The American Federation of Teachers, vilified by critics as an obstacle to school reform, is leading an unusual effort to turn around a floundering school system in a place where deprivation is layered on heartache.
The AFT wants to improve education deep in the heart of Appalachia by simultaneously tackling the social and economic troubles of McDowell County.
At Kmart stores across the country, anonymous donors are paying off strangers’ layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn’t afford, especially toys and children’s clothes set aside by impoverished parents.
In one case, an Indianapolis woman in her mid-40s had paid the layaway orders for as many as 50 people before leaving the store.
About 2.5 million young people have received health insurance coverage as a result of health care reform measures that President Barack Obama signed into law last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.
About 2.5 million more people, aged 19 to 25, have health insurance than had it before the law took effect because of a provision that lets young adults remain on their parents’ insurance plans through age 26.
Parents, or their kids, are paying for the new coverage after the new law forced insurance companies to offer the option to existing family policies.
After several arrests, drug addiction and being homeless, a Miami man has overcome the odds to graduate from Florida International University with a master’s degree in social work.
50-year-old Aaron Alvin was the only one of thousands to get a standing ovation at Tuesday night’s graduation ceremony in Miami.
(WATCH the video below from WTVJ or read the story at MSNBC)
Fewer new death sentences are being handed out in the U.S. than ever before, according to a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center.
So far in 2011, 78 people convicted of murder have been sentenced to death – the first time in 35 years that the figure has dropped below 100.
Authors of the report cite the heightened awareness of the risks of executing the innocent as one of the main causes for the decline.
Facebook is making it easier for people who express suicidal thoughts on the social networking site to get help.
A program launched Tuesday enables users to instantly connect with a crisis counselor through Facebook’s “chat” messaging system.
In the past Facebook directed users to a hotline number through an email, but the new service goes a step further by enabling an instant chat session that experts say can make all the difference with someone seeking help.
Google Inc. announced Wednesday that it’s providing $11.5 million in grants to 10 organizations working to end modern-day slavery and human trafficking.
Google said on its charitable website that its grants will “free more than 12,000 people from modern-day slavery” and prevent “millions more from being victimized.”
The Google blog said, “Modern day slavery is a multi-billion dollar industry that ruins the lives of around 27 million people.”
Military families at the Red River Army Depot joined together to help the children of Texarkana in a Toys For Tots drive that broke previous annual records. Members loaded Army trucks with 500 bicycles, 1350 toys, 6,200 non-perishable food items and $875 in cash contributions.
The depot dedicated the 2011 campaign to the memory of one of their own, Ryan Johns, who worked there but passed away Sept. 25, after spending his life helping others.
Several employees from the division wore shirts during the pickup ceremony with Johns’ picture.
Taylor’s son, Skylar, heard his mother talking about the Toys for Tots campaign and how the depot was dedicating it to Johns. He decided he wanted to play a part as well. The 9-year-old immediately emptied his piggy bank which contained $100 and donated it to help purchase toys.
Johns, who is remembered for his generosity, donated $1,000 to the Toys for Tots campaign in 2007.
Several depot members are already discussing how to make next year’s Toys for Tots Campaign better than ever.
“Toys for Tots is something very big at this depot and something we all take great pride in,” said Deputy Commander Patton Tidwell.
Toys for Tots begin in 1947 when Maj. Bill Hendricks and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children. The depot in Texas began its participation more than 20 years ago.
“The people at Red River are very loving and giving and are aware of all the support that the local community has given to this depot over the years,” said Mary Jayne Locke, depot coordinator for the campaign.
After an online poll and months of reporting on the most influencial news throughout the year, TIME magazine today named “The Protester” as its 2011 Person of the Year.
“No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor in a town barely on a map set himself on fire in a public square, it would spark protests that would bring down dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and rattle regimes in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain,” wrote Time editor Rick Stengel.
“That spirit of dissent would spur Mexicans to rise up against the terror of drug cartels, Greeks to march against unaccountable leaders, Americans to occupy public spaces to protest income inequality, and Russians to marshal themselves against a corrupt autocracy.”
It’s never too late to be recognized for bravery.
67 years after the US Army assumed she was killed when a bomb destroyed the hospital where she worked, a Belgian nurse who saved the lives of hundreds of soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge was given an American award for valor on Monday.
Augusta Chiwy, who is 93, received the Civilian Award for Humanitarian Service for helping wounded and dying American soldiers, often coming under enemy fire while combing the battlefields to find more of the wounded in the deep snow.
(READ the AP story in the New York Times)
Filipino-American Robin Lim, a midwife based in Indonesia, has won CNN’s coveted Hero of the Year award for 2011.
As founder of the Healthy Mother Earth Foundation health clinics in Indonesia, Lim, who is most often referred to as “Ibu” or “mother”, has helped thousands of impoverish mothers in the country with free birthing services from prenatal care, medical aid to delivery.
Is he asking for Change, or is he asking for change?
Filmmaker Sharon Wright creates a short film about a man as he affects multiple peoples’ lives with just one dollar.
Written and directed by Wright, the film proves that it doesn’t take much to be the change in someone’s life.
Some fish tales are hard to believe. But Tom Satre has the photos to back up the story.
Second Chance Ranch told the story on Facebook:
Satre told a reporter in Corvalis, Ore. that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat.
“Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to… circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat.”
Some fish tales are hard to believe. But Tom Satre has the photos to back up the story.
Second Chance Ranch told the story on Facebook:
Satre told a reporter in Corvalis, Ore. that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat.
“Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to… circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat.”
The Teddy Bear Toss is a grand tradition in Canadian minor league hockey, especially in Calgary where last week the junior league Hitmen were showered with thousands of stuffed animals for charity after scoring their first goal of the night.
Fans eager to toss the toys battled anticipation for 38 minutes until the first goal was scored. It then took 20 minutes for all of the 25,303 bears to be collected from the ice, the second-most in franchise history.
The Teddy Bear Toss is a grand tradition in Canadian minor league hockey, especially in Calgary where last week the junior league Hitmen were showered with thousands of stuffed animals for charity after scoring their first goal of the night.
Fans eager to toss the toys battled anticipation for 38 minutes until the first goal was scored. It then took 20 minutes for all of the 25,303 bears to be collected from the ice, the second-most in franchise history.
Sixteen families in South Africa are likely to never forget this year’s 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign.
As the campaign drew to a close on Saturday, the families—most of whom can relate to issues the campaign seeks to address—had reason to celebrate as they were given their own houses.
The 16 recipients included people with disabilities, women and orphans, all of whom received houses from the government stocked with double beds, electric stoves, irons, kitchen pots and utensils.
Anticipation is building in the run-up to presentations of the best-yet evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson.
The famed particle is a missing link in current theories of physics, used to explain how everything gains its mass.
Rumours have been swirling about the findings for weeks, ahead of the announcement on Tuesday afternoon, even if it will likely yield only partial hints.
Krissi Fajgenbaum has helped thousands of low-income teens to look and feel their best, after watching a documentary about the poverty and unemployment in a nearby community.
She founded Teens 2 Teens, a nonprofit that collects gently used designer clothing to offer students in the poorest counties of North Carolina.
Krissi’s Kloset is the boutique where students from the Robbinsville school district can shop for free.
The government of Japan has pledged $17 million dollars to Afghanistan to provide more people with clean drinking water and electricity.
According to Afghan media reports, the money will be given to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Energy and Water to spend in Kabul and elsewhere.
Small dams will be built for creating electricity and water canals to boost agriculture.
