Wal-Mart wants Americans, even those on a budget, to buy more organic food.
The retailer that leads U.S. stores in grocery sales said on Thursday it struck a deal to sell Wild Oats brand organic foods at non-organic prices.
The Wild Oats offers will include staples such as salsa, organic olive oil, canned black beans and tomato paste.
(READ the story from Reuters)
Britain got a double boost on Tuesday as its recovery from recession gathered momentum and the International Monetary Fund raised the country’s growth forecasts more than for any other major economy.
Factories expanded production far more quickly than expected in February, UK statistics office data showed. Separate surveys showed a strong first quarter for companies and a long-awaited pick-up in wages.
(READ the story from Reuters)
A female soldier who befriended a heroic bomb-hunting dog in Afghanistan tracked down her comrade and gave him a new home after he became too timid to serve on the front lines.
Angie McDonnell, 40, a reservist who served in war-torn Helmand province as a medic, became ‘best friends’ with four-year-old Vidar while the two were based at Camp Bastion.
(READ the story in the Daily Mail)
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan Genocide that claimed the lives of up to a million members of that country’s minority. The journey back from that insanity has not been an easy one, but coffee has played a key role in the creation of worthwhile livelihood for many of those remaining.
Inspired by Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s call for “trade – not aid”, Grace Hightower De Niro created the company Grace Hightower & Coffees of Rwanda.
Hightower wanted to establish a venture that could simultaneously empower Rwandans and help them restructure their economy. The passionate initiative is now responsible for creating livelihoods for over 500,000 coffee farmers in Rwanda.
Each bag of hand-picked and sorted coffee ($12.50 for 12 oz) goes directly toward sustaining a family for an entire year. As the redevelopment of the country continues, Grace Hightower & Coffees of Rwanda allows farmers the opportunity to market their unique products to the world.
Grace Hightower De Niro started the company in New York City offering a unique coffee line in 4 different blends. With every purchase, consumers are helping to support the future of the people in Rwanda, Africa.
(WATCH the video below)
Wow, it has been a long, winding road to get to the point where you can read this blog post from the new Good News Network website, version 4.0.
You’re looking at the fourth iteration of the website, which has evolved over nearly two decades. The first version I built alone in our spare room using Adobe software and a little html code that I taught myself from a book.
In 2012, version 3.0 started breaking down in numerous ways. Processes that had been automatic suddenly need daily updates by hand. So I started looking for developers who could update the software. Thousands were spent on hiring people in Minnesota, and then India, who were incapable of doing such a job. By last November, I felt so weary of the whole process because it was so daunting: We had 14,000 articles to migrate, along with 18,505 registered users, 4786 comments and thousands of photos to migrate to the new site.
With a persistence that I am known for, and a lot of faith, I started another round of interviews and by January I had assembled an amazingly competent team that would work together from four different parts of the globe: First and foremost, a Joomla expert in the UK, Robert Went, would work with a WordPress team in Dallas, Creative Cat Media, and a local freelancer, Anna Fischer who would handle my subscription tables, working with a husband-wife team of developers in Philadelphia who had the new membership plugin I needed.
I didn’t have the money to pay for all the hours of work that were needed. Thank GOODNESS my fans answered the call for donations which helped raise the last round of funding.
As I write this, I can hardly believe the day is finally here when we don’t have to do registrations manually and update subscription payments by hand.
It’s actually going to be FUN again, posting stories, multiplying the good, instead of being bogged down in frustrating IT dilemmas!
This site looks so great on a mobile phone that I expect we will be able to double our traffic by the end of a year.
Thanks for hanging in there, putting up with blank emails coming to your inbox, and all the other messed up processes that revealed the age of my web software, some of which was launched six years ago.
Let’s hope that major good fortune showers down upon our creative efforts at the Good News Network so in another six years I will be able to hire a project manager and not even worry about the Hows and Whys of software updates.
Always remember, in the words of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, “You affect the world by what you browse.”
P.S. Leave us some feedback about the new site down below in the Comments. It is a work in progress.
Former president George W. Bush interviewed by his daughter, Jenna Bush Hager, on the TODAY show, revealed for the first time his portraits of fellow world leaders that went on public display last week.
Bush’s passion for painting grew out of an iPad app he was fooling around with after leaving the White House in 2009. He told Jenna he never imagined himself as an artist.
More than two dozen of his portraits, including one of their dog, along with world leaders like Tony Blair, Vladimir Putin and the Dalai Lama, will be part of an exhibit called The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
“I hope they take it in the spirit in which these were painted in,” he told Jenna. “That was the spirit of friendship and that I admire them as leaders and was willing to give it a shot in terms of getting people to see how I felt about them.”
See also the painting he gave to Jay Leno on the air.
(SEE the paintings in the video below, or READ the story at TODAY)
Five leading art museums in the U.S. are collaborating with a billboard trade group to exhibit masterworks of American art outdoors in cities this summer.
50 works will be reproduced in tens of thousands of public spaces, including billboards, bus stops, and subway stations, providing chance encounters with great works of art nationwide.
It’s called Art Everywhere US, a first of its kind collaboration for US museums, based on a successful version in the UK last summer. For the project this August, online voting from the public will determine which 50 artworks make the cut, choosing from 100 paintings, designs and photographs.
The National Gallery of Art in DC, Art Institute of Chicago, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Museums of Art in Los Angeles and Dallas each chose twenty pieces from their collections that best tell the story of America.
It affords an unprecedented opportunity to acquaint countless millions of Americans and visitors to our country with some of America’s best and most memorable artworks.
The 100 artworks span the history of the United States, from portraiture before and after the American Revolution in 1776, to landscapes of the nineteenth century, to scenes of daily life in the last quarter of the 1800s, to still life paintings and images of the well-to-do. Selections from the early twentieth century take us to the American West through photography, to a scene from the Bible, to the First World War.
Gritty urban scenes documenting the Great Depression are joined by an image of the Dust Bowl in the West and the genius and travails of African-Americans at that time. Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, such Andy Warhol’s soup are also represented. Among the artists whose works are on the ballot: Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Ed Ruscha, Catherine Opie, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman and Frank Lloyd Wright.
“All in all, the 100 works in Art Everywhere US bring us face-to-face with the story of our nation, told by the visionaries who captured our essence at the time they lived and worked, and who to this day compel us to find our place in the evolving story of America,” says the Art Everywhere US website.
Billed as the biggest art exhibition in history, the project hopes to inspire everyone to visit their local museums, and start a national conversation about the importance of creativity in our schools and daily lives.
Vote for your favorites at ArtEverywhereUS.org, where the final list of 50 artworks will be announced June 20.
(READ more from the LA Times)
The Service Dog Project has donated over 45 Great Danes as service dogs to individuals with severe balance and mobility limitations, including Multiple Sclerosis, PTSD and more. Preference is given to Veterans who need a better quality of life. The daily administration, cleaning, feeding, exercise & training activities of the dogs are lovingly carried out by the project’s owner, Carlene White, her small staff, and an army of volunteers, including myself. The staff and volunteers work tirelessly for the nonprofit organization, located in Ipswich, MA, and are the foundation of the SDP program.
The 501c3, fully accredited by Assistance Dogs International, is a farm that raises Great Danes, has 2 horses, a donkey, chickens, a pond and a tee-pee. Yes, a tee-pee. The tee-pee is sponsored by the online community group known as “the camera people”, or “CP’s” and it has become a respite for those visiting to find peace and relaxation, or looking to spend quiet time with one of the dogs. The CP community grew from the comment sections of the indoor puppy & puppy hill web cams on explore.org.
Hundreds of people asking questions, sharing experiences, chatting with one another, all watched together as each batch of puppies, with their purpose predetermined, is brought into the world. They watch as they grow, develop, train and then finally, as they leave with their new recipient. A sad day for many as they have watched the dogs carefully through the months, but ultimately a glorious outcome as they continue to watch them transform the lives of their new owners. It’s amazing really. And, the community of CP’s helps keep this life-cycle flowing by answering calls for needed resources with donations, physical visits to help when they can, and, of course, they continue to watch, while becoming a part of the history, at SDP.
Laughing, smiling, meeting others only known online, meeting Carlene, the volunteers and staff, playing with dogs of all sizes, were all the main focus of those at the event. Spirit sticks were created by those who could not attend and sent to SDP to be displayed. They were shown on camera so those at home could see. Squeezed in along the way was a clam bake, barn painting, laundry folding, poop scooping, crazy hat day, chicken poop bingo and Carlene’s “chicken stew.” Volunteers spent the weekend making sure the farm ran as usual while also enjoying the festivities of the retreat. Despite some rain, the weekend was overflowing with nothing but happiness and joy, and the event was a huge success. Invigorating, actually.
With many CP’s later described the SDP retreat, via explore and Facebook comments, as the “happiest place on earth,” even better than “Disney” for those who had only before been able to visit virtually. Many cried when they had to leave.
I volunteer weekly and can tell you first hand, the farm is a wonderful experience that always leaves you wanting more. The dogs, the staff, the volunteers and the camera people, have become an important part of each others lives- they have become family. And, it is the love for the dogs, those Great Danes, that keeps people emotionally and spiritually charged. There is something dynamic about a beautifully large, selflessly loyal, fun-loving animal, whose purpose is to care for others. It is awe-inspiring and truly motivational in nature and it is heartwarming to say the least. These dogs, unbeknownst to them, are destined not only to touch the hearts and change the lives of those they service, but of every individual they meet along the way. They have helped build a community far greater than one can imagine.
New Volunteers are Always Welcome. Visit the Service Dog Project website, www.servicedogproject.org , or visit the farm during their Sunday Stew, held every Sunday from 12-4pm, for visitors to come meet the dogs, and learn about SDP. Watch the cameras on www.explore.org.
If you are a Veteran with PTSD, have MS or other immobilizing challenge and live locally, please visit the farm, or the site for more information on becoming a recipient. You are all invited to become a part of the SDP community!
After a 5-year run as a subscription news service, the Good News Network is officially announcing the removal of its paywall in order to make its daily content free to all.
I will continue to ask for your voluntary support to keep the website growing and improving. I ask that you consider giving membership pledges whenever you can (log-in and click Contribute/Membership). Or, give a Gift membership that can uplift someone you know. (These are now $15).
I want us to be partners — spreading the good news together. We are a Good News Network. The NETWORK is you!
The new interactive website was made, most importantly, with you in mind. With open blogs, users can share stories in their own words. You can also submit your best photography for the coveted Photo Of the Day spot. Most importantly, the website is now mobile friendly with lots of SHARE buttons. With one click you can MULTIPLY the good by sharing your favorite stories on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter or email it to someone who needs a smile. If you appreciate a story, someone else could benefit too.
Our Membership Bonus page – for those who contribute financially – offer some cool bonus content and goodies if you contribute as low as $2.00 per month.
*NOTE* For those who paid annual subscriptions in the last year, we are offering cash refunds if you want your money back, because the site is now free. Simply use our Contact Page and send your request, including your GNN username and the amount you would like returned. (Refunds will be made via Paypal, unless you paid by check.)
I hope you enjoy the Good News Network v. 4.0! Give us Feedback below.
A 12-year-old Texas girl who had weight-loss surgery to correct a rare metabolic problem is back home, visibly slimmer and healthier, but also much happier, less than three weeks after the potentially life-saving operation, her mother said.
Alexis Shapiro was in the news recently because the sleeve gastrectomy surgery was originally rejected by her father’s insurance company.
More importantly, she’s in good spirits and has hope for the first time since a brain tumor operation more than two years ago knocked her metabolism haywire and sent her soaring past 200 pounds.
The insurer reversed the decision and well-wishers raised more than $86,000 to help offset the family’s expenses.
(READ the story from TODAY)
Severe spinal cord injury results in a permanent loss of function and sensation — understandable because the connection between the brain and the lower body has been severed. No one had ever discovered a way to induce the body to repair such connections.
And yet, researchers have found — unexpectedly — that by using an electrical device to stimulate the spinal cord below the site of the injury, it is possible for paralyzed people to assert limited control over muscle movements, something that was thought to be impossible.
The discovery ignited the hope that, one day, there may be a way to further restore function to such people, which would help prevent the serious long-term side effects suffered when someone remains immobile for a long period of time.
The concept, written about in the Oxford Journal, is similar to the one used for auditory implants, which are now viable commercial products.
At one time, it was thought that when someone’s ears had lost the ability to hear, the person was deaf forever. But now there are devices to bypass the ear and stimulate the nerves directly. As a result, many people who were “permanently” deaf can now hear.
(READ the HealthDay story in the Philadelphia Inquirer)
Americans are drinking 20 percent less soda than they did in 1998, according to trade tracker Beverage Digest.
Diet drinks are losing market share even faster — a 6% drop in 2013, compared to a 3% drop for sugar beverages.
Since 1998, the drinking habits of Americans have been steadily moving away from carbonated sodas such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, to healthier alternatives like bottled and tap water for years.
With diabetes, obesity and tooth decay on the rise in the 1990s, people started to turn away from soft drinks because of health concerns around sugary processed drinks. During the same period, the practice of purchasing convenient single-serving bottled water became widely accepted and commonplace.
With health and environmental concerns becoming even more key in the twenty-first century, look for the trends to bend even further — away from bottle water and toward drinking filtered tap water from home or the office.
(READ more from the AP via ABC)
For the past four decades, a Saskatchewan high school English teacher has kept his commitment to thousands of former students by mailing them all a handwritten letter they had written to themselves as high school freshmen, to be read by their eyes only when they reached adulthood.
The 72-year-old retired teacher has spent countless hours tracking down students who’ve long grown up, moved away from home and married, using social media and good old-fashioned detective work. This year especially, former students’ Facebook news feeds have been awash with people delighted — and surprised — to actually get the letters.
(READ the story in the National Post)
Farm-raised fish and shellfish are taking over the seafood section at your supermarket, and the vast majority is imported.
The shrimp and tilapia typically come from warm-water ponds in southeast Asia and Latin America. Farmed salmon come from big net pens in the coastal waters of Norway or Chile. But many have voiced strong environmental concerns about these practices.
Now there is a way to make aquaculture clean and green, and locally grown, according to entrepreneurs and researchers in the United States.
American aqua-farmers are successfully delivering tilapia to grocery stores, from landlocked locations like Martinsville, Va, reducing the carbon footprint of the product and eliminating environmental problems of waste and water degradation.
Bill Martin’s self-sustaining factory Blue Ridge Aquaculture is the largest tilapia farm in the world. 15,000 live fish leave the local facility every day. The plant recycles about 85 to 90 percent of it’s water (used by the fish) and also captures its own waste and does not rely on the ocean to feed its tilapia.
(READ the story or LISTEN to it at NPR)
Each morning, Greg Kloehn takes a cup of coffee and drives around the streets near his home studio looking for the piles of illegally dumped trash that show up every night. One man’s trash can be another man’s construction materials.
He takes anything that might help him build a home: pallets, 2x4s, refrigerator doors and shelving, and paint.
A team of volunteers helps Greg mold those pieces into tiny, moveable structures.
Since his first home give-away, Greg has built more than a dozen small homes on wheels and gifted them to the area’s homeless.
(WATCH the video or READ the story in NBC’s Bay Area Proud)
Afghanistan’s presidential election closed on Saturday amid relief that attacks by Taliban fighters were fewer than feared for a vote that will bring the first-ever democratic transfer of power in a country plagued by conflict for decades.
It will take six weeks for results to come in from across Afghanistan’s rugged terrain and a final result to be declared in the race to succeed President Hamid Karzai.
“The millions of women and men who cast their ballots are a testament to the courage and the commitment of Afghans to exercise their rights and shape their future,” said United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon in a statement highlighting the “momentous achievement,” despite threats and intimidation.
Noting the strong participation of women in the polls, as election workers, observers, candidates and, above all, as voters, Mr. Ban said the elections marked “another step forward for Afghan women in taking their rightful place in society and having a say in their country’s future on an equal basis with Afghan men.”
The Secretary-General commended the Afghan national security forces who, in the face of serious Taliban threats, showed “professionalism and dedication that enabled citizens to vote on 5 April.”
The head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reported, “Ordinary Afghans turned out to vote in remarkable numbers, defying Taliban attacks and threats. Often in long queues and bad weather, voters patiently waited to exercise their basic human right to vote.”
(READ the report from Reuters)
Ali Jawad, a 22-year-old business student and regular volunteer at a Muslim food bank in London, sees a constant stream of people picking up packaged goods to feed themselves over the next five days.
Food banks in the UK are overwhelmingly operated by church-affiliated groups, including the 421 outlets run by Christian charity, the Trussell Trust. Yet Sufra, meaning “come to the table” in Arabic, is one of a growing number of Muslim organizations also attempting to tackle food poverty.
(READ the story in the Guardian)
20 years ago oysters had nearly disappeared from the Chesapeake bay. Today, the mollusk’s reintroduction is playing a vital role in the health of world’s third largest estuary.
An oysterman who has worked these waters for 40 years says in recent summers thick algae thrived in the sweltering temperatures.
But last year “all summer long, I was able to see the bottom, which means the oysters were filtering and cleaning,” he told AFP.
Oysters have also been starring on the menus a thriving seafood restaurant scene in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
(READ the story from AFP)
Nothing can compare with the freshness and incredible flavor of home grown fruits, herbs and vegetables. My family can hardly wait to harvest the first tomatoes from the garden to use in homemade tomato basil soup and a BLT sandwich!
Home gardens minimize your exposure to dangerous pesticides, chemicals and tainted produce. You have complete control over what goes in your food.
Not only will the food make you healthier, the exercise you get while working in a garden is such a benefit. Focus on all the calories you’ll burn while tilling, weeding, and harvesting your bounty. Finally, for me, digging in the dirt inspires peace, relaxation and a closeness with the earth.
Growing your own will save you money in several ways. Fewer trips to the store will cut impulse buying. Seeds and plants are cheaper than grocery store produce, and extras can be preserved and dried for the future.
Those of you who live in apartments or densely populated areas and don’t have your own plot of land may be able to rent a garden plot – check your local newspaper for information, or grow a few plants in pots on a balcony.
Check out my favorite six best selling gardening books – most are available in hardcover, paperback or ebook:
The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible
Square Foot Gardening: The Revolutionary Way to Grow More In Less Space
The secret to growing bountiful harvests throughout the season is knowing exactly when to start seeds indoors, transplant them into the ground, pinch off the blossoms, check, for bugs and pick for peak flavor. The Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook: Make the Most of Your Growing Season
For the gardener on a budget, check out this book with money saving ideas for a great garden in a short space of time. Low Cost Gardening: A Recycled Garden
FOR KIDS: Plant a pumpkinseed with a child, and cultivate wonder. Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening with Children
And finally, a must-have for all gardeners: Preserving Summer’s Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow
Gardening is not for everyone. If the work and planning is too daunting and you have a little extra cash, a weekly visit to your local farmer’s market will get you the same flavors as home-grown food.
Happy growing!
Researchers at Oregon State University have found a way to make the sun a “one-stop shop” that both produces the materials for solar devices and the energy to power.
The discovery could drastically reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing solar materials, according to Chemical engineering professor Chih-Hung Chang.
