It is now more than a century since the American chestnut tree – once 4 billion strong and towering over East Coast forests – fell victim to a foreign blight. By 1950, it had virtually disappeared.
Despite the failure of earlier scientific efforts to bring it back, thousands of chestnut devotees from Maine to Georgia have new reason for optimism.
A new project shows every sign of promise – with about 25,000 of the new chestnuts planted already.
(READ more at the Washington Post)
After lagging behind the rest of the country for years, Tennessee is catching up fast when it comes to improvements in its health care system aimed at elderly and disabled residents. More of them are getting the assistance they need in their homes — at a much lower cost than at a nursing home. A lot of this change is the direct result of efforts by Governor Phil Bredesen.
Nearing the end of his eight years in office (he is required to leave due to term limits this year), Bredesen decided to focus on getting Tennessee off the bottom rung in rankings of states that offer consumers choices in long-term care. Just a few years earlier, only a few hundred Tennesseans were able to get Medicaid funding for anything but a nursing home. Now, it is one of a handful of bellwether states that offer a broad range of alternatives to nursing home care.
Indonesia’s constitutional court this week struck down a 50-year-old law that allowed the government to ban whatever books it considered controversial.
In the past, leaders of Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, have used the book-banning law to clamp down on any form of public dissent.
(READ the story from UPI)
Otters almost disappeared from England in the 1970s after the prevalence of pesticides in their environment brought their numbers to near extinction levels.
Now, after the banning of many of those chemicals, the Environment Agency points to a remarkable comeback for the creatures, present once again in rivers across England.
(READ more in the BBC)
Wal-Mart joins a growing list of corporations supporting sustainable agriculture programs and small farmers, saying it is planning to double the sales of local produce in its U.S. stores by the end of 2015.
The world’s largest retailer said it would also sell more than $1 billion each year in food from 1 million small and medium-sized farms in emerging markets by the end of 2015, helping to increase income for those farmers 10 percent.
Wal-Mart also said it will require that palm oil from sustainable sources be used in all of its private-label products by the end of 2015.
(READ more from Reuters)
Meet the editor and founder of the Good News Network this Friday, October 22, in the Washington DC area. (Please RSVP by Wednesday night, via email)
Join a Meet-the-Editor Lunch with Geri Weis-Corbley at Sweetwater Tavern (just off the Beltway) for sunny conversation, (weather allowing) out on the patio.
Please RSVP by Wednesday night via email:
geri @ goodnewsnetwork.org
Sweetwater Tavern – Merrifield (A Great American Restaurant)
3066 Gatehouse Plaza
Falls Church, VA 22042
(703) 645-8100
Suburban Philadelphia philanthropist Gene Epstein is promoting a $250,000 effort called Hire Just One, with plans to make $1,000 donations to charity in the name of businesses that hire an unemployed person and keep the worker on the payroll for at least six months.
One company estimating that Epstein’s program probably got the company to make the hires about six months before it would have otherwise.
Epstein is taking out full-page ads in local papers to keep the momentum going for his campaign, launched in September. More than 100 businesses have jumped on board.
(READ the AP Story via Yahoo News)
The Dalai Lama returned this week on his third visit to Stanford University, drawn to the scientific research conducted at its Center for Compassion and Altruism Research, which was partially funded by the spiritual leader through sales of his books.
The Center is at the forefront of a growing movement to bring the tools of psychology and neuroscience to the study of empathy, compassion and altruism.
The 75-year-old Dalai Lama spoke to about 6,300 people on “The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life and Society.” He repeatedly stressed a secular approach to compassion that reaches beyond individual creeds and beliefs. He spoke of the need for mutual respect and friendship, the care and education of children, and ongoing dialogue for conflict resolution.
Evident throughout was his fascination with science, the neurology of the mind and brain, the interest in the intricate distinctions between mind and body that led him to be a founding benefactor for the Center.
(WATCH the video below, and read the story from Stanford News)
The Dalai Lama returned this week on his third visit to Stanford University, drawn to the scientific research conducted at its Center for Compassion and Altruism Research, which was partially funded by the spiritual leader through sales of his books.
The Center is at the forefront of a growing movement to bring the tools of psychology and neuroscience to the study of empathy, compassion and altruism.
The 75-year-old Dalai Lama spoke to about 6,300 people on “The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life and Society.” He repeatedly stressed a secular approach to compassion that reaches beyond individual creeds and beliefs. He spoke of the need for mutual respect and friendship, the care and education of children, and ongoing dialogue for conflict resolution.
Not only does Rachel Cooperstein have Down syndrome, she participates as a regular cheerleader in the all-inclusive squad at San Francisco’s Dublin High School.
Friday night she was crowned Homecoming Queen — a title her fellow classmates were thrilled to give her in a secret ballot.
WATCH the video, which includes the moment she learns that she has been selected.
Not only does Rachel Cooperstein have Down syndrome, she participates as a regular cheerleader in the all-inclusive squad at San Francisco’s Dublin High School.
Friday night she was crowned Homecoming Queen — a title her fellow classmates were thrilled to give her in a secret ballot.
WATCH the video, which includes the moment she learns she has been selected.
California Siblings Jack and Carol Anne Merrill knew growing up that their grandpa was a war hero.
But now, thanks to a stranger reaching out on Facebook, they’ve learned a lot more about their heroic grandfather, Col. Gyles Merrill: He was beloved by a former Filipino president and his offspring with a devotion unexpressed for more than 50 years.
(READ the story in the Modesto Bee)
Deer hunters in Kentucky returned to the tournament checkpoint tired and hungry, their camouflage clothing soaked with sweat. All were empty-handed — but that was the plan all along.
Armed with blank shells and 20-gauge shotguns mounted with digital scopes and memory cards developed for military training, they are sportsmen participating in the only hunting competition in which deer are stalked but not killed.
(READ the story in the New York Times)
Ten thousand empty plates were lined up in rows on the Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris today to mark the United Nations’ World Food Day.
French NGO Action Against Hunger set up the display to draw attention to the 10,000 children who die each day of malnutrition.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has launched an online anti-hunger petition, which the FAO has dubbed the “1 billion hungry project.”
Mobile phones can improve the livelihoods of the poorest people in developing countries, a United Nations report released on Thursday said.
Mobile phone subscriptions will reach five billion this year (nearly one for each person on the planet), spawning a wealth of micro-enterprises, offering work to people with little education and few resources — like selling airtime on the streets and refurbishing handsets.
(READ the Reuters story at Yahoo News)
The media has been clamoring to talk to Chad and Barbie Soper of Rockford, Michigan because their third child was born on 10/10/10.
Not so very uncommon, until you find out the new mother also gave birth on 9/9/09 and 8/8/08.
Lottery numbers for life?
(READ the story, or watch the video, from the Today show)
The world may have been waiting to catch a glimpse of Luis Urzua, the last miner to emerge from a collapsed Chilean mine to a hero’s welcome, but to the trapped men, the real hero was Manuel Gonzalez, the first brave rescuer to venture down into the hell hole.
Gonzalez, a rescue expert with state copper company Codelco, served as guinea pig, riding the special Phoenix II capsule down to the shelter where he was promptly mobbed by the miners, elated over their first outside human contact in 10 weeks.
(READ the story from AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
Sisters in Knoxville, Tenn. began a service more than a quarter century ago catering to people with “the five H’s”, helping local residents who are homeless, hungry, helpless, hopeless or homebound.
Opening the kitchen in 1986, they served 200 meals. Today, they offer 2,000 homecooked meals each week.
WATCH the Making A Difference video below… or at MSNBC…
Sisters in Knoxville, Tenn. began a service more than a quarter century ago catering to people with “the five H’s”, helping local residents who are homeless, hungry, helpless, hopeless or homebound.
Opening the kitchen in 1986, they served 200 meals. Today, they offer 2,000 homecooked meals each week.
WATCH the Making A Difference video below… or at MSNBC…
A Philadelphia man is leading the charge to reclaim an 86-acre city park that had become overgrown with weeds and trash while becoming a haven for crime.
His love for the park stems from family outings as a child and led to an army of volunteers building a new playground, raising money for ball fields and galvanizing a community spirit that reaches beyond the children.
WATCH the Making a Difference video below, or at MSNBC’s website...
