Congratulations BlogHer community, please take a bow -- you are the face of media influence in 2009. BlogHer is #4 on Katie Couric's list of the "seven most powerful people in media". As her contribution to Forbes.com's "One in a Billion" initiative, Ms. Couric chose: #1: Sergei Brin and Larry Page, Google Co-founders #2: Julius Genachowski, Chairman of the FCC #3: Arianna Huffington, Co-founder, The Huffington Post #4: BlogHer Co-founders Jory Des Jardins, Elisa Camahort Page and Lisa Stone #5: Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist #6: Biz Stone and Evan Williams, Twitter Co-founders of Twitter #7: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Co-founder There's not a single traditional media company on this list, which makes us think Ms. Couric is talking about who in media represents communities with the potential and power to truly move the needle when she writes, "[A]mong the many millions of sites and the svengalis behind them, there are a few classics that stand out." We agree: The accelerating influence of women in social media is stunning, just ask us [PDF]. BlogHer's mission -- to create opportunities and economic empowerment for women in social media -- is the driving force behind a community that now reaches more than 20 million* people each month via conferences, the BlogHer.com news service and a network of more than 2,500 excellent blogs. (*Nielsen Netratings Site Census.) Thanks, Katie Couric, we think women in social media are just getting started. Lisa for Jory, Elisa and Lisa BlogHer Co-founders

One week before the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, Nicole Rosenleaf Ritter typed a blistering letter to 55 national representatives. In Open Letter on her blog Livingston, I presume, Ritter wrote:

Meet U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who recently argued on the Senate floor against what she described as discriminatory practices in health care coverage of women:

Meet Wyoming Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis, who recently told Neil Cavuto on Fox Business:

Let's talk about sex, parent-style. I mean your parents having sex. And you having sex if you're a parent. Don't cringe: Laugh instead. In Business Time, Megan Ault Regnerus takes on doing the wild thing after kids -- both as a child and as a mother. Her taboo-skewering story made both consenting adults in my household laugh so hard we wept. First she invokes her own childhood: