Serbian President Boris Tadic apologized Thursday at the site where more than 200 Croats were massacred in wartime atrocities.
Tadic said he came to “bow down before the victims.”
“By acknowledging the crime, by apologizing and regretting, we are opening the way for forgiveness and reconciliation,” Tadic said
A few hours later, his Croatian counterpart laid a wreath at the graveyard of 18 Serbs killed by Croats.
(READ the AP story at San Diego Union Tribune)
For the seventh year in a row, staffing services company Robert Half International has conducted a suit drive to benefit Dress for Success and other non-profits that help people find new jobs.
More than 19,000 items of interview-appropriate clothing and accessories were donated by local businesses and Robert Half employees through the program.
Dress for Success, which promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women, and other partners will distribute the items to thousands of men and women actively seeking employment.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed $50 million to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
The gift, announced Wednesday night by the Smithsonian, sets aside $30 million to create the Youth Access Endowment to reach underserved youth who do not get a chance to visit the museums – using online tools and materials for classrooms.
(READ more in the Washington Post)
More than 70 years after Seabiscuit took America’s attention away from the Great Depression and the prospect of war, another hero has emerged to distract the nation as it copes with recession and the aftertaste of a bitterly divisive election.
Zenyatta, a six-year-old thoroughbred mare, is unbeaten in 19 races, trouncing mares, fillies, colts and geldings. On Saturday she is bidding to make history by recording her 20th win in one of the US’s greatest horse races, the Breeders’ Cup.
What’s more, she is the only female racing in an all-male field.
“Usually the fillies can’t keep up with the boys,” said one horse-racing enthusiast.
Additionally, she is unfamiliar with dirt tracks only having run on them twice. This, her 20th race, will be the last of her career. (Read the story in the Guardian)
UPDATE: Watch her last-to-first victory from October 2, 2010, in the TVG’s Lady’s Secret Stakes at Oak Tree Hollywood Park, the mare’s 19th win in a row, undefeated in her career.
Here is her unbelievable come from behind (down by ten lengths) in last year’s Breeders Cup to become the first female ever to win the season ending race.
More than 70 years after Seabiscuit took America’s attention away from the Great Depression and the prospect of war, another hero has emerged to distract the nation as it copes with recession and the aftertaste of a bitterly divisive election.
Zenyatta, a six-year-old thoroughbred mare, is unbeaten in 19 races, trouncing mares, fillies, colts and geldings. On Saturday she is bidding to make history by recording her 20th win in one of the US’s greatest horse races, the Breeders’ Cup.
What’s more, she is the only female racing in an all-male field.
“Usually the fillies can’t keep up with the boys,” said one horse-racing enthusiast.
Additionally, she is unfamiliar with dirt tracks only having run on them twice. This, her 20th race, will be the last of her career. (Read the story in the Guardian)
UPDATE: Watch her last-to-first victory from October 2, 2010, in the TVG’s Lady’s Secret Stakes at Oak Tree Hollywood Park, the mare’s 19th win in a row, undefeated in her career.
Here is her unbelievable come from behind (down by ten lengths) in last year’s Breeders Cup to become the first female ever to win the season ending race.
An old man’s photo was anonymously posted to an infamous internet site known for targeting people and pulling pranks. But sometimes, the hive mind falls in love.
The image of the old man warmed their withered heart. One anonymous poster was able to track down the phone number of the American Legion, where the man lives. Then they revealed the guy’s name, William Lashua. Anonymous users found his military record and declared, “We are going to throw this guy the best birthday party ever.”
An old man’s photo was anonymously posted to an infamous internet site known for targeting people and pulling pranks. But sometimes, the hive mind falls in love.
The image of the old man warmed their withered heart. One anonymous poster was able to track down the phone number of the American Legion, where the man lives. Then they revealed the guy’s name, William Lashua. Anonymous users found his military record and declared, “We are going to throw this guy the best birthday party ever.”
A fiery redhead is making a big difference at a struggling school in Texas. Once full of low-performing students, the school now scores top marks in the state.
Hart Elementary, in northeast Austin, serves a tough group of students from low income, low education households. 90 percent of the students are Hispanic, with English as a second language.
Two years ago, in June 2009, Leslie Dusing arrived at Hart and as principal got rid of 75% of the 114 staff members.
“I’m a mean bitch,” she laughs. “But you can’t teach with crappy teachers.”
“When I got here, there were 4th and 5th graders who had never had a good teacher.” Unacceptable.
She “encouraged” the bad teachers to resign (one can’t fire teachers in Texas) and hired good ones. Really good ones. She has an eye for spotting them.
Since then, Hart’s test scores have risen meteorically in reading, math, and science, and the school now ranks as one of only two elementary schools in Texas to win the Texas Education Agency Top Quartile Elementary Schools.
The award means Leslie’s teachers will get $4,000 each, and the Principal, Miss Leslie, will get $8,000. These are incentive funds from the AISD REACH program designed to build teacher performance and retention pay.
“The financial reward is welcome of course, but I did it for the kids,” Leslie states emphatically. “And the kids are happy. You should see the difference from last year.”
Leslie’s own life has not been easy. After suffering personal difficulties and financially losing everything she in 1995, Leslie went back and got her teachers ‘s degree and then her Master’s degree in 2000 in order to go into educational administration.
So it’s not surprise this scrapper turned around one of Austin’s toughest schools in two years. Aint no hill for a stepper, as they say….
And Leslie’s kids love her. She keeps birds in her office and and pictures of her horse on her desk. She hugs the kids and jokes with them (she’s bi-lingual). Their response is visible – and now recognized by others.
Two nights ago at the Beacon Theater in New York City, all-stars of music and comedy donated their talents for charity at the fourth annual Stand Up for Heroes show.
The benefit raised over $2.5 million in funds to for injured service members and their families.
The event also entertained soldiers at the Water Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, who watched the show live on monitors.
(SEE Photos and story at the Huffington Post)
Suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Jim Light was an easy target for a cowardly thief who attacked him in the hallway of his apartment complex. The suspect then stole his computer, his cell phone, and all the food in his kitchen.
Light, who is a writer, considered his computer his connection to the world. Now that it was gone, he didn’t see the point of going on.
Today, Light is back on track, thanks in large part to the compassion of a Hamilton police officer.
Mark Miller could have done the appropriate paper work and called it a day, but after seeing how shattered Light was, he went above and beyond to help alleviate his sadness.
(WATCH the video below, or read the full story at Citynews.com)
No cancer kills more Americans than lung cancer. Estimates are more than 220,000 will be diagnosed this year and 157,000 will die.
On Thursday, for the first time, a major government study showed a high-tech way of screening for lung cancer can drastically reduce the death toll.
(READ the story or watch a video at CBS News)
As of last week, $24.4 million in corporate aid had been pledged by the U.S. business community for Pakistan flood response efforts.
100 different companies stepped up with aid pledges in response to the historic, devastating floods, according to the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Many of these companies don’t even have significant operations in Pakistan, making the scale of the private sector response even more compelling.
Some firms pledged in-kind contributions. Four companies pledged $1 million or more in cash — The Coca-Cola Company, GE, Microsoft, and P&G.
Companies have the specific resources to address the many specific needs of disasters like the Pakistan floods. “A lot of this is self-selecting — that is the beauty of the private sector,” said Stephen Jordan the executive director of BCLC. “Individual companies are great at individual things. So a lot of the pharmaceutical companies, a lot of the health care companies are going to focus on the health care issues,” he said.
“The engineering, construction and heavy equipment companies are going to focus on dams, roads and those kind of things. The financial services companies are going to help say with small business capacity building, (and) micro-finance,” Jordan said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says Pakistan ranks as the third largest recipient of disaster assistance from the business community over the past five years, behind Haiti and China.
For a list of all corporations and their generosity, visit BCLC’s Corporate Aid Tracker.
As of last week, $24.4 million in corporate aid had been pledged by the U.S. business community for Pakistan flood response efforts.
100 different companies stepped up with aid pledges in response to the historic, devastating floods, according to the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Many of these companies don’t even have significant operations in Pakistan, making the scale of the private sector response even more compelling.
Some firms pledged in-kind contributions. Four companies pledged $1 million or more in cash — The Coca-Cola Company, GE, Microsoft, and P&G.
Companies have the specific resources to address the many specific needs of disasters like the Pakistan floods. “A lot of this is self-selecting — that is the beauty of the private sector,” said Stephen Jordan the executive director of BCLC. “Individual companies are great at individual things. So a lot of the pharmaceutical companies, a lot of the health care companies are going to focus on the health care issues,” he said.
“The engineering, construction and heavy equipment companies are going to focus on dams, roads and those kind of things. The financial services companies are going to help say with small business capacity building, (and) micro-finance,” Jordan said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says Pakistan ranks as the third largest recipient of disaster assistance from the business community over the past five years, behind Haiti and China.
For a list of all corporations and their generosity, visit BCLC’s Corporate Aid Tracker.
With the addition of two recycling centers in Kirklees and Wolverhampton this week a UK company is giving environmentally-minded Brits an opportunity to divert their used cooking oil away from landfills and sewer systems, funneling it instead into green electricity.
Thanks to their innovative waste oil recycling program, Living Fuels now produces clean renewable energy from fryer oil collected at nearly 300 UK sites.
With the addition of two recycling centers in Kirklees and Wolverhampton this week a UK company is giving environmentally-minded Brits an opportunity to divert their used cooking oil away from landfills and sewer systems, funneling it instead into green electricity.
Thanks to their innovative waste oil recycling program, Living Fuels now produces clean renewable energy from fryer oil collected at nearly 300 UK sites.
One of the world’s most ambitious laws to combat global warming survived a challenge on Tuesday as California voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have put the state’s plans for more renewable energy and a market to curb greenhouse gases on ice.
The defeat of Proposition 23: READ the full story at Reuters.
If you never fail, you have never lived. So says the author of this video who shows a few of the famous failures, including, Michael Jordan, Walt Disney and Thomas Edison. Life is taking risks. Don’t be afraid.
Watch a great motivational video below…
In an opinion column for the New York Times, Timothy Egan wrote: “If I were one of the big corporate donors who bankrolled the Republican tide that carried into office more than 50 new Republicans in the House, I would be wary of what you just bought.”
“For no matter your view of President Obama, he effectively saved capitalism. And for that, he paid a terrible political price.”
“The presidency of George W. Bush produced the worst stock market decline of any president in history. The net worth of American households collapsed. And if you needed a loan to buy a house or stay in business, private sector borrowing was dead when he handed over power”…
(READ the Op/Ed piece in the New York Times)
Madieu Williams is better known for his work as a free safety for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings than for his efforts in West Africa. But when he’s not trying to stop the NFL’s best receivers, he’s committed to bringing better health and education to his native Sierra Leone.
He’s returned to Sierra Leone each year, building a school and clinic in a community where none had existed before.
Orders to U.S. factories rose broadly in September, propelled by business spending on commercial airplanes, boats and machines. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that factory orders rose by 2.1 percent in September, the steepest increase since January.
Other hints that the consumer economy may be improving:
Consumer spending also rose by 1.0 percent.
The U.S. economy’s service sector, the nation’s predominant employer, grew faster in October than in the previous month and posted its 10th straight month of expansion — a surprising uptick at a time when Wall Street analysts had expected a small drop.
(READ the full AP story in NPR)
