I just wanted to let everyone know that yesterday I marked the 16th anniversary since I pushed the button to launch the Good News Network around the world.
It is particularly sweet because I am redesigning the site this summer with all new software and hope to unveil our brilliant work at the end of the month.
Melbourne, with its beautiful parks, enviable healthcare, and Australian coastline, has been ranked the world’s most livable city for the third year running.
In fact, Australia dominates the list prepared by the Economist with four cities in the top ten – Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth. Three Canadian cities also made the list with Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary ranking number three, four and five.
Vienna, Austria was ranked the second most livable city and Helsinki, Finland was the other European city in the top ten, taking the number 8 spot.
Auckland, New Zealand was rated number 10.
(READ the story from the Daily Mail)
31-year-old Jonathan Stoklosa, who has Down syndrome, is a young man with incredible power – both to lift the spirits of shoppers at his day job, and to bench press 400 pounds, amazing all at a local gym at night.
Jon is an incredible powerlifter. Not an incredible Special Olympics powerlifter – just an incredible powerlifter, period. He competes in regular matches, often placing in the top three.
A 23-year-old bank robber who stood before a federal judge 13 years ago asking for leniency and vowing to change did change – after a long sentence in federal prison. Now the two are conversing in public, on equal footing, about how long the sentence should have been.
The ex-con’s remarkable ascent began in the prison law library, where he became not only a good jailhouse lawyer but also a successful Supreme Court practitioner.
Shon Hopwood wrote a book about his experience called, Law Man: My Story of Robbing Banks, Winning Supreme Court Cases, and Finding Redemption
(READ the story from the NY Times)
A photo of a Marine’s wife carrying her wounded warrior husband is an inspiring example of people coping with and making the best of life.
Jesse Cottle said sometimes it is just how they get around.
He and his wife, Kelly, were having photos taken during a family weekend when everyone gathered in the water.
Jesse, a double amputee, then took off his prosthetic legs and hopped on Kelly’s back so she could carry him in.
They had no idea what would happen when the photo was posted online to Facebook.
(READ the story from RTV-6, the IndyChannel)
At 105 years old, Edythe Kirchmaier is still as smart and engaging as she was at 65.
She is the oldest user on Facebook and for her birthday she asked for 105,000 “Likes” on the page of her favorite charity. Her Facebook friends already number 36,000 and they made her wish come true, tallying more than 124,000 “Likes” for the medical nonprofit Direct Relief.
“It’s overwhelming,” said the tech-savvy great-grandmother. “I never thought I’d make that much of an impression on people.”
She is also still driving a car — a new Honda gifted to her by an anonymous stranger after appearing on the ELLEN show. In all her decades of driving, she said, she has never gotten a ticket or citation.
(WATCH the video from TODAY or READ the story on MSNBC)
The Obama administration said Thursday that it would not challenge laws legalizing marijuana in Colorado and Washington state as long as those states strongly restrict sales to minors, prevent exports to other states and keep it off of federal lands.
The memo, which was welcomed by proponents of marijuana legalization, directs federal prosecutors to focus on eight areas of enforcement rather than spending time targeting individual users.
One of the most inspiring people in the world, Nick Vujicic, a well-known motivational speaker born without arms or legs, got married last year.
He overcame incredible odds to live a relatively normal, but at times extraordinary, life.
(GNN featured his 2011 Video and Book Here)
He and his 25-year-old wife were married on Valentine’s Day 2012 and the couple gave birth to their first child six months ago.
Their baby Kiyoshi has “all ten fingers and all ten toes” and his photo was posted on Nick’s Facebook Page.
(WATCH the video below from CBS Sunday Morning)
[This article was updated with current information on Nick’s family]
January was traditionally a slow period for sea lions at the San Pedro care center. But nearly 50 sea lions had come in, more than twice than the year before. In February, 105 were admitted. The next month, nearly 240.
It was the same in care centers from San Diego to Santa Barbara, all inundated with the months-old emaciated pups that had washed up on shore.
Plans are afoot to release a series of posthumous books by J.D. Salinger after 2015, according to the authors of a new biography about The Catcher in the Rye writer.
The New York-born writer became increasingly reclusive after the early 1960s. He continued to write during his self-imposed retirement, but stopped having his work published.
“Labor” Day takes on a new meaning this year with the 2013 Rally to Improve Birth being organized in 160 cities across America, and around the world.
Behind this global event is a mother, Cristen Pascucci, pushing to improve the birthing experience for all women.
In the final days of Pascucci’s pregnancy two years ago, something happened that radically changed her view of how pregnant and birthing women are treated in this country.
Angela Caballeros, 22, stands in her family’s living room in Broadmoor looking out the front door. Her mother and her grandmother are there, too. They can hardly wait to see the letter and meet the man who saved it, treasured it — even framed it — and vowed to return it to “the unknown Angela.”
“Oh, look, he’s in a park ranger car,” Angela says excitedly, and then Rob Turan walks into the house, holding the gift he has kept for so long and driven all the way from Chatanooga, Tenn., to give back.
(READ the wonderful story, w/ photos, from the Times-Picayune)
Managers of a New Jersey shop had to search for four teens who were captured on surveillance cameras entering the store even though it was closed at the time.
A malfunctioning lock left the door open to anyone who wanted to walk in.
These guys nabbed a few items but they also left the money – plus tax – on the counter.
Fifty years ago, some 250,000 people — young and old, rich and poor, black and white — marched to the Lincoln Memorial in a show of support for the burgeoning civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream speech” riveted the crowd. But others, like Hollywood actor Burt Lancaster and folk singer Bob Dylan, also had something to say on that day.
The Canadian Broadcast Network put together an interactive page on which you can see videos and descriptions describing the March’s effect on 50 different types of people.
India has banned hunting sharks for only their fins in a move to protect endangered species from indiscriminate killing for trade abroad.
The practice of slicing off a shark’s fins has exploded worldwide due to demand from China, where shark fin soup is considered a delicacy.
The outgoing Grade 12 class at High River’s high school in Alberta finally had a graduation ceremony roughly two months after a flood disaster hit their community hard just days before the event was supposed to take place.
Many of the graduates who lost their possessions in the flood wore dresses and tuxes donated by people from all over the country.
With US Attorney-General Eric Holder announcing plans to curb mass incarceration, could restorative justice transform America’s prison-industrial complex?
On a dare, six young men, ages 10-13, broke into a giant chemical processing plant in Colorado. What occurred that night transformed one policeman who previously sought to deliver the maximum punishment for every crime.
Every year during “Welcome Week” at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, students get a chance to win free tuition by making a half-court basketball shot.
For the first time, a student sank the difficult shot as the gymnasium erupted in cheers.
Freshman Markus Burden, from Frankfort, Illinois will get his Spring semester tuition for free, a prize worth $11,000.
Every day on his way to work Patrick McConlogue passes a young man who lives on the streets — a guy whose eyes still shine with the light of determination and intelligence.
Last week, McConlogue, a New York City entrepreneur, programmer and designer, decided to offer the man a choice: Either he could accept $100 in cash, or he could learn how to code and be given three books on JavaScript, a used laptop and free lessons for one hour each day.
Leo accepted the offer of programming lessons.
Patrick promised to write updates on his blog (Medium.com), letting his readers know how the experiment was progressing.
In the first August 25 update, McConlogue wrote that Leo really is a genius: “As I sat there becoming increasing stunned, he rattled off import/export prices on food, the importance of solar and green energy, and his approval for ‘efficient public transportation initiatives [referring to NY’s new Citibike]’.”
“He is smart, logical, and articulate. Most importantly, he is serious.”
Follow the unfolding story on Leo’s Facebook Community, Journeyman.
Fertilizer runoff has led to a global decline in seagrass meadows, which provide crucial habitat for fish. But thanks to the return of sea otters, these meadows are flourishing in a major estuary in California, scientists say.
Fertilizer from farms in Salinas flows into Monterey Bay, carrying phosphates and other nutrients that fuel the growth of algae to the detriment of seagrass leaves.
