After Nearly a Century, Gray Wolves Return to California Mountains

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Aug 22, 2015

gray_wolf_publicdomain_U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

A pack of gray wolves are now wandering the hills of Northern California for the first time since they were hunted to extinction in the state in the 1920s.

Two adults and five, four-month-old pups — dubbed the Shasta Pack (pictured above) — have been spotted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which is thrilled by the news.

Wolves have made a strong comeback in the American West in recent years. Packs in Yellowstone National Park have thrived–and their presence has improved the local ecosystem–since being reintroduced there in 1995.

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Only one other gray wolf, tagged as OR-7, has been seen in California since the 1920s. That lone wolf wandered into the state only briefly in 2012, before returning to Oregon and finding a mate.

Researchers don’t believe this new pack is descended from OR-7 (given that name because he was the seventh wolf tagged with a tracking collar in Oregon). They have gathered droppings from the Shasta Pack to test for DNA and find out where they came from.

The next step for the Department is do work on a management plan, to make sure the wolves can establish a foothold in Northern California and live alongside ranchers in the region.

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California biologists are excited about their chances in California.

“These are very resilient critters,” Karen Kovacs with the Fish and Wildlife Department told the Los Angeles Times.

(READ more at the Los Angeles Times) — Photos: Fish and Wildlife Dept.

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“The Rock” is Proud of the “Better Men” Graduating from Prison Boot Camp

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Terry Turner

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Aug 22, 2015

Life in jail, or six months at camp training to become a better person?

For inmates at the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Center in Florida, the choice was simple, but the work was grueling.

Thats why actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stopped by their graduation ceremony to tell them that he’s “very, very proud” of the group who volunteered for a six-month prison boot camp. The star of “Ballers” and the “Fast and Furious” franchise spoke at their graduation.

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The inmates volunteered for the program as an alternative to serving sentences ranging from five-years to life in prison. The bootcamp aims to change the inmates’ attitudes and rehabilitate them so they can go on to live crime-free lives once they leave.

Johnson pointed out that more than 75% of ex-convicts return to a life of crime, but the rate is only 8% for the Dade County boot camp program.

“They leave the program not just as free men, but as better men,” he said in his speech.

Officially started production on our new HBO Documentary Films project, "ROCK & A HARD PLACE". From armed robbery to...
Posted by Dwayne The Rock Johnson on Sunday, February 8, 2015

Johnson, who started getting arrested himself when he was just 13 years old, said he may have ended up in the same place as these men if he hadn’t turned his life around.

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“I wanted them to know that life does go on and they’re going to have another opportunity,” Johnson told WFOR News.

Johnson is working on a documentary about their boot camp experience called “Rock and a Hard Place.”

(WATCH the WFOR News video below, or READ more at attn.com) — Photo: Dwayne Johnson, Facebook

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Petition to Have Jon Stewart Moderate a Presidential Debate Blows Past Goal

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Terry Turner

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Aug 22, 2015

By Saturday morning, more than 214,000 people had signed an online petition calling for the former host of “The Daily Show” to moderate one of the 2016 Presidential debates.

The petition at Change.org says Jon Stewart is “more than qualified” for the task and asks the Commission on Presidential Debates to request that Stewart host one of the three general election debates during next year’s campaign.

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Among those signing the petition, at least one Democratic candidate for President, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who urged people through Twitter to support the petition.

Signed. Jon Stewart moderating or not, #WeNeedDebate. http://t.co/6EGRAv8ypn pic.twitter.com/PN48kZ29fr
— Martin O'Malley (@MartinOMalley) August 20, 2015

“Mr. Stewart has interviewed 15 heads of state, 22 members of the United States Cabinet” and dozens of members of Congress, the petition reads, “while establishing himself as the most trusted person in (satirical) news.”

The petition is no joke. It highlights a way to get more American youth involved in the serious business of picking a candidate and voting in the 2016 primary elections.

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Wisconsin Man Plants 4-Mile Stretch of Sunflowers in Tribute to Late Wife

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Good News Network

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Aug 21, 2015

Love is blooming along a Wisconsin country road.

A stretch of farmland usually reserved for corn and soybeans is now home to over four miles of beautiful sunflowers, planted in memory of Babbette Jacquish, who died of cancer in last November.

Babbettes-Seeds-of-Hope-Sunflowers-800px Jacquish was known around town as the “Sunflower Lady” for her love of the tall yellow stems, so, in her honor, her husband planted the big yellow blooms in five neighboring farms near Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

While she was alive, Jacquish had the idea to plant the flowers and harvest the seeds to sell as birdseed, giving the proceeds to charities that support cancer research and patients.

To keep that dream alive, her husband and daughter created “Babbette’s Seeds of Hope.”

“She always loved flowers but sunflowers were her favorite,” her husband Don told KARE TV. “They fit her personality. She’d walk into a room and her smile would light up the whole room.”

(WATCH the video from KARE-TV or READ more at The Leader Telegram)

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Retirement Home For Unwanted Senior Pets Offers Love In Final Years

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Good News Network

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Aug 21, 2015

If you’re over the age of ten and you’ve got a tail to wag, then you’ve got a friend at House With A Heart Senior Animal Sanctuary.

For nearly thirty years, Sherry Lynn Polvinale and her husband rescued dogs and cats. As the years went on, though, they got more and more calls from people who just “couldn’t keep” their senior dogs.

“I got to a point where I couldn’t stand trying to find the right home for these guys and not knowing if the owners will be committed for life. This way, we know that they’re totally safe,” Polvinale told Good News Network.

“I thought, ‘I’m getting older, and a treat for myself is going to be rescuing seniors and keeping them safe until they pass away’.”

In 2006, they began operating with official nonprofit status for their Gaithersburg, Maryland home and have continued to transform it into a haven for four-legged residents who hail from all over the country.

While her husband was still alive, only ten dogs lived in the home; when he passed away, she made room for thirty.

Today, a roster of 55 volunteers do everything from poop-scooping and manning diaper-stations to laundry and, of course, cuddling.

“Fospice” Gives Terminally Ill Shelter Dogs Chance at a Happy Ending

The home relies solely on donations from people who want to give, or those who want to board their pets there instead of dropping them at a kennel.

All of the pups spend their days eating and just enjoying life, despite some doggy dementia and wheelchair needs. Some still have plenty of pep in their step, and love to frolick in the yard.

Feeding time for 24 specific diets is no small fete, but at 4pm sharp, meals that have been prepared throughout the day are always ready to go. All of the residents dine in their assigned rooms with their main companions.

When you meet these little guys, it’s impossible to imagine someone giving them up.

Sugar (pictured above left), a little four pound Mi-Ki, a cross between a Japanese chin, Maltese, Papillion, and Shih-Tzu, has yet to touch the ground with her tiny paws because she is always being held and cuddled by volunteers.

Then there’s Papa and Petey, two little 11-year-old dachshunds with no teeth who always sleep together in a big bed under the blankets.

At night, Sherry sleeps on the couch so she can be close to the pair and hear if they need her.

“Petey will sneak out really quietly from the covers and fly up on the couch with me. He’s trying to sneak away because Papa will wake up and be upset,” she explains. “Last night, Papa couldn’t get comfortable, so I got up with him five times.”

Sherry wakes up at 5:30 every morning, and goes to bed around 1am.

“Never do I feel like oh my gosh, what a pain, you’re waking me up. I never feel like that. As long as he needs me and is barking, it means he’s still here and he’s still alive,” she said.

Last year, a closed-in “potty patio” was added to the house, complete with air conditioning and heating.

“It’s probably the most expensive dog bathroom in the world,” Sherry admitted. “But when they get older, they can’t go outside in certain weather. You wouldn’t send a 90-year-old woman to use an outhouse, would you?”

At the moment, they can’t take in any new dogs that are not over the age of 14—Sherry says she doesn’t want to take in any dogs that might outlive her—but is currently planning to begin a grant-giving program that will help other people start similar programs or adopt and care for senior dogs themselves.

“I don’t think this can go on for than another 5-10 years unless someone comes out of the woodwork to do what I’m doing,” she said.

Any takers?

To donate, click here.

(WATCH the video below from Montgomery County Council to learn more) – Photos from House With A Heart on Facebook

Cab Driver Gets Unexpected Theme-Park Ticket To Ride From Passenger

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Sonja Schulken

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Aug 21, 2015

When an Irish businessman opted to take a day trip to the largest indoor amusement park in the world, he decided to flip the script and give his driver a ride.

As they pulled up to Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, Liam Murphy’s cab driver mentioned that after 14 years of dropping off tourists at the park, he had never been inside.

The tickets were pricey and he sent most of his money back to family in India. He said he usually sat in the cab, waiting for park goers to return — a wait that could last several hours.

Instead of making him wait, Murphy, who was traveling alone on business, sprung for an extra ticket and told the driver to park the cab and come along.

SEE These Inspiring Taxi Driver Stories at Good News Network

The two rode roller coasters, ate pizza and judging from the pictures on Liam’s Facebook page, had a great time.

After riding the fastest roller coaster in the world, the United Arab Emirates cab driver was glad to be back on the road behind four wheels that were moving below the speed limit.

(READ More at The Irish Examiner) Photos: Liam Murphy Facebook

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Poet Decides to Use $500K Genius Grant to Send Caregivers on Vacations

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Terry Turner

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Aug 21, 2015

For two years, Heather McHugh held on to half-million dollars.

After being awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant for her poetry, she just couldn’t decide what to do with the money.

That changed after her godson and his wife had a baby born with severe disabilities.

384px-HEATHER_MCHUGH_cc John D. and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation — Photo by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

McHugh decided to use the money to send full-time, unpaid caregivers—many of whom she’d never met—on week long vacations to British Columbia, Maine, and Napa Valley, California.

“It was obvious to me when that baby was born that in 10 years, they were going to need a break,” she told KPLU News, talking about her godson and his wife.

About 40 million exhausted Americans “need a break,” as McHugh put it, from the rigors of round the clock attention devoted to disabled relatives.

That’s why she set up CAREGIFTED, a foundation to provide vacations for caregivers and she often goes along to be a personal assistant for them and tend to their needs for a change.

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She says they will usually want simple things — like a walk by themselves or time to read a book — things taken for granted by most people. Full-time caregivers quickly learn that time, like their family, is precious.

(WATCH the video below) — Photo (top): CAREGIFTED

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Artist Turns Weapons of War Into Tools For Spreading Serenity (LOOK)

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Terry Turner

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Aug 21, 2015

Those shovels don’t look like much, but in a previous life, they were guns, and one artist made it is mission to turn them into something more useful.

Mexican Artist Pedro Reyes oversaw the transformation because he wanted to show “how an agent of death can become an agent of life.”

His project “Palas por Pistolas,” or “Guns Shovels” in English, is just that — turning 1,527 confiscated guns into an equal number of shovel heads. He has said in past interviews that he wants his art to help change culture.

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For this project, Reyes went to the deadliest city in Mexico, Culiacán, and asked the people there to exchange guns for certificates they could use towards household appliances or electronics. Then, he melted the weapons down and turned them into shovels to use for planting trees – and growing a brighter future.

SEE More Stories About Guns Being Turned Into Art, Tools and More

It’s not the only time Reyes has transformed guns into something else. In his “Imagine” project, he converted them into musical instruments and, along with some friends, performed Rage Against the Machine’s “Bullet to the Head” (see that video below).

(WATCH the “Imagine” video and READ more at True Activist) — Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC

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Humans of New York Raises $2M for Humans of Pakistan Living in Bondage

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Terry Turner

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Aug 21, 2015

In just five days, a popular photographer has raised two million dollars to help fight an illegal practice that borders on slavery.

Brandon Stanton, who publishes the popular “Human of New York” blog, has been documenting bonded labor in Pakistan. He launched a crowdfunding project on Indigogo hoping to raise $100,000 to fight the practice, and, in less than a week, it’s topped $2.2 million.

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In Pakistan, bonded labor is an endless cycle of debt. Owners of brick kilns offer small loans to desperate people who promise to work off the debt — often thinking it will only take a few days. The kiln owners later charge the debtor with hidden costs and he learns his debt has actually increased. The longer he works, the more he owes.

“My sister’s kidneys were failing. We tried to raise the money to save her. We sold our cattle. We sold our property....
Posted by Humans of New York on Monday, August 17, 2015

Stanton learned about the problem from Syeda Ghulam Fatima — who he calls the “Harriet Tubman of Pakistan.” She founded the Bonded Labour Liberation Front to educate workers on their rights and to make the government enforce the laws against the practice.

With his fundraising effort we see that Humans of New York — and humans from around the world — really do care. Last year, the photographer raised money for a young boy who told him that his teacher was his hero. More than a hundred thousand dollars funded field trips for the entire class to visit Harvard and imagine a new future.

(SEE more at Humans of New York and READ more at NBC News) — Photo: Humans of New York, Facebook

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Ice Bucket Challenge Leads to ALS Breakthrough, Researchers Announce

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Sheila Key

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Aug 21, 2015

It worked!

The Ice Bucket Challenge that flooded the Internet with videos of people getting drenched has led to a medical breakthrough.

Researchers have long known that a particular motor-neuron protein—named TDP-43—doesn’t function properly in 90 percent of ALS patients.

Now a grad student at Johns Hopkins Medical, in Baltimore, Maryland, is pretty sure he has figured out why. In experiments with mice, his team made a protein to mimic TDP-43, and after adding to the neurons, the cells came back to life.

“With any luck this could lead to the possibility of a cure or at least a slowing down of this terrible disease,” says pathobiology student Jonathan Ling. “We may soon be able to fix this in patients who have lots of accumulated TDP-43,” says Ling.

SEE More Medical Breakthroughs From Good News Network

He published his discovery in the journal Science last week and credited funding from the ALS Association for making his team’s research possible–money raised through the viral Ice Bucket Challenge last year.

During the social-media sensation’s peak months of August and September, more than 17 million people—including many celebrities—uploaded wet, chilly videos of themselves and drove charitable giving to over $115 million, more than tripling what the organization had earned the year before.

Fixing the dysfunctional protein will take time, Ling and his professor, Philip C. Wong, Ph.D., said in a YouTube video announcing the breakthrough. Time and, undoubtedly, more research money.

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Which is why the two are attempting to start the challenge anew.

“We want to… really push this work forward,” Wong says, as big orange buckets sneak into view on either side of the two men.

In the video, Ling and Wong each challenge three people to give more….your move, Bill Gates.

Although with the drought in California, they will probably need to drop glitter on themselves rather than buckets of water.

(WATCH video below and READ more at the BBC) — Photos: Knox County Government

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“Butt Dial” From Siri Saves Man Trapped Under 5,000 Pound Truck

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Good News Network

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Aug 20, 2015

18-year old Sam Ray was working on his 1998 Dodge Dakota when the jack holding up the 2 ½ ton truck gave way, pinning him underneath.

Ray called for help but no one could hear him. He was lucky to have Siri with him.

He heard Siri’s voice from the iPhone in his back pocket, which had been activated under pressure, so Ray asked her to call 911.

Dispatchers first thought the call from Walterhill, Tennessee was a prank. “We get a lot of pocket dials,” dispatcher Christina Lee told the Tennessean, “and I thought it was a pocket dial at first but then I heard the screams for help.”

SEE More iPhone Rescues at Good News Network

Lee sent firefighters to the scene just in time. The 18-year-old said he was starting to feel like he wasn’t going to make it.

While Lee kept reassuring Ray for seven minutes, other sheriff’s dispatchers notified LifeFlight, which medivacked him by helicopter to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Ray suffered several broken ribs, a bruised kidney and a concussion but thanks to Siri, he is lucky to be alive – no buts about it.

SEE More Inspiring Rescue Stories on Good News Network

The grateful young man met and thanked the Rutherford County team, LifeFlight and medical staff during a ceremony at the LifeFlight launch pad Friday in Nashville.

(WATCH the video below) – Photo: Rutherford County Sherriff’s Dept. via FB

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Rescue Group Helps Lamb Make Lemonade Out of His “Lemon” Legs

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Good News Network

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Aug 20, 2015

In honor of Lemonade Day, Edgar’s Mission is celebrating one sweet little lamb’s thirst for life.

When Lemonade first arrived at the Australian ranch, he was unable to walk more than a few steps.

But this is one determined lamb, and when life handed him lemons….well, you know.

Little Lemonade treated the staff with kisses and cuddles as they stretched his legs and outfitted him with splints to help build up his tendons.

Bonus: that dog in the video is really, really persistent in acting adorable for attention while mom handles Lemonade.

(WATCH the video below from Edgar’s Mission)

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Trooper Lets Daughter Decide Dad’s Fate on Speeding Ticket

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Terry Turner

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Aug 20, 2015

When an Indiana State Trooper pulled over a father who was speeding, he let the man’s daughter in the passenger seat decide between a ticket or a warning — and she laid down the law.

Trooper Darrick Scott “deputized” Ashley Ellrich as an honorary trooper, and told her she had the opportunity to decide her dad’s fate. Ashley said her dad was speeding (after he admitted it), and deserved the ticket.

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The officer was so impressed with the girl’s honesty, he knocked the punishment down to a warning.

Ashley’s dad, Dwayne Ellrich, posted the story to his Facebook page saying, “There are some great cops out there.”

The Indiana State Police posted a reply: “We are extra glad that Ashley is on our side!”

(WATCH the WRTV News video) — Photo: Dwayne Ellrich, Facebook

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Apes Appear To Have Potential For Human Speech: Study

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Sonja Schulken

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Aug 20, 2015

New research suggests that people may not be the only primates with the ability to speak.

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin made that conclusion after watching Koko, a gorilla that’s lived with humans for more than 40 years and is best known for having learned sign language.

Researcher Marcus Perlman noticed that Koko was able to perform voluntary behaviors that required control over her vocalization and breathing – learned behaviors like playing an instrument, blowing her nose into a tissue and coughing on command. Nothing special for humans but impressive for a gorilla.

“She doesn’t produce a pretty, periodic sound when she performs these behaviors, like we do when we speak,” says Perlman a postdoctoral researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But she can control her larynx enough to produce a controlled grunting sound.”

So will Koko and her fellow primates eventually be able to speak to each other, and us? Don’t start picturing Planet of the Apes just yet.

“Koko shows the potential under the right environmental conditions for apes to develop quite a bit of flexible control over their vocal tract,” says Perlman. “It’s not as fine as human control, but it is certainly control.”

In other words, apes appear to have the foundation for human speech, just like humans had about ten million years ago.

(READ More at UWM News) – Photo: Koko.org

Five Soothing Guided Meditations to Aid Your Campaign Against Stress

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Good News Network

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Aug 20, 2015

When I first sat down to meditate, I couldn’t sit still. I had what we call in Australia, “ants in my pants.”

For me, the idea of doing nothing felt like hard and lonely work, and I didn’t really connect to the practice until I found teachers and friends with whom I could sit in community. Guided meditations are a great way into the practice, as they offer a certain type of stillness that’s made comfortable by the soothing support of an external voice.

I always tell people that meditation is easier to learn with the help of a good teacher. Under the guidance of an experienced instructor we feel safe to let go and open the door to growth and transformation. Even if all we hear is inhale and exhale, we’ll feel at ease knowing that we have an external metronome and compass to rely on. To get started, try the following guided meditations from Sonima.com featuring renowned teachers such as Deepak Chopra, M.D.

All you have to do is breathe.

An essential step to starting meditation is finding the time to practice. This short one-minute meditation by Deepak Chopra is a perfect option when you’re too busy for a longer session.

This meditation with Lodro Rinzler, an author and meditation teacher on Sonima.com, focuses on tuning into the breath and cultivating calm.

The next time you are waiting for the train or find yourself with space in your day, try this meditation with Lodro Rinzler which will help you fill otherwise empty moments with mindfulness.

Discover the power of positivity with this 10-minute loving kindness meditation from meditation expert Jamie Zimmerman, M.D.

Beyond its profound effects in every day life, meditation can help you sleep better at night. This beautiful and soft meditation with Lodro Rinzler will help you ease into deep and restorative rest.

Sonia Jones is a wellness advocate and the founder of Sonima.com, a new wellness website dedicated to helping people improve their lives through yoga, workouts, guided meditations, healthy recipes, pain prevention techniques, and life advice.

Police Celebrate National Lemonade Day: “We Won’t Shut You Down Ever”

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Good News Network

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Aug 20, 2015

Every time we put something about lemonade stands on our Facebook page, we get a ton of comments about cops shutting down the stand of some local kids somewhere because they don’t have a “permit.”

Well, if you’re a kid in Leominster, Massachusetts, you are free to celebrate today, on National Lemonade Day—and every day—with your own beverage stand, because they are not going to shut you down.

Chief of Police Bob Healey says he noticed a few comments posted on their Facebook page asking why young lemonade entrepreneurs aren’t “shut down and ordered to cease and desist all operations of sales” if they failed to secure a permit. So he answered with this definitive policy:

“Fine folks here of LemonTown, I, Chief Healey, tell you now that our department will never shut down a young child’s lemonade stand! My officers enjoy a cold cup of lemonade, particularly on these scorching and muggy days. While hydrating the community, the kids are also learning about fiscal responsibility, community service and well- just being a good kid having good old fashioned fun.”

Girl’s Lemonade Stand Raises $15K to Rebuild Parents’ Burned Home

“In fact, please share by private messaging or if you want to, pick up that old fashioned telephone and give us a call telling us where and when your stand will be operating,” he concluded. “If we’re able to, we’ll stop down to support you.”

Now that’s really sweet.

Share The News on Nat’l Lemonade Day… (click below) – Photo credit: Adam Kokesh YouTube

Party Hats Placed on Surveillance Cameras Celebrate George Orwell’s Birthday

By

Terry Turner

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Aug 20, 2015

Dutch artists decorated surveillance cameras with party hats to celebrate George Orwell’s 110th birthday earlier this year.

Orwell’s classic dystopian novel, “1984,” warned about a future world where the government was obsessed with surveillance of its people.

Dutch art duo Front 404 – Thomas voor ‘t Hekke and Bas van Oerle – thought the hats would be a perfect birthday tribute.

They posted pictures to their website, and friends in other countries joined the celebrations with more hats or party balloons attached to cameras along sidewalks and on street corners.

That was June 25, and so far, there doesn’t seem to be many repercussions – no sign that the Ministry of Truth has tried to erase their pictures, no visit to Room 101 to re-educate the artists, and no denouncement from Big Brother. Yet.

(SEE more at Front 404) – Photos: Front 404

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American Swimmer Stuns World, First to Win All These Races in Single Meet

By

Sheila Key

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Aug 19, 2015

Like any world-class athlete, 18-year-old swimmer Katie Ledecky can swim hundreds of meters and make it look easy.

And, a mere 30 minutes later, she can make it look easy again.

The American won back-to-back races in the 1500-meter and 200-meter individual freestyle events at the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, earlier this month. And she went right on winning.

Female Cyclist Beats Most of the Men in Grueling Race from Canada to Mexico

By the end of the meet, the Washington, D.C., native had swept the entire category of women’s individual freestyle races.

The accomplishment makes Ledecky the first swimmer—man or woman—to win the 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1,500-meter individual freestyle races during a single meet.

She broke three world records in the process.

“Insane!” exclaims Michael Joyner, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic and an expert in human endurance, in an article by Outside Online. “The fact that Ledecky won both long- and short-distance events at the same meet puts her accomplishment on a different level than even what Michael Phelps has done.”

At 6’0” and 155 pounds, with “a huge aerobic engine,” Ledecky is perfectly built to be a great female swimmer, Joyner said. But it’s her form—the efficiency of her movements in the water—that really sets her apart.

Given endurance-sport athletes’ tendency to peak in their late-20s or even their early-30s, it looks like Ledecky’s best years are yet to come—right after she wraps up a few driver’s ed classes and finds time to “sit on the couch sipping milkshakes” after getting her wisdom teeth out.

SEE More Inspiring Athletes on Good News Network’s Sports Page

The recent high-school graduate is at home in Bethesda, Maryland, taking a ‘gap year’ off to train for the 2016 Olympics, and plans to enroll at Stanford University next fall.

(READ more at Outside Online) — Photos: Chan Fan and FreedSpirit

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Baby Taken From Mother in WWII Hugs Her for the First Time in 70 Years

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Good News Network

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Aug 19, 2015

She was taken from her mother as a baby during World War II, but now, more than 70 years later, German citizen Margot Bachmann has discovered her birth mother is alive.

With help from the Italian Red Cross and the International Tracing Service, which works to reunite war-torn families, Bachmann had the chance to hold her long lost Italian mom.

Gianna, now 91-years-old, is living in the northern Italian village of Novellara, a survivor of the forced labor camps of Nazi Germany. While in the camps, she fell in love with a German soldier, became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl in October 1944.

But the child was taken from her and later adopted and raised by the soldier’s parents.

Tearful WWII Vet Reunited With Love Letter Penned to Wife 70 Years Ago

Over the years, both women thought the other had died in the war. Ms. Bachmann’s very strict father had forbidden her to look for her mother, and it was only after he recently died that she did so.

“Even as a child I felt that something about that wasn’t true,” she recalls.

“I wanted to know who my mother was, whether we are alike, perhaps find some photos and information about her,” Bachmann said. “I would never have dared to hope that I would ever be able to embrace her. Now I am overjoyed to find out that she is well and that we can get to know each other.”

Paramedic Saves Doctor Who Saved His Life 30 Years Earlier

She wrote in a letter to her mother before their reunion: “All my life I asked my family about you, without being given any answers. I want to come and find you so that I can hug you once again. I’m immensely happy to be able to finally know you.”

Ms. Bachmann brought her daughter and other family members to the reunion in Novellara. They met and got to know the mother and many other relatives, and are already planning their next get-together.

(Learn More from the International Tracing Service)

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Oregon Shelter Delivering Tons of Pet Food to Families Fleeing Wildfires

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Good News Network

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Aug 19, 2015

The Pendleton Animal Welfare Shelter may be two hours away from John Day, Oregon where wildfires have hit hard, but that hasn’t stopped them from repeatedly taking truckloads of food to families who have been displaced.

Volunteers and board members have been working around the clock to take over 2,000 pounds of pet food to fire victims at various drop-off points and street corners. Wish lists have also popped up that include crates, leashes, beds, and other necessities.

Spiderman Dog Food PAWS Oregon submitted — Photos by Pendleton Animal Welfare Shelter

“When we heard how bad it was, we immediately started loading up trucks last Thursday,” said Shaindel Beers, an executive board member for PAWS. “Eastern Oregon is so rural, and these little towns are so far away.”

See More Inspiring Stories About Pet Food Angels at Good News Network

The organization already had dog food on hand because they operate a regular program that provides food to homeless and low-income people for free. Cat food, however, was another story—after they put out a call for donations, they had $100 to spend within an hour.

PAWS still needs help to meet the needs of everyone with a furry friend who has fled the fires. At last count, 36 homes were lost, and local sources estimate that up to 3/4 of the town’s population may lose their homes.

“They need help and they’re hard working farm people who don’t want to ask for help, but you know that they need it,” she said. “People have tried to pay us for it. We say, ‘It’s not charity, it’s sharing. If it happened to us, we’d want someone to share with us. Because if we don’t help, who will?”

Click here to help, and specify John Day via PayPal. Use the John Day River Veterinary Center as a drop off center if you are in the area.

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