The index of leading economic indicators — forecasting conditions in the next three to six months — increased 1.0 percent in April, rising for the first time in seven months.
It was the biggest gain since November 2005, an indication that the world’s biggest economy is poised for modest growth later this year, the Conference Board said Thursday.
Seven of the index’s 10 components were pointing up.
“We expect another sharp increase in the index for May,” said one economist.
In the Dakhla refugee camp in the middle of the Algerian desert, refugees from Western Sahara have found a way to feel less isolated, thanks to multimedia classes and equipment from Spanish filmmakers. New technology allows them to communicate via Internet video with family who’ve fled to Europe and Morocco, which annexed their homeland three decades ago.
Montreal inaugurated North America’s first large-scale bicycle-sharing system this week. 30 times larger than the program in Washington, DC., tourists, shoppers and commuters can jump on bikes like taxis, traveling between 300 stations citywide.
Pay $5 per day, at any of the solar-powered bike stations — or ride 30 minutes for free. Annual memberships are just $78.00 (Canadian).
The program is called BIXI — a word, created by the mayor, using bicycle and taxi. It was inspired by existing public bike systems like the successful program in Paris. Yet BIXI represents a major step forward for bike sharing schemes.
An abandoned depressed former rail line, , officially opened to the public this week as a 1.2-mile biking and walking path and a vision of what Detroit may one day offer throughout the city.
The Dequindre Cut is the latest in a growing network of greenways — nonmotorized community links — that eventually could encompass 100 miles of such trails throughout Detroit.
The president of the nonprofit Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, said the Dequindre Cut’s opening shows reason for hope in Detroit. “Many people didn’t think it would happen. It has,” she said.
(Continue reading in the Detroit Free-Press)
A tiny puppy walking the neighborhood in Omaha, Neb., gets trapped in a storm drain, prompting a full-scale rescue by local animal officials.
Cookie the shitzou ended up safe in his family’s arms.
Watch the video below, or at the News Room…
Troops are emerging unscathed from IED explosion, thanks to the MRAP, a new armored vehicle capable of withstanding very large blasts. The vehicle is one of many innovations the United States military has developed to stay ahead of the insurgents in Afghanistan.
Deaths of children under five years of age have plummeted by almost one third since 1990, the United Nations World Health Organization said yesterday.
28 percent fewer young children worldwide died in 1997 than the number estimated to have died in 1990, according to “World Health Statistics,” WHO’s first progress report on the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the eight globally-agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.
“The decline in the death toll of children under five illustrates what can be achieved by strengthening health systems and scaling up interventions, such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets for malaria and oral rehydration therapy for diarrhoea, increased access to vaccines and improved water and sanitation in developing countries,” said Ties Boerma, Director of WHO’s Department of Health Statistics and Informatics.
The sharp decline worldwide came as an estimated 9 million young children died in 1997, down from 12.5 million estimated in 1990.
After resolving to leave a violent partner, single moms want to make a fresh start. But they feel trapped tending small children if they have no family support or child care.
A nonprofit group, Safe Families for Children, allows such women to get on their feet without having to worry about what would happen to their children.
Safe Families places these children with volunteer families, on a temporary basis — from one day to a year or more. Parents can approve the caretakers, see their children whenever they want and get them back with no courts involved.
This unusual offer of extended respite to overwhelmed parents is part of a broader national trend in child welfare to keep many cases out of the courts and foster care systems.
Read the full story in the New York Times – Photo courtesy of Sun Star
Thanks to Kiama for submitting the link!
Passengers on a US Airways flight that ditched in the Hudson River in New York are starting to get their luggage back – dried, cleaned and neatly packed. The plane had sunk with their personal belongings.
Many thought they would never see their possessions again. But this month, thanks to a concerted effort by US Airways, Flight 1549 passengers are starting to get special deliveries of FedEx boxes containing over 36,000 dried and cleaned belongings, including wallets, handbags, coats, cameras, jewelery, clothing, important papers and even toothbrushes rescued from the waters of the Hudson.
The South Korean city of Ulsan has allowed water generated from processing food waste to run off into the ocean, which can generate methane gas harmful to the environment.
Now, with the help of a Swedish company, it is going to start converting that waste water into biogas, a type of clean fuel that can be used as power to heat buildings and even power vehicles.
Former gang members have united to turn their lives and their communities around through programs offered by Homeboy Industries, a nonprofit based in Los Angeles. From gang member to green collar, Homeboy gives ex-gang members green-tech job opportunities as solar installation technicians.
Former foes can now be found car pooling together every morning.
The Sunshine State has begun to turn some of those Florida rays into energy with the unveiling yesterday of the largest rooftop solar installation in the southeastern US atop the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.
Solar panels spanning the length of five and a half football fields will generate 1,300 megawatt-hours of electricity each year – greatly reducing the carbon footprint and electricity costs of the second largest convention center in the US.
The power generated from the roof panels would offset the center’s $12 million annual energy bill, and at some point, may begin to return electricity to the local grid during the same peak hours when air conditioners strain energy supplies.
Last Friday, after visiting a young girl in the hospital in need of a transplant, Yankees player, Brett Gardner, was given a Project Sunshine bracelet. The young girl told him, if he wore it, he would hit a home run. And he did.
That night, he hit an inside the park homerun, only his second homerun in his over 200 major league at-bats. That same night, the little girl received her new heart, and underwent surgery.
(Read more in the New York Post)
Thanks to Joseph W. for submitting the link!
The Canadian government announced details of the C$1 billion ($860 million) clean energy fund it promised in February. The lion’s share of the cash will support the development of carbon capture and storage projects to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and oil sands operations.
President Obama yesterday announced what amounts to a historic shift in climate change policy, a new rule that strengthens fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards for cars.
In a show of unity, Obama was joined in the Rose Garden by the Presidents or CEOs of ten automobile manufacturers and the United Auto Workers as he proclaimed a new consensus where “Everybody wins.”
The program will require an average fuel economy standard of 35.5 miles per gallon for all new trucks and cars sold in the United States in the model year 2016, including SUVs — from the current 25 mpg. The deal would save a projected 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the life of the 8-year program. Or, in the President’s words, “more oil than we imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya, and Nigeria combined.”
It’s that time of year again, when humans step in to save baby ducklings from busy highways or storm drains or ledges. A businessman in Spokane, Washington stopped what he was doing yesterday to help a dozen day-old ducklings down from a ledge near his office, and then escorted the entire brood to water with their mother duck leading the way.
Video below may take a moment to load…(or watch it here)
Also, Maxine Hillary sent this AP story from Washington, DC about firefighters who plucked four baby ducks from a storm drain Monday after the rescuers heard the mother squawking for her hatchlings in a bustling Washington neighborhood known more for nightlife than wildlife.
Firefighters at Engine Company 9 noticed a duck “screaming at a storm drain” in an alley. When they took the cover off the drain, they found four ducklings swimming about six feet down…
He is an exceptional student with a near perfect SAT score, but 17-year-old Alex Chivescu needed to find a foster family who would be willing to accept him into their home, or be moved from the school district — and away from friends — that had served him so well during troubling times.
To a couple dozen foster parents in the region he wrote the most important letter of his life.
Watch the CBS News video below, or read the story from Steve Hartman here.
As many low-income families continue to struggle with rising costs of everyday living expenses, a power company in Ohio launched a $1 million utility assistance program to help low-income families statewide. American Electric Power Ohio has joined the Neighbor to Neighbor Program in partnership with the non-profit Dollar Energy Fund and began distributing utility assistance grants on May 4.
A family of four earning up to $44,100 per year in income is eligible for the program. To qualify, households must have made a sincere effort of payment on their electric bill in the last 90 days and have a back balance. A network of Community Based Organizations throughout Ohio are providing application assistance. Full eligibility guidelines and application instructions can be found at www.dollarenergyfund.org.
“Today’s economy combined with the cold winter has force many of our neighbors to face large utility balances this spring,” said Chad Quinn, COO of Dollar Energy Fund. “AEP Ohio’s generous donation to the Neighbor to Neighbor Program will help thousands of low-income families keep safe electric service.”
AEP Ohio provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers of major AEP subsidiaries Columbus Southern Power Company and Ohio Power Company in Ohio, and Wheeling Power Company in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. AEP Ohio is based in Gahanna, Ohio. The company serves all or part of 61 counties in Ohio and two in West Virginia.
Dollar Energy Fund was founded in 1983 and has grown to become the fourth largest hardship fund in the United States. Dollar Energy Fund is a 501(c)3 organization operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and West Virginia. Throughout its history, the organization has provided over $55 million in utility assistance grants to over 225,000 low-income families and individuals.
It was encouraging to see record numbers of graduates at Western Carolina University, so many that two commencement ceremonies were needed. But it’s the character of the graduates that holds the most hope.
Fewer of them appear to be chasing the dollar, and more appear to be chasing something higher. More students are looking to careers in service, government and public policy.
Dare we say it? Yes. There’s a whiff of a new morality in the air, a generation with a sense of justice, a determination to serve and to produce a better country, not just land a bigger paycheck.
Indiana became the first state to pass a major electronics recycling law this year, and the nineteenth state to pass a law creating a statewide electronics program.
Eighteen of the 19 states — California, Maine, Maryland, Washington, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York City, Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Illinois, Michigan and now, Indiana — have adopted ‘producer takeback’ laws, requiring the manufacturers to pay for the collection and recycling of old products.
