The financing technique that gave Europe an early lead in renewable energy is starting to cross the Atlantic. Put simply, the idea is to pay homeowners and businesses top dollar for producing green energy. In Germany, for example, a homeowner with a rooftop solar system may be paid four times more to produce electricity than the rate paid to a coal-fired power plant. This month Gainesville, Fla., became the first city in the United States to introduce higher payments for solar power.
Europe’s Way of Encouraging Solar Power Arrives in the US
Camping Out in Parking Lot Wins You Free Chicken for a Year
100 people began lining up in the cold, 24 hours before a new Chick-fil-A opened its doors, to win a year’s supply of weekly free chicken dinners. The Virginia customers were greeted by the earnest Chick-fil-A CEO as they entered the restaurant following a festive night of partying and sleeping in tents as elite members of the “First 100” club.
Read reporter Dan Zak’s account of the generous chicken company and its loyal fan base here, in the Washington Post.
“Spend 24 hours at a Chick-fil-A opening and witness the teeny ironies of human economics: how people skip work and burn gasoline traveling hundreds of miles for coupons and how a company thrives in a marketplace meltdown by treating its customers like royalty…”
(photo courtesy of Dan Zak)
Obama Strengthens Food Safety, Animal Protection
In his weekly address, President Barack Obama announced two measures to protect the American people from disease and protect injured animals from abuse.
The Department of Agriculture will invest in the FDA to substantially increase the number of food inspectors and modernize food safety labs.
The department will also close a loophole to prevent “downer” cows from entering the food supply — “downers” are cattle too sick or injured to walk, which often harbor diseases.
The decision is the fruit of many years of lobbying on the part of The Humane Society of the United States, which has been pressing for serious reform on the issue for many years.
New Canal Takes Freight off Roads
UK Engineers working on a new development in Salford Quays have been using the Manchester Ship Canal to transport freight. The old canal helps reduce CO2 emissions as well as highway congestion. The water from the canal will be used to cool the buildings in the new MediaCity development. (Video from BBC)
Dance Party Erupts for London Commuters in T-Mobile Commercial
By-standers become by-dancers in this ingenius T-Mobile commerical filmed in January in the London Street Station. The seemingly-spontaneous eruption of joy captured in this video has received more than 7 million hits on YouTube, entitled, Life is for Sharing.
Passing Motorists Rescue Disabled Man
Police are praising the actions of two men who may have saved the life of a disabled Fenton man after his minivan caught fire on busy US-23 near I-96 just outside Brighton Friday morning.
“I was panicking, I would’ve fallen out at the level of the flames, and (Gren) pulled me out,” Conkey said. (Read full story at Ann Arbor News)
Phhoto courtesy of Sun Star
World Markets Rally on Upbeat US Retail Sales News
World stock markets rallied Thursday after better than expected U.S. retail sales figures for February generated hopes that consumer spending in the world’s largest economy may be stabilizing despite big rises in unemployment.
The Commerce Department report showed retail sales in the U.S. edged down only 0.1 percent last month _ less severe than the 0.5 percent drop expected _ and that January’s rise was even bigger than previously estimated at a three-year high of 1.8 .
“February’s retail effort suggests that consumers have returned to the shopping malls after the catastrophic holiday season,” said David Buik, a senior strategist at BGC Partners. (Read full AP report in Forbes)
A CEO Shows His Heart, Avoids Lay-offs
When Paul Levy needed to decide who to lay-off, he walked through his hospital corridors and saw that no one deserved it. When he reported his feelings to the auditorium filled with staff, he received thunderous, sustained applause.
The workers at Beth Israel Medical Center don’t want any of the 8,000 staff members to get laid off — and are willing to give up pay and benefits to make sure no one does. (Read the inspiring story in the Boston Globe)
Thanks to cc, who also submitted this story!
Image courtesy of Sun Star
Salon Announces Hair for Hope – Free Cuts for People Who’ve Lost Jobs
Dawn Renee Salon & Day Spa is teaming up with SHELTER, inc of Contra Costa County to offer free haircuts to Contra Costa County residents who have lost their homes and jobs due to the troubling economy.
On Monday, April 6th, from 9 am to 6 pm, Dawn Renee Salon and Day Spa will open its doors to dozens of displaced residents and offer hair cuts for men, shampoos, child care, donated food, and donated toiletries.
Salon Owner, Dawn Renee, said it was a recent episode of Oprah that inspired her. The show reported on the tent cities popping up across the country due to foreclosures. A homeless woman from a Sacramento tent community was interviewed. She had lost her cashier job and her husband was laid off from his construction job. Next thing you know, they were homeless.
The lady being interviewed said the hardest part about living in the tent city was not having her own bathroom. She missed being able to wash her face, fix her hair, put makeup on and feel pretty.
“I just starting crying,” said Dawn Renee.
“I thought, how could I help these people? Then the idea to open up my salon doors and offer them the chance to feel confident and pretty came to me. A haircut may seem like a small thing, but when you are trying to schedule job interviews and find housing, a great haircut and a little TLC might give someone the confidence they need to make it happen.”
Dawn Renee immediately started working on brining this idea to fruition. She found hairdressers to volunteer their time, a local dentist to donate toothbrushes and toothpaste, church groups to offer up childcare, food donations and more. She also teamed up with SHELTER, Inc. of Contra Costa County, a non-profit organization that works to help people find homes. They agreed to pass out haircut vouchers to those in need.
Resource Coordinator for SHELTER Inc, said she knew dozens of deserving individuals that could really use a day at the salon. “In Contra Costa County people are losing their homes at an alarming rate. We have so many families that need housing and not enough places to put them. I know they will benefit so much from this opportunity.”
According to Dawn Renee, she felt she needed to do something and there was no way she could offer a monetary donation. (It has been a daily struggle to keep the salon doors open during these tough times.) “My talent is making people feel beautiful and I want to give it to those in need. The outpour of support has been inspiring; I want the people who have been affected by the horrible circumstances of this economy to know that the community cares about them.”
Hair for Hope is still in need of donations of all kinds and volunteers. Please call 925-825-9585 to learn how you can help.
For more info on how you can receive a free haircut Contact Teri Ortez @ Shelter Inc. 925- 957-7561
www.dawnreneesalon.com
States Now Helping People With Foreclosure Programs
More than 600 attorneys have volunteered to help New Jersey homeowners facing foreclosure in an unprecedented state-sponsored effort to keep people in their homes.
As the Obama administration prepares its $75 billion plan to help as many as four million people avoid foreclosure, states are stepping up their own efforts to halt the rise in foreclosures.
Last year, governors in 33 states signed 70 pieces of legislation addressing the foreclosure crisis, and nearly every state has adopted new rules to improve oversight of the state-regulated mortgage lending industry, according to a new report by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.
North Carolina has begun requiring subprime mortgage servicers to notify distressed borrowers and state officials 45 days before filing foreclosure proceedings so homeowners can work with housing counselors and attorneys to renegotiate the loan.
California launched a program late last year offering first-time homebuyers a chance to buy vacant, foreclosed homes at below market interest rates. As much as helping homebuyers, the goal is to stabilize neighborhoods ravaged by the worst foreclosure crisis in the state’s history.
Food Caravan Delivers Truckload to Hard-hit Indiana Families
In the job-starved city of Elkhart, Ind., where President Barack Obama last month made a public appeal for his economic stimulus plan, hundreds of volunteers — and an agency that specializes in handing out food — worked together Tuesday to feed 5,200 hungry families.
Roughly 300 local volunteers worked with Feed the Children to distribute more than $2.1 million worth of food at Concord Mall as part of the nonprofit relief organization’s “Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan.” (Read the full story from the Elkhart Truth at MSNBC)
Inspired? Help the good folks driving Americans Emergency Caravan deliver more food.
GM Says Cost Cuts Working, Won’t Need $2 Billion Loan
General Motors said Thursday its restructuring plan is “starting to pay off,” and it will not need two billion dollars in funds requested from the US government to fund its operations in March “at this time.” (Read more from AFP via Yahoo)
Obama Effect? Blacks Optimistic in Spite of Economic Struggles
African-Americans are more optimistic about their financial outlook next year than the general population is, even though they say they’re struggling more with credit card debt, according to a new poll. In the poll.
Tavis Smiley’s annual State of the Black Union poll finds that 58 percent of African-Americans said they expect their household financial situation to improve next year, while only 30 percent of the general population thinks that.
Survey: Americans are Optimistic Despite Recession
A new study shows that Americans are optimistic that their economic prospects will improve within their lifetime and from one generation to the next. This, despite data that shows the United States has less economic mobility than many other industrialized countries.
The survey released by the Pew Economic Mobility Project shows most Americans still believe that hard work will be rewarded regardless of family background or economic conditions. “Despite the economic crisis we’re in, Americans remain unbelievably optimistic about their ability to make it, and make it not just in the short term but make it in the long term,” said Anna Greenberg, who conducted research for the poll.
The survey shows nearly eight out of 10 Americans believe it is still possible to get ahead in the current economy.
And 72 percent believe their economic circumstances will be better in the next 10 years.
What Recession? IBM Bucks the Notion
By now, much of corporate America is hunkered down in economic uncertainty. Not IBM.
In a spirited message in the annual report sent to shareholders on Monday, I.B.M.’s chief executive, writes:
“We entered this turbulent period strong, and we expect to exit it stronger. We will simply not ride out the storm. Rather, we will take a long-term view, and go on offense.”
Mr. Palmisano struck a similar tone when the company reported its strong quarterly results in late January.
In his lengthy “letter from the chairman,” Palmisano presents a detailed case for I.B.M.’s comparative optimism. It centers in good part on the assumption that countries — and large corporations — around the world are going to make investments in so-called smart infrastructure projects in transportation, electrical grids, health care information technology, telecommunications, food distribution and water systems. (Read full article in New York Times)
Two Million Job Openings and Other Good Economic News
More than 2 million jobs openings now exist across a range of industries, in the US. There is other good economic news, too — in stocks and consumer spending:
Help wanted: pharmacists, engineers and nurses. Believe it or not, even some banks are hiring.
While the US recession has claimed 4.4 million jobs, the economy has created others, many of them for highly trained and specialized professionals. More than 2 million jobs openings now exist across a range of industries, according to government data. (Read the full AP story at MSNBC)
Investors have been clamoring for months for a bit of good news. On Thursday, they got a load of it. The Dow Jones industrials shot up 240 points, bringing its gains over the past three days to 622 points — up 8.2 percent so far for the week. (Read full report at WTOP News)
Better-than-expected retail sales figure: Retail sales in February edged down just 0.1 percent, much less than economists had expected. The government also revised January’s performance to show better than expected earnings, a 1.8 percent rise, the biggest increase in three years and stronger than the 1 percent gain that was originally reported.
There were a number of areas which showed gains ranging from department and other general merchandise stores, up 1.3 percent, to specialty clothing stores, up 2.8 percent, and furniture stores, which saw sales increase by 0.7 percent. (Read full report at WTOP News)
Training Programs Helps Horses and Convicts (Video)
Colorado prison inmates are helping the U.S. Bureau of Land Management train wild horses. The program keeps the horses from ravaging their grazing land and has a dramatic, positive impact on the convicts. The horses are saddle-trained and made available for adoption for half the cost of what would be paid normally.
Michael J. Fox Returns to TV with Special on Optimism
Michael J. Fox will return to TV as host of a one-hour special featuring his worldwide travels in search of optimism.
“Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist” will highlight the causes for and examples of what makes people happy. From the Far East to the recent inauguration celebrations for president Obama, Fox is on the hunt for clues to the nature of optimism. The show will air on ABC at 10 p.m. Thursday, May 7.
Fox, diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, says, “For everything this disease has taken, something with greater value has been given. So, sure, it may be one step forward and two steps back, but after a time I’ve learned that what is important is making that one step count.”
Supermarket Expansions Bring 30,000 New Jobs
Major supermarket groups will be adding 30,000 new jobs as they get ready to expand UK food retailers — good news for employees with good customer service skills.
David Parsons, cheif executive at the Institute for Customer Service said, “The retail food sector is holding up well in the current economic climate, perhaps because people are eating at home rather than going out. And while the cost of the weekly shopping basket is important in the current climate, for many customers it is not just about price but also about the overall experience. This is where the skills of customer-facing staff will be the defining factor.”
The Healing Power of Your Smile
“People want to know if smiling can help them overcome hardship in these tough economic times,” says Elan Sun Star, author of the new book, Smile! The Powerful Science of Smiling.
A smile, says this world-famous photographer, carries the ability to transform one’s own health, ignite a smile in others, and ultimately transform the world for good. With anecdotes, science and a sprinkling of history, Smile! unfolds the story of decades of research of the potential effect of this one simple facial gesture.
Four years of research for the book led him through scientific, psychological, and spiritual realms to synthesize an engaging portrait of the simple, yet powerful, impact of the human smile.
The people interviewed for this book know intimately the power and language of the smile. Their findings indicate that, with this one universally understood gesture, we can dramatically affect our own lives and the world around us.
“Perhaps this simple act has a more profound impact than anything else we could possibly do to save the world,” says Star.
Smile! is not limited to the speculative. The research and voices in this inspiring book come from philosophers, military commanders, research scientists and psychologists, medical authorities, experts in international diplomacy, dentists, and social scientists. All of these people are experts in their own right, each with a different story to tell, each painting a small part of this broad portrait that provides ample evidence that the smile can be your best friend, even, and most especially, in hard times.
Everyone has seen how an infant responds to a smile. The response is instinctive. Dr. David Chamberlain studied babies beginning at conception, and studied brain activity in infants. Those early smiles are not all “gas,” as popularly reported. Smile centers in the brain are active from a very early prenatal stage of development, making the smile an important part of learning how to cope with the world, even before we see our first glimpse of daylight.
Most people are familiar with the work of Dr. Norman Cousins, who cured his own cancer by watching funny movies and having a good laugh. The body has its own biochemical responses to laughter that make it good medicine. But further, even a fake smile can lead to real happiness. Studies of brain waves have revealed that faking a real smile was sufficient to activate the pleasure centers in the brain.
In science, the more simple a theory, the more elegant and potentially universal a solution it represents. With the same skills he impresses onto film, the author lists examples of the smile’s ability to transform our daily lives at various levels—biochemical, psychological, social (relationships), and even political, as demonstrated by an American military commander chosen to meet face to face with a stoic North Korean dictator in arms control talks.
Another true life story comes from Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Hughes, who ordered his troops in Iraq to put down their weapons and use a smile to defuse a potentially dangerous encounter with an angry throng of Iraqis.
As a photographer of thousands of stunningly beautiful magazine covers, Star possesses a keen sense of awareness that is captured in his imagery, combining color, a sense of movement and positive emotions. (You may have seen his images appearing on some of the pages of the Good News Network.)
Having studied the field of mind/body/spirit as well as complementary medicine for 40 years while traveling around the globe to many of the top health clinics during photo shoots, Star has accrued a wealth of health-related knowledge. His philosophy about the human smile includes the role smiling can play in the creation of world peace, as well as its role in creating inner harmony, optimum health, and peak psychological states.
So, start smiling, even if you have to start by practicing your smile in a mirror. The smile will soon become habitual, and will begin attracting other smiles to you.
“Go forth and smile. Heal yourself, and believe that you can help bring a sense of wellness and satisfaction to the world.”
Visit www.smilesbook.com to see more research, photos and info.
(All photos by Elan Sun Star)