Wages in Britain grew at their fastest rate in six years during November, a labour market survey indicated on Monday, providing a rare signal that a long-term decline in real incomes is being checked by a return to economic growth.
Last month starting salaries for permanent staff rose at their highest rate since November 2007, according to survey data from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and consultancy KPMG.
(READ the story from Reuters)
Perhaps no adult employed at Trinity High School has had more influence over students or changed more young lives than Charles Clark, the school’s custodian. Clark has mentored countless kids in need of a father figure at the Texas high school, even housing several of them in his home over the years. In the beginning, he took the custodial position thinking he would keep it until he found something better, but 24 years later, he still hasn’t found it.
Now Clark, 63, has bested more than 400 teachers, administrators and school district employees from 33 states to become the “LifeChanger of the Year” Grand Prize Winner. The national award honors outstanding educators and school district employees who make a difference in the lives of students by exemplifying excellence, positive influence and leadership.
It’s a Maine tradition that continues to grow every year. Today, Wreaths Across America embarked on its annual trek to Arlington National Cemetery. More than 100,000 wreaths will be placed at the grave sites of U.S. fallen soldiers.
Dozens of trucks, motorcycles and cars rolled through Belfast on Sunday, stopping for their first lunch break of the six-day journey.
Mexican entrepreneurs developed a system capable of using the vehicular flow to generate electric energy. This development has the potentiality to produce sufficient electricity to power up a household through a device that “catches” the force of the moving cars.
This is a technology that provides sustainable energy and could be implemented at low prices, since it’s a complement of already existing infrastructure: the concrete of streets and avenues,” Héctor Ricardo Macías Hernández, developer of the system, said.
(READ more at Science Daily)
An anonymous patron is leaving a trail of generous gratuities on bar and restaurant tabs across the country, signing each credit-card receipt with the same name as the Instagram account he uses to document his giveaways: @TipsForJesus.
Micah Olson learned about the man Tuesday night only after he left the Phoenix restaurant he co-owns. The mysterious man arrived with a woman and asked Olson, who was working behind the bar, whether he had ever heard of Tips for Jesus.
A man, who can clearly be identified on surveillance video, was caught stealing from a tip jar in a Cleveland, Ohio coffee shop.
But instead of pressing charges, the Nervous Dog, is choosing to host a food drive for the obviously desperate customer.
“In the spirit of the season, instead of getting steamed, these baristas are offering up an olive branch, a warm cup of coffee, and a lesson in compassion,” reported WKYC.
So far they’ve raised three boxes of food for the man, should he want to come in and pick it up.
(READ the story from WKYC)
PBS will give fans of the “Downton Abbey” Crawley clan free tea and biscuits from a mobile tea truck tooling around New York City next week, in a marketing stunt ahead of the Jan. 5 U.S. premiere of season 4.
The truck will be parked at a different Manhattan location each day Monday through Friday. Costumed servers will dole out free tea and cookies to fans and let them take photos against the backdrop of Highclere Castle.
(READ the story from Variety)
The electric guitar Bob Dylan was playing at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when he got booed for playing rock ‘n’ roll, sold for $965,000 on Friday, which is a world auction record for a guitar.
The 1964 Fender Stratocaster had been accidentally left on a private aircraft by the songwriter and his band in the months after the Rhode Island festival.
“Today’s result justifies the mythic status of this guitar in the annals of music history,” said Tom Lecky, a specialist at the auction house, Christie’s.
The original case and leather strap were also included in the sale, which was won by an anonymous bidder.
(READ the story from Reuters – WATCH the moment the crowd booed on the video below)
Former South African President Nelson Mandela was hailed on Thursday as a champion of reconciliation who ‘achieved more than could be expected of any man,’ as people the world over mourned his death and celebrated his triumphant fight against apartheid in South Africa.
Mandela endured life in prison for 27 years until his release in 1990 following an international campaign that lobbied for his release. Amid escalating civil strife, he published his autobiography and opened negotiations with President F.W. de Klerk to abolish apartheid.
As we reported Tuesday, the U.S. economy is continuing to gain steam. Housing, manufacturing, auto sales rates have all been rising.
This week has also been a great one for workers: The Labor Department said Friday that employers created 203,000 jobs last month, sending the unemployment rate tumbling by three-tenths of a point to 7 percent — the lowest level since 2008.
One day. 500 animals. 14 private planes. 120 rescue organizations. 100’s of volunteers. 30,000 air miles. 11 destinations. And many, many happy tails.
Today is the big day for Wings of Rescue, the non-profit that is making holiday dreams come true for hundreds of dogs in high kill shelters, bringing them to live in new “fur-ever” homes.
Funded by Subaru of America, Wings of Rescue will conduct its 3rd Annual Holiday Airlift, saving dogs in Southern California – many literally on the day they are to be euthanized. A fleet of volunteer pilots in private planes will fly these bundles of love to rescue organizations and new homes in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, in the largest one-day animal rescue on the West Coast.
Reverend Nathan Detering, a minister at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Area Church in Sherborn, Massachusetts, tried an experiment last year with his congregation. Instead of members donating money to the church, they were given money as a “reverse offering,” and charged to do some good with it.
Each was given between $5.00 and $20.00 in an envelope.
“That small amount of money was given a large meaning. And I really wanted people to appreciate that. It’s not the number on the bill that can make the difference, often it’s the intention behind it.”
Marina Andric of Frankfurt, Germany, was about to turn the big 3-0 when she read the Good News Network story about the 22 year old girl who did 22 acts of kindness on her birthday.
“When I read it I felt inspired to do something great for my birthday and after a few evenings of brainstorming I had an idea,” she said.
She threw a birthday party in Germany and Africa at the same time!
Not only is this another example of homeless men going out of their way to return valuable belongings to the owners, it is also shines a spotlight on a generous four-diamond hotel that rewarded one such man in a big way for his good deed.
Joel Hartman was digging through a dumpster, hoping to find someone’s leftover food. Instead, he found a French woman’s wallet. Inside was her identification and credit card.
Hartman, 36, said he could’ve kept it. But he didn’t.
He thought such a loss would have been too hard on a foreign traveller.
He went to four hotels until he succeeded in finding the one where the wallet’s owner was staying.
That was three weeks before Thanksgiving.
Two weeks later, the luxurious Omni Hotel at CNN Center finally located Hartman and invited him to stay at their hotel for five nights through Thanksgiving. They planned to feed him and give him new clothes.
On top of that, they gave him $500 in cash “for doing the right thing”.
UPDATE: (Provided by Dianne Smith Byrd as seen on the Atlanta news) The story gets better from there. His stepmother had been looking for him for years and, seeing this on TV, has reunited with him, along with his two brothers who did not know where he was or that he was homeless. In addition, a local salon cut & styled his hair and beard.
(WATCH the video below and READ MORE in the Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Most people thought he was poor.
When he spotted a bargain price on frozen orange juice one year, Jack MacDonald bought so many cans that he had to purchase a new stand-alone freezer just to hold them all. He clipped coupons and took a bus — not a cab — to a University of Washington alumni luncheon he attended in his later years.
Only a tight circle of family and friends knew that MacDonald was nurturing a secret fortune.
When he died in September at the age of 98, he left a $187.6 million charitable trust for three charities, two of them serving poor and sick children.
(WATCH the video below)
With most superheroes, when you take away the colorful costume, mask and cape, what you find underneath is a white man.
But not always. In February, as part of a continuing effort to diversify its offerings, Marvel Comics will begin a series whose lead character, Kamala Khan, is a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City.
She’s “strong and beautiful” and has moved beyond her “baggage of being Pakistani and ‘different.’”
(READ the story in the New York Times)
Motivational child speaker “Kid President,” whose real name is Robby Novak, tells us his list of 20 things we should say more often.
This delightful video includes references to corn dogs, barbecue sauce and what to say if your friend’s favorite sports team loses to your favorite team.
My favorite one is “Life is tough, but so are you.”
(WATCH the video below)
The good Samaritan who took a chance on a young homeless man in New York City, offering to teach him how to write computer code, is seeing his good deed pay off.
In August, Patrick McConlogue, a New York entrepreneur, programmer and designer, gave the homeless guy an old laptop, three textbooks and an hour of his time each day for two months.
The result was a life changing offer that epitomizes the old adage, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”
The kids at the Hebrew Academy of Huntington Beach could barely contain their excitement Tuesday as a sword- and shield-wielding Judah Maccabee — the hero in the story of Hanukkah — stepped from the Los Angeles Police Department helicopter that had just landed on their playground.
“They have to feel proud of who they are,” he said. “And when we have a situation like this in the holiday season where there so many other exciting things going on, they have to know their own holiday is important.”
(READ the story, w/ photo, in the HB Independent)
Right after World War II, Ruth Crawford recalls, big weddings were a rarity for Americans. That’s when she married the love of her life, but never got to wear a gorgeous dress.
The 70-year-old widow was still wishing she had gotten to try on wedding dresses, when an organization called Second Wind Dreams made a proposal.
The group, which has granted thousands of wishes for elderly people, brought Ruth’s dream to life at a David’s Bridal shop recently.
Her family and friends surprised her in the waiting room and cheered as Crawford chose her favorite gown.
“When I saw myself in the mirror, I couldn’t believe that that could be me,” she told NBC News’ TODAY show.
You can help fund dreams for seniors too. Visit their website at www.secondwind.org.
(WATCH the touching video below)
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