiquities trade

Homeland Security Investigations, the department’s investigative arm, once had as many as eight agents in its New York office investigating cultural property cases. A select number of additional agents around the country also worked these cases, including a nationwide investigation into looted Thai objects.

The Denver Art Museum has previously acknowledged that two relics from Thailand in its collection are part of that federal investigation.

Since 2007, HSI says it has repatriated over 20,000 items to more than 40 countries.

But the Trump administration, as part of its unprecedented mass-deportation agenda, earlier this year dissolved the cultural property program and moved the agents to immigration enforcement, multiple people with knowledge of the change told The Denver Post.

Homeland Security officials did not respond to requests for comment.

A few months after Trump took office, a Homeland Security staffer with knowledge of the antiquities field told The Post that they received an email from their bosses. The message, according to their recollection: “The way of the world is immigration. Bring your cases to a reasonable conclusion and understand that the priority is immigration operations.”

This individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said they were given no time frame for the new assignment. Leadership, though, was clear that there would be no new cultural property cases.

Instead of conducting these investigations, this individual said they have been driving detainees between detention facilities and the airport for their deportation.

“I just spent almost a month cuffing guys up, throwing them in a van from one jail to another,” this person said, adding that the work doesn’t take advantage of their specialized training.

It’s frustrating, the individual said, because cultural property cases don’t require a lot of agents or resources. They don’t need all types of fancy electronic equipment.

“The juice from the squeeze on these cases is a lot more than people wanna give it credit,” this person said.

The Bunker Gallery section of the Denver Art Museum’s Southeast Asian art galleries at the Martin Building is pictured on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022. Emma C. Bunker’s name was removed from the gallery in the wake of an investigation by The Denver Post. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

Thai objects in Denver under investigation

For years, HSI has been investigating two Thai relics in the Denver Art Museum’s collection after officials in Thailand raised issues with their provenance, or ownership history.

The pieces — part of the so-called “Prakhon Chai hoard” — were looted in the 1960s from a secret vault at a temple near the Cambodian border, The Post found in a three-part investigation in 2022. Villagers told the newspaper that they recall dredging the vault for these prized objects and selling them to a British collector named Douglas Latchford.

A federal grand jury decades later indicted Latchford for conspiring to sell plundered Southeast Asian antiquities around the world. He died before he could stand trial.

Latchford funneled some of his stolen antiquities through the Denver Art Museum due to his close personal relationship with one of the museum’s trustees and volunteers, Emma C. Bunker, The Post found.

The museum told The Post last week it hasn’t received any communication from the federal government since December, before Trump took office.

High-profile cases in New York and Denver are proceeding despite the reallocation of resources, one agent said.

With the federal government mostly out of the game, cultural heritage investigations will be largely left to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York City, which has an Antiquities Trafficking Unit.

But the DA’s office relies heavily on its partnership with HSI, which has federal jurisdiction and can serve warrants and issue summonses across the country. The Manhattan DA’s office only has authority over New York.

“The future for the DA’s office and the (antiquities trafficking) unit is in jeopardy,” said an individual familiar with the Manhattan unit’s dealings, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “It’s unclear who’s going to be swearing out warrants going forward.”

A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA declined to comment for this story.

Department of Homeland Security Investigations agents join Washington Metropolitan Police Department officers as they conduct traffic checks at a checkpoint along 14th Street in northwest Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

‘Doing the right thing still has power’

These changes in enforcement priorities mean countries seeking the repatriation of their cultural items have fewer partners in the U.S. who can help them deal with museums and private collectors.

“A few years ago, the United States led the world in restoring stolen history — and it mattered,” said Bradley Gordon, an American attorney who for years has represented the Cambodian government in its quest to reclaim its pillaged history from art museums, including Denver’s.

It’s a shame, he said, that federal agencies have stepped back, even as the Manhattan DA continues its work.

“This work isn’t just about art; it’s about security, diplomacy and restoring dignity,” Gordon said. “These looted objects were never meant to be hidden in mansions or displayed in museum glass cases far from their origins. When they are returned, entire communities celebrate with sincere happiness. It’s a reminder that doing the right thing still has power in the world.”

Representatives from Thailand’s government, meanwhile, said they haven’t gotten an update on the Prakhon Chai investigation since Trump returned to office this year.

Cultural heritage experts say these investigations can serve as an important diplomatic tool and use of soft power — a way for the U.S. to strengthen connections to allies or thaw fraught relations with longtime adversaries.

In 2013, for example, President Barack Obama’s administration returned a ceremonial drinking vessel from the seventh century B.C. to Iran. For years, American officials said they couldn’t return the million-dollar relic until relations between the two countries normalized. The move — which NBC News titled “archaeo-diplomacy” — represented a small but important gesture as the U.S. sought a nuclear deal with the Middle Eastern power.

“The return of the artifact reflects the strong respect the United States has for cultural heritage property — in this case, cultural heritage property that was likely looted from Iran and is important to the patrimony of the Iranian people,” the U.S. State Department said at the time. “It also reflects the strong respect the United States has for the Iranian people.”

A lack of law enforcement activity in this space could also mean that museums and private collectors will be less inclined to return stolen pieces, said Erin Thompson, an art crime professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Museums, instead, will maintain the status quo.

“Without the power of subpoenas, knowing what records people have, most of these returns are impossible,” she said. “Without the official stick to back up the carrot of negotiations, it wouldn’t happen. Government presence in these negotiations is absolutely crucial.”

Others wonder what the Trump administration’s realignment would mean for the illicit antiquities market.

Mongolia has spent years fighting for the return of dinosaur fossils from around the globe. HSI has worked on numerous investigations on this front, repatriating a host of looted items that are considered some of the best relics of life on Earth from millions of years ago.

Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, the country’s former minister of culture, tourism and sports, said she always held up the United States as an example of what can be done to crack down on the black market for cultural goods. Before collaborating with the U.S., Mongolia was considered “the weakest country” for losing its own heritage to illegal sellers, she said.

“If ICE is too focused on immigration and less on cultural heritage, it would, of course, be a sad thing,” she said in an interview, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees HSI. “By discouraging the black market of dinosaur fossils, the international market was shattered. If ICE weakens, the black market might surge back. The American (antiquities) market and American collaboration is essential for stopping the black market of illegal cultural property sales.”

By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA

MONTCLAIR, New Jersey (AP) — On a sunny fall morning, children wearing helmets and backpacks gathered with their parents in Montclair, New Jersey, for a group bicycle ride to two local elementary schools. Volunteers in orange safety vests made sure everyone assembled in a neighborhood shopping area was ready before the riders set off on their 5-mile “bike bus” route.

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Every few blocks, more adults and kids on bikes joined in. Eventually, the group grew to over 350 people. Older students chatted with friends, while younger ones focused on pedaling. Cars along the way stopped to let the long line of cyclists pass. Pupils and parents peeled off toward the first school before the remainder reached the group’s final stop.

It’s a familiar Friday scene in Montclair. For the past three years, what began as a handful of parents hoping to encourage their kids to bike to school has grown into a weekly ritual for both the township of about 40,000 residents and many of its families.

“It was so fun,” second grader Gigi Drucker, 7, said upon arriving at Nishuane Elementary School. “The best way to get to school is by bike because it gives you more exercise. It’s healthier for the Earth,” she added.

But traveling to school on two wheels isn’t just for fun, according to organizer Jessica Tillyer, whose are 6 and 8 years old. She believes that biking together each week helps promote healthy habits for the children and strengthens the sense of community among parents.

“And it really started because a small group of us, about five parents, all wanted to ride to school with our kids and just felt like it wasn’t safe. And for me, I felt kind of lonely riding by myself to school. So, bike bus just took off as a small effort. And now we can have up to 400 people riding together to school,” Tillyer said.

The bike bus movement isn’t new. Hundreds of them exist throughout the U.S. and Europe, as well as in Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Israel, according to Bike Bus World, a nonprofit organization that promotes and provides information about bike buses.

Co-founder Sam Balto, who established a bike bus in Portland, Oregon, more than three years ago, said interest has grown so much that he offers free coaching calls to help others launch their own. He estimates there are more than 400 routes worldwide, and the number continues to grow.

“Children and families are craving community and physical activity and being outdoors. And when you present that versus a school car line, people naturally gravitate to something that’s super joyful and community-driven,” Balto said.

Organizers hope the bike bus movement will not only get more children on their bikes but also push elected officials in the United States and abroad to invest in safer biking infrastructure.

While starting a bike bus may not be difficult, keeping it running year-round through different seasons takes more effort. Organizers of successful rides shared advice for parents hoping to create their own.

Plan and communicate

Andrew Hawkins, one of the leaders of Montclair Bike Bus, said that once enough families express interest, the first step is to plan a route carefully. That means identifying streets with low traffic while considering how many students can join at the starting point and along the way.

“It took us a while to come up with a route we were happy with, but we’re still ready to adjust if necessary,” Hawkins said. “Things can change. It could be that new groups of students move into a certain block, or traffic patterns shift, and you have to adapt.”

The Montclair group started via word of mouth and social media posts. As the number of participants grew, the organizers created a chat group to coordinate and share weekly updates. They also reached out to other families through PTAs, school forums and other parent communication channels.

One unexpected benefit, several parents said, is the bike bus motivates children to get up and out the door more quickly on Friday mornings.

In an image taken from video, children ride their bicycles to school during a parent-led bike ride titled “Bike Bus” Oct. 3, 2025, in Montclair, N.J. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

“He’s more excited to get out of bed for the bike bus than for the regular bus. So actually, I have an easier time getting him ready for school,” said Gene Gykoff, who rides with his son to the boy’s elementary school.

To keep momentum going all year, the Montclair Bike Bus team organizes themed rides on weekends and holidays. These events also allow families who can’t join on weekday mornings to experience what the bike bus is all about before committing to a regular schedule.

Start young and go slow

Montclair Bike Bus consists of multiple adult-led groups and routes that encompass all of the township’s elementary schools and middle schools. Organizers think the primary grades are when children benefit most from cycling with a group. Students in the first few years of school can learn about riding safely and apply those skills when they bike on their own or in small groups as they get older.

The Montclair parents found that most elementary school students can handle a distance of 3-5 miles, and the group travels at a speed of around 6 miles per hour so the younger kids can keep up.

“The slow speed can be tough for some of our older kids who want to go a little bit faster. We tell them there’s no racing on the bike bus — everyone gets to school at the same time. But there have been occasions where we’ve had to split the ride into two groups so that some of the older kids can go a little bit faster than the younger kids,” Hawkins said.

Be consistent no matter the weather

Keeping a bike bus going year-round requires consistency, which means preparing to pedal when it’s raining or cold outside, Balto and Hawkins said. Leaders monitor weather forecasts and decide whether to cancel a Friday ride due to unsafe conditions or to proceed as planned while reminding families to dress appropriately.

“As it gets colder, we tell everyone to make sure they have the right gear — gloves, neck warmers, warm jackets,” Hawkins said. “The idea is that kids should feel comfortable riding all year.”

The Montclair bike bus secured reflective vests and bike lights from sponsors to increase visibility on dark winter mornings. Leaders also carry basic maintenance tools, such as tire pumps.

Weather is often more of a concern for adults than it is for children, Balto observed. “Kids want to be outside with their friends,” he said. “If you’re going to do this in all weather, just do it consistently. People will get used to it, and they’ll start joining you.”

Just do it

Despite all the planning and coordination involved in running a regular bike bus, experienced organizers say the key is simply to start. It can be as informal as two families riding to school together and sharing a flyer to spread the word, Balto said.

“If you’re consistent — once a week, once a month, once a season — it will grow,” he said.

Tillyer said she gives the same advice to anyone who asks how to begin: just go for it.

“Don’t ask for permission. Don’t worry about what it’s going to take,” she said. “Find a small group of people, get on your bikes and ride to school. Once people experience it and enjoy it, more will want to join.”