A new law passed by the California state Assembly could, for the first time ever, make it legal for a corporation to put social responsibility before shareholder profits.
State law currently requires corporations to put financial interests first, and any corporation not doing so could face legal action from shareholders.
A new law passed by the California state Assembly could, for the first time ever, make it legal for a corporation to put social responsibility before shareholder profits.
State law currently requires corporations to put financial interests first, and any corporation not doing so could face legal action from shareholders.
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Ruth Johnson found a way to use her extensive real estate experience to “give back” to those who serve unselfishly in our communities — not only veterans, but firefighters, police officers, teachers and healthcare workers.
For the Homes for Heroes program, she recruited real estate agents, lenders, insurers and home inspectors to provide significant discounts and rebates to the heroes of Minnesota.
She later realized that not only was it the right thing to do – it’s good business too. “It is a win-win situation,” she explained. Through ‘word of mouth’ affiliates see their businesses growing after joining the program.
“The saying ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ goes hand in hand with my decision to be part of the Homes for Heroes program,” said Johanna Roy, a realtor in Vadnais Heights, MN. “It gives me great pride to finally give back to those that give so much to others.”
The program was so successful, it spread nationwide. Heroes across the country now register on the website every day looking to save money on their purchase, refinance or residential rental. The website matches them with affiliates in their area.
(WATCH the video below, and view another and read the story in Wisconsin‘s News8000)
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Ruth Johnson found a way to use her extensive real estate experience to “give back” to those who serve unselfishly in our communities — not only veterans, but firefighters, police officers, teachers and healthcare workers.
For the Homes for Heroes program, she recruited real estate agents, lenders, insurers and home inspectors to provide significant discounts and rebates to the heroes of Minnesota.
In 1995, 62 year old Wilma Melville and her black lab Murphy were deployed to the Oklahoma City bombing for search and rescue work.
Devastated by the experience, Melville saw a national need to better train and increase the number of professional canine rescue teams.
She founded the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, a non-profit that partners shelter dogs with firefighters. The 131 FEMA certified teams trained for free, have deployed to 80 missions worldwide, including the World Trade Center on September 11th, the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami in Japan and the tornado in Joplin.
In 1995, 62 year old Wilma Melville and her black lab Murphy were deployed to the Oklahoma City bombing for search and rescue work.
Devastated by the experience, Melville saw a national need to better train and increase the number of professional canine rescue teams.
She founded the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, a non-profit that partners shelter dogs with firefighters. The 131 FEMA certified teams trained for free, have deployed to 80 missions worldwide, including the World Trade Center on September 11th, the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami in Japan and the tornado in Joplin.
The gifts keep coming to Antonio Diaz Chacon, after his quick actions rescued a little girl following her kidnapping several weeks ago. Two gifts, in particular, are cause for celebration.
Whirlpool honored the hero Tuesday afternoon with the delivery of a brand new washing machine and dryer, along with instructions for technicians to provide “White Glove VIP Treatment”.
Jennifer Ferris was crowned Ms. New York World International 2011, but throughout her early life, and into her 20’s, constant depression made her days unbearable.
“I often felt helpless, hopeless and extremely sad,” she wrote in an online article. “No one truly understood just how overwhelmed and very alone I was feeling.”
Her personal triumph over depression and constant bullying in school has inspired her to help others to achieve happier, healthier lives despite their challenges.
A man jumped into an out-of-control Jeep as it drifted across lanes of traffic on a bustling parkway and steered the vehicle safely into a guardrail after its driver suffered a seizure, authorities said.
In Georgia Thursday, the Jeep was weaving through fast-moving traffic and had slowed dangerously before the good Samaritan came to the rescue.
(READ the AP story at Yahoo)
An experimental, made-in-Ottawa virus that attacks tumors has been shown to be a safe and potentially useful drug against hard-to-treat cancers, justifying further trials in more patients.
Early results even raise the possibility that the treatment could actually prevent the spread of tumours — a long-desired goal in the hunt for better cancer therapies.
As a social studies teacher in a Boston public high school for 14 years, Stephen Banno has developed a curriculum called the “Love Course,” that present “ancient cultural wisdoms coupled with the latest discoveries in modern science to address issues concerning love in our contemporary lives.”
The class focuses on personal happiness, good relationships, how to flourish with others, friendship, marriage, the love of the environment, altruism, agapic love, and “random acts of kindness.”
Students have reported that in small ways, they have transformed themselves, their friends, and the school around them.
(READ the story from Ode magazine)
Ten years ago, if you wanted to download some music, you either had to do it illegally or use low-quality streaming services from rival record companies that prohibited burning to disc and downloads.
What happened? Steve Jobs happened, mainly.
The design team at Apple came up with the iPod, and Jobs persuaded the music companies – which wouldn’t license their songs to bigger names like Microsoft – to go with him because, he said, Apple was tiny (which it was, at the time, a few percent of the PC market).
Today, 10 years after the start of production, the two millionth MINI was driven off the production line at Plant Oxford by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Of the two million, more than 1.5 million MINIs have been exported to customers in more than 90 countries around the world from Australia to Venezuela.
Less than two months ago, from a humble, but well-equipped studio in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, two young television anchors presented the first broadcast of a new nightly newscast that could prove to be significant for Palestinian civil society.
As the first independent Palestinian media organization, Ma’an News Agency has already been publishing news in Arabic and English since 2005 on its website. The benefits of their new satellite television program are quickly becoming apparent.
As Palestinians are moving forward with institution-building and law enforcement, a greater need for transparency in government can only be fulfilled by the presence of a free and independent media. Along with the free flow of information, the freedom to voice opinions and criticisms are essential for civic participation.
In 2006, Michelle Khine, PhD arrived at the University of California’s brand-new Merced campus eager to establish her first lab. She was experimenting with tiny liquid-filled channels in hopes of devising chip-based diagnostic tests. The trouble was, the specialized equipment she needed to make microfluidic chips cost more than $100,000 — money that wasn’t immediately available.
An impatient person, she began racking her brain for a quick-and-dirty way to make microfluidic devices. Khine then remembered her favorite childhood toy: Shrinky Dinks, large sheets of thin plastic that can be colored with paint or ink and then shrunk in a hot oven. “I thought if I could print out the [designs] at a certain resolution and then make them shrink, I could make channels the right size for microfluidics,” she says.
And voilà: a finished microfluidic device that cost less than a fast-food meal.
After the earthquake in Haiti destroyed much of the country’s higher-education infrastructure, the University of the People decided to set up three computer centers there, inviting English-speaking students from nearby tent cities to come and study for free.
Shai Reshef, the Israeli entrepreneur who spent $1 million to create the tuition-free university two years ago, enlisted hundreds of volunteer professors — more, he said, than he has been able to use — to teach 10-week online courses to 1,000 students from more than 100 countries.
Sometimes, corporations actually bring their know-how and human capital to bear on a problem, instead of just giving money to a cause. The global pharmaceutical company Abbott is a shining example, working to combat severe malnutrition in Haiti by manufacturing peanut products.
Abbot is on the ground in the struggling country joining with Partners to build a factory to make hunger-quenching peanut paste, a high-protein, high-calorie fortified food.
The wayward emperor penguin that was found on a New Zealand beach June 20, far from his Antarctic feeding grounds and moved to the zoo after he became ill from eating sand that he likely mistook for snow, has regained weight and is on his way back to the wild.
He is headed south aboard a New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research vessel. On the way, Happy Feet will be released from the ship, approximately four days out to sea, at about 51 degrees south – within the penguin’s natural habitat.
“It has been an amazing journey caring for him over the past nine weeks and we have been overwhelmed by the amazing level of interest and support from around New Zealand and the world,” Dr Lisa Argilla, Manager of Veterinary Science at Wellington Zoo told the media.
The wayward emperor penguin that was found on a New Zealand beach June 20, far from his Antarctic feeding grounds and moved to the zoo after he became ill from eating sand that he likely mistook for snow, has regained weight and is on his way back to the wild.
He is headed south aboard a New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research vessel. On the way, Happy Feet will be released from the ship, approximately four days out to sea, at about 51 degrees south – within the penguin’s natural habitat.
“It has been an amazing journey caring for him over the past nine weeks and we have been overwhelmed by the amazing level of interest and support from around New Zealand and the world,” Dr Lisa Argilla, Manager of Veterinary Science at Wellington Zoo told the media.
Some people give back to their community. Then there’s Fresno County School Superintendent Larry Powell, who’s giving up $800,000 — his own salary for the next three years — in hopes his act of generosity will help restore faith in the government he once taught students to respect.
He started his career as a high school civics teacher and has made anti-bullying his mission. He oversees 195,000 students in 325 California schools.
(READ the AP story at MSNBC)
