Blood donations save lives – even dogs’ lives. At the Eastern Veterinary Blood Bank in Severna Park, Maryland, owners can bring their dogs in to make donations on a monthly basis. Regular donors like Ray Hindle’s dog Oscar are canine heros. They ensure a supply of the life-saving blood is ready in case of emergencies.
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A famous literary cafe in Baghdad has reopened two years after a massive bomb gutted the cultural heart of Iraq’s capital and brought tragedy to the owner’s family. Poets and writers can now sip coffee together in one of Baghdad’s most important neighborhoods.
Ben Affleck spread the word on the plight of victims of the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo at one of the week’s first glitzy pre-Oscar parties, a fundraiser for the International Medical Corps’ Congo work.
The actor, 36, also wrote an essay for the current issue of Time about his personal experiences after several visits there and the ongoing war and displacement in eastern Congo.
The event, held at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, was expected to draw fellow celebrities Diane Keaton, Felicity Huffman, Nicole Richie, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Spacey and Kate Walsh. Affleck’s wife, Jennifer Garner showed up and Sheryl Crow performed a four-song set. Anderson Cooper received an award for raising awareness of the situation in DR Congo.
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A precocious 11-year-old in the 5th grade, Ben Berrafato, is challenging one of America’s most endearing and widely held beliefs, eloquently arguing against the need for homework. He may be right, say experts like the author of The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It
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The town of Seal Cove, Newfoundland has had a harrowing week. Neighbors have gone to bed each night to the wails of five dolphins, who’d been trapped in a small and closing gap in the ice of the community’s cove since the beginning of the week. Finally they decided to do something about it. . . (Read full story Toronto Globe and Mail)
(Photo courtesy of Sun Star)
Sometimes, the greatest moments happen when you least expect it.
For Wisconsin senior Patrick Farrell, that moment arrived last Tuesday. That was the night when his Wrightstown team wrestled Chilton, and Farrell finally got to perform in a varsity match.
Farrell is a kid who’s had to achieve his goals while overcoming obstacles many don’t have to deal with.
He was born with his hips out of their sockets and with developmental problems. He also has a speech impediment that still lingers, even after he underwent surgery for it as a child.
(Photo- Patrick Farrell is carried off the mat by his teammates after he wrestled in his first varsity match)
The Frankel family has opened their home and hearts to others in need of a place to live. Together they have created an extended family of relatives related by blood and by circumstance. The family started taking in people before the economy soured, and now they say they are weathering the downturn better than some. . . (Read more at CNN.com)
(Photo courtesy of Sun Star)
Women having radiation treatment for breast cancer experienced lasting improvements in mental and physical health and quality of life after participating in five sessions of art therapy, Swedish researchers report.
The findings “strongly support art therapy as a powerful tool in rehabilitation of patients with breast cancer and, presumably, also in the care of patients with other types of cancer,” Dr. Jack Lindh of Umea University, Umea, Sweden. (Read full story from Reuters)
The government is looking for more families like the Sakamotos, who have braved criticism for their decision to raise foster kids. Not easy in Japan, a country where blood ties and traditional family structures are paramount, home settings have begun to trump institutional care in officials’ views of what’s best for children who face abuse or abandonment.
And now, the government is revamping its foster-care system to increase the number of caseworkers and better promote the option for families. (Read full article in CS Monitor)
(Image courtesy of Sun Star)
The huge Wisconsin auto dealership, Russ Darrow, is so sure it can sell cars that it is hiring dozens of salespeople and technicians. Record sales in January proves Russ Darrow’s favorite saying, “I’m not signing up for the recession.” At 17 locations, receptionists answer the phone, “It’s a great day at Russ Darrow.”
(Listen to the NPR story of the positive thinking car dealer)
A team and a player decided there were more important things than winning and having good stats.
They missed the free throws intentionally to give an opposing player who’d lost his mother earlier that day a chance to work out his grief by playing.
They stood and turned toward the DeKalb bench and started applauding the gesture of sportsmanship. Soon, so did everybody in the stands.
“I did it for the guy who lost his mom,” McNeal told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It was the right thing to do.”
(Read the full story in Rivals High from Yahoo Sports)
Thanks to Nancy P. for the news tip!
While animal therapy is nothing new and has been used for decades throughout the world to treat disabilities, in Russia it’s still relatively rare. One of the few programs offering help and hope to hundreds of children with mental, physical and emotional problems is to be found in a small Siberian village. Reuters video below may take a moment to load.
Believe it or not, an economic downturn is a good time to start a business. There are openings in competitive markets and breaks on start-up costs and overhead.
Rents, supplies and other costs can be lower, and it’s easier to find qualified and affordable help. This makes it easier to offer a lower price for goods and services than larger, more established companies at precisely the time customers are looking for any way to spend less. (Read the full article on Kiplinger.com)
Not only is it a good time to start a business, but the Obama Administer has plans to beef up the Small Business Administration to rebuild the programs — particularly the loan program — which suffered under Bush Administration budget cuts. (Read that report also at Kiplinger.com)
The Obama Administration launched an accountablility website to be accessed by the American people and used to track where and how the money is spent that was allocated in the massive stimulus bill signed on Monday.
The website, at www.recovery.gov, lets US taxpayers and the media see where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going. There will be more features added to the website in the coming days and months, including a few different ways to search for information.
“The money is being distributed by Federal agencies, and soon you’ll be able to see where it’s going — to which states, to which congressional districts, even to which Federal contractors,” says the White House website. “As soon as we are able to, we’ll display that information visually in maps, charts, and graphics.
Kiplinger.com has an interactive map online with a current breakdown of what transportation projects are likely to be funded in each of the 50 states, and rough estimates for job creation numbers.
Below is a brief video featuring President Obama introducing the website, Recovery.gov.
After selling a majority stake in his Miami bank, Leonard Abess Jr. took $60 million of the proceeds — $60 million out of his own pocket — and gave it to his tellers, bookkeepers, clerks, everyone on the payroll.
All 399 workers on the staff received bonuses, and he even tracked down 72 former employees so they could share in the windfall. For longtime employees, the bonus — based on years of service — amounted to tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases, more than $100,000. Longtime workers’ jaws dropped when they opened the envelopes…
(Read the story of the inspired banker in the Guardian)
Photo, right: (c) 2008 Daniel Portnoy, All Rights Reserved)
Most of the stocks plummeting in 2009 are in financial companies. Meanwhile, 172 of the stocks in the S&P 500 are in positive territory. Many will continue to fare well during a recession...
The fact that investors are not just dumping all equities in favor of safer havens like gold and Treasury bonds is encouraging. The indiscriminate selling that was a hallmark of the market at the end of last year appears to be over…hopefully for good. (Read more at CNN Money News)
For one night, the stands were full and the playing field was level. For one night, the fans — “We have fans?” the Roosevelt girls were surely thinking — convinced a winless basketball team it could do no wrong. For one glorious night, the community laid hands on a high school that has been left — by far too many — for dead. (Full story by Steve Duin, The Oregonian)
It comes as a pleasant surprise — after years when thousands of farmers were driven off their land — to find in the 2007 Census of Agriculture that the number of farms in Iowa has risen to 92,856, a level last seen in 1992. Some 4,000 new small farms have been created since 2002. These very small farms, 9 acres or less, are producing a much wider array of crops than the rest of Iowa, which specializes in corn and soybeans. (From the New York Times Opinion Page)
The UK’s largest retailer Marks & Spencer has signed the biggest renewable energy contract in that country’s retail sector history. The contract with npower will provide M&S with enough renewable electricity over six years to ultimately power all of the retailer’s stores and offices in England and Wales.
Under the landmark contract, which begins in April 2009, npower will supply M&S with electricity from its portfolio of renewable sources, which includes wind and hydro farms. Uniquely the contract also allows for a significant amount of the supply to be purchased directly from independent generators of renewables, meaning that M&S can continue with its pioneering drive to encourage the development of small-scale renewable electricity.
It looks much like any other filling station: Shell-branded gasoline pumps along the shoulder of a busy highway. But this is no ordinary Shell station. It is the hub of one of Iceland’s most ambitious projects: The world’s first commercial hydrogen fueling station.
Power plants like this in the photo, right, produce much of the volcanic island’s green energy. Earth’s heat turns water to steam, which spins turbines.
