“These finds show there is still hope.”
The rediscovery of the frogs showed that preservation of small habitats — such as the El Dorado reserve in Colombia where two frogs were found — could be a key to saving many threatened species. (ENN )
Extinct Frogs Rediscovered in Colombia
Twelve Amazing Teens Changing the World
After receiving nearly 1,500 nominations for its 2006 Build-A-Bear Workshop Huggable Heroes program, 12 inspiring kids have been recognized for their outstanding efforts to change the world.
The heroic stories of this year’s Huggable Heroes range from Welland Burnside, 18, starting Suitcases for Kids, so that children moving from one foster home to another wouldn’t have to carry their belongings in black garbage bags, to Maggie Fazenbaker, 14, of New Mexico, whose project called Operation Soldier Smiles sends care packages to deployed soldiers in the war zone. Jeniece Klammer, 18, of Michigan, started a back-to-school effort collecting school supplies for less fortunate children in her own school.
Build-A-Bear Workshop invited the public to visit their Web site to vote for the person who most touched their heart. Anthony Leanna, 14, of Suamico, Wisconsin, was selected as the People’s Pick Huggable Hero for Heavenly Hats, a program that donates brand new hats to cancer patients. More than 80,000 new pieces of headwear have been donated, thanks to Anthony, to hospitals and clinics nationwide over the past four years. Heavenly Hats has inspired hundreds of youth groups and schools to help out by hosting hat drives.
Anthony was honored along with the other 2006 Huggable Heroes at the First Star charity gala in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday. Malcolm David Kelley, “Walt” from television’s Lost, hosted the event. Each hero received a donation to their cause of $,2500.
“We are so proud and impressed by everything our Huggable Heroes have accomplished,” said Maxine Clark, Founder and Chief Executive of Build-A-Bear Workshop. “These young people are great examples of success, proving that no matter how old you are, or where you live, you can make a difference. They will touch many people’s lives and become even greater future leaders for our country.”
Bailey Reese, 9, Niceville, Fla.
Sent more than 12,000 care packages to soldiers in Iraq.
Charlotte McKane, 10, Oneonta, N.Y.
Donates hygiene products to families in violence intervention programs and games and videos to a local psychiatric unit. Raised $13,000 to benefit these groups.
Kaylene Wright, 12, Westland, Mich.
She has donated almost 1,000 children’s books to hospitals.
Heather Wilder, 12, Las Vegas, Nev.
As a former foster child, she writes books to raise awareness about the challenges foster kids face.
Maggie Fazenbaker, 14, Alamogordo, N.M.
Care packages for U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Jenessa Largent, 14, White Bear Lake, Minn.
Her group has made over 200,000 bracelets to support service men and women.
Anthony Leanna, 14, Suamico, Wisc.
Donates hats to cancer patients.
Ted Cox, 15, Marysville, Ohio
Dedicated volunteers at a local hospital.
Welland Burnside, 17, Garden City, S.C., Suitcases for Kids
Donates suitcases to foster kids: to date 400,000 suitcases have been collected.
Brittany Palmer, 18, North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Active community volunteer for Easter Seals and other organizations.
Jeniece Klammer, 18, Ypsilanti, Mich.
Sent 200 children from poorer families back to school with special backpacks filled with school supplies.
Matthew Krauze, 18, Warwick, N.Y.
Volunteers for Puppies Behind Bars: One of his raffles raised over $1,000 for the cause.
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More Huggable Hero stories and photos online at Build-aBear Workshop
India’s Defense Diplomacy: Guidelines for Wise Foreign Policy
OPINION
India’s defense minister is engaged in an ongoing "Defence Diplomacy" that has been evoking quite the encouraging response from the world community. Such a policy provides guidelines the United States government itself should be using in foreign affairs. Let’s follow the example of the world’s largest democracy, so we can hope to reclaim our heritage as one of the "most-respected" democracies.
"Defence cooperation with other powers should be an integral part of our diplomatic exercise. This should be possible because India’s defence and foreign policies are rooted in the same ideological basis – no territorial ambition, no ideological export." The objective of such diplomacy is to maintain peace and tranquillity along India’s borders, to defuse tension and to engage in defense-related dialogue with other powers. (The Hindu)
Pitt-Jolie Baby Photos to Benefit Charity
AP reports that Getty Images won the opportunity to be the first allowed by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to photograph the famous couple’s new baby in a private photo session. Getty will pay an undisclosed amount that will be donated to a children’s charity of the family’s choice. The deal is estimated to yield several million dollars.
”While we celebrate the joy of the birth of our daughter, we recognize that two million babies born every year in the developing world die on the first day of their lives,” said the couple in a statement.
Photo: UNHCR
Alzheimer Vaccine Tests Reverse Memory Loss in Mice
Researchers report that tests of a new vaccine on mice shows promise of reversing memory loss and seriously slowing the effects of Alzheimer’s on patients. (Biosingularity )
Providing Foster Care for Deployed Troops’ Cats
Army Staff Sgt. Aeyne Anne M. Dizicksa’s cats are her family, so their welfare was her top priority when she faced deployment:
“I knew that if I had them to return to, everything else was irrelevant — just another passing episode in my life.”
She was given only a few days’ notice before her activation in January 2005. Luckily she discovered Operation Noble Foster, which has provided more than 3,000 deployed servicemembers with individual foster homes for their cats until they return. . .
(Sweet Magnolia rests on the dryer in the home of Susan Hagrelius, her foster owner of more than a year. The 8-year-old cat will soon reunite with her owner, Staff Sgt. Aeyne Anne M. Dizicksa, a deployed Army reservist in the 719th Veterinary Medical Detachment who will return later this month.)
EPA Mandates Cleaner Diesel, Cleaner Truck Engines
New rules issued on Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires oil refineries to begin making ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), “a fuel with 97 percent less sulfur than ordinary diesel,” which will cut smog-forming emissions by 10 percent.
“The new EPA rule “is the biggest step toward cutting vehicle pollution since lead was taken out of gasoline two decades ago,” says Richard Kassel, director of the Clean Fuels and Vehicles Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council,” reports the CS Monitor.
This is only the first step to cleaner diesel for U.S. manufactures — and less smog flowing from tailpipes of buses, trucks and cars. A transformation to an all-new clean-diesel engine has been mandated to replace sales of older, dirtier models by 2008 — this, despite heavy lobbying efforts by Mac and other truck engine makers.
The new rules will have far-reaching implications for people’s health because of the cleaner air, but also for their pocketbooks. The new cleaner burning engines get 20 to 40 percent better mileage per gallon.
(CSMonitor)
Idle Computers Get To Work on Cancer Cure
More than 60,000 people are donating idle computer power to a project that is ultimately trying to find cures for diseases like cancer and AIDS. The number-crunching power of all those PCs working together is the equivalent of one supercomputer. If the research team can increase that number tenfold, major scientific breakthroughs are possible. . .
Lifeboat Rescues Deer Swimming out to Sea
A lifeboat crew has rescued a young deer which was spotted swimming out to sea from Arbroath Harbour in the UK. The disoriented animal was likely spooked and escaped into the water. (bbc reports )
Gay Couples Parent Just Like Everybody Else
Hearing the voices recently insisting that it is best for a child to grow up with one father and one mother reminds me of a powerful documentary that aired this January on MTV called, I Have Gay Parents. Part of the ThinkMTV series entitled True Life, I Have Gay Parents follows three teens through their every day lives in a riveting look at what it means to have gay parents.
REVIEW
Hope is an adopted dark-skinned girl growing up on Staten Island with two white dads. She is preparing to leave for Wellesley College and her dads are shown fussing and worrying about her needs and desires (in one case, her yen for a tattoo — about which they are not happy). They obviously care deeply about her and are having a difficult time letting their chick leave the nest.
Aidan’s story was more suspenseful as she was trying out for the position of drum major at her conservative high school in Richmond, VA. . .
(photo- Aidan with two moms, from MTV’s True Life: I Have Gay Parents)
Federal Judge Rules Oklahoma Gay Adoption Ban Unconstitutional
US District Court Judge Robin Cauthron Friday struck down a two year-old amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that prevented the state from recognizing adoptions by gay parents. In her ruling, she wrote:
"The very fact that the adoptions have occurred is evidence that a court of law has found the adoptions to be in the best interests of the children… To now attempt to strip a child of one of his or her parents seems far removed from the statute’s purpose…" (Jurist)
Recovery of Lake Offers Hope for Acid Rain-Ravaged Region
Updates to the Clean Air Act in the early 90’s tightened controls on Midwestern coal-fired power plants, which substantially reduced acid rain. Lakes began to recover…
A crystalline Adirondack lake once held up as an example of a "dead" lake devastated by acid rain has now become a symbol of nature’s ability to heal itself once pollutants are curbed. The surprising thing about the recovery of Brooktrout Lake was how fast it happened. (AP story )
Sanctuary Cares For Hundreds of Misfit Pigs
An 80-acre sanctuary near Phoenix is a refuge to more than 400 pigs, casualties of the potbellied pig craze of the 80’s and 90’s. Some were abused, some neglected and many abandoned. Sometimes their owners had been duped by pig marketers promising chic and tiny pets before actually delivering animals that grew rapidly becoming unmanageable. The sanctuary is funded entirely by donations and energized by the concern and caring of Mary Schanz. (read more of this AP story at abc15.com)
Tumors Stalled in Women with Advanced Breast Cancer
A new drug stalls the growth of tumors in women with advanced breast cancer. Testing was stopped after noting the drug’s effectiveness, so that all the women could be given the chance to benefit:
A novel experimental drug (Tykerb) delayed the growth of tumors nearly twice as long as standard chemotherapy did in patients who had stopped responding to Herceptin, doctors reported Saturday. (Boston.com via AP Medical writer )
Boeing 747 Transformed to Fight Fires
A Boeing 747 aircraft that has been transformed into a fire fighting prototype is on a mission to win approval from federal aviation authorities.
Evergreen International Aviation is touring five states demonstrating its firefighting 747 Supertanker, which can hold seven times more water or retardant than commonly used planes. Besides the bigger payloads, supertankers could add more range and cut time between drops, company officials say.
The company has invested three years and more than $40 million to develop a whole new generation of firefighting aircraft that can "disperse retardant at high pressure for an overwhelming response, or drop retardant at the speed of falling rain in single or several segmented drops." The capabilities are being weighed against the cost by politicians and officials nationwide.
Ditch the Tie To Cut Air-Conditioning, Urges Japan
An innovative campaign by the Japanese government to encourage the nation to use less air-conditioning is called the "Cool Biz" casual clothing campaign. Politicians are ditching their suits and ties at the highest levels.
The prime Minister has pledged to discard his tie throughout the summer campaign, except when meeting foreign dignitaries. "It feels nice not having to wear a tie," he said as he emerged from his Tokyo residence dressed in a loose Okinawan-style white shirt, Kyodo News reported.
The Whale Rescuer, Hero of Southern Calif. Coast
“I couldn’t have gotten a clearer sign that this is my calling,” explained Peter Wallerstein. “Saving such magnificent, once almost-extinct creatures is a privilege.”
And join his Whale Rescue Team!
Expanding Coverage to More Pregnant Women in Texas
From the Student Operated Press comes this good news for low-income pregnant women. A U.S. program expands access to prenatal health care in nine states: Arkansas, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Washington, and now Texas:
More low-income pregnant women living in Texas will have access to critical prenatal care the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced today. The State of Texas estimates that 66,916 pregnant women will receive prenatal health care under this expansion of its State Children’s Health Insurance Program. (sop newswire)
Horses Heal Wounded Soldiers’ Limbs, Confidence
Horses in Arlington, Va. are helping amputee soldiers in their long struggle to learn to walk again, to regain strength and to believe in their new limbs.
“It gives me the confidence to know that I lost an arm and a leg but not the ability to do certain things,” 1st Lt. Ryan Kules, 25, a Tempe, Ariz., native who was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq in November, said Friday. (AP story, photo )
New Orleans Levees Repaired as Storm Season Starts
The US Corps of Engineers has finished repairing the 169 miles (270 km) of battered levees around New Orleans in time for hurricane season. The Corps reported today that their June 1 target has been met, and residents of New Orleans “can be confident in its hurricane protection system because it is better and it is stronger.” (Reuters story)