This cat isn’t your ordinary American pet… He was rescued all the way across the world in Iraq.
Veteran Brad Voncleave, was a government contractor based at the Baghdad airport when he spotted the meowing kitten. He saw the cat appear each time he arrived, and quickly realized the cat was abandoned by his mother.
Nigerian Special Forces Thursday cleared an area held by the terrorist group Boko Haram and rescued 97 women and children that were being held captive.
An Army spokesman, Sani Kukasheka Usman, at first claimed that one of the youth, Serah Luka, was one of the Chibok Government Secondary School girls that were abducted on 14th April 2014 by the terrorists, but the campaign #BringBackOurGirls has clarified that although she went to the school, she wasn’t part of the group of 218 children that gained worldwide attention.
However, one of original girls was indeed found this week with her baby and said all, but six of her classmates, were still alive and in the Sambisa forest where she was found. The girl named Amina Ali-Nkek (above) met with the Nigerian president this week.
During her debriefing Miss Luka said that three other girls fled from the area when the troops invaded the area, and killed 35 terrorists.
This woman fought her fear of cancer — and a personal battle raging inside her — by giving “unconditional love for zero dollars.”
Diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, Dr. Shamanie Thompson tenaciously fought it, but suffered some complications and, later, a growing fear the cancer would return.
After reading an inspirational story about Brice Royer, another cancer survivor, she contacted him and he convinced her to replace the fear that was paralyzing her with unconditional love.
Thompson and her kids made a sign that read: “I am giving Unconditional Love for $0 to heal my fear of cancer.”
They set the sign up in a nearby park, and Thompson handed out receipts, along with hugs, to 40 strangers in 30 minutes. Each receipt had a different, positive message such as “Sunny days will come again” and “You are stronger than you think.”
She says in the video below, she could feel her heart growing “three times” its size. Thompson said the experience pushed the fear out and left her with an overwhelming sense of love and goodness.
Thompson was so emboldened, she even went to her ex-husband and made peace, after years of hostile feelings between them.
“On any other day,” she says in the video below, “this never would have happened because we’ve had such conflict in our lives. This is the miracle — I ended the war inside me.”
An eighth-grade member of a marching band missed their final school event of the year due to a kidney transplant—so her fellow band members marched over to her house and gave her a special encore performance.
Flutist Emily Erickson returned home after a six-week hospital stay, but was still not able to join the band before the school year finished.
So, forty members of the Northbrook, Illinois Junior High marching band surprised her by setting up, in formation, on her front lawn — then asking her to join them.
“I feel very, very special and just really excited,” Emily told WGN News about feeling surprised – and even a bit overwhelmed – by her bandmates’ show of friendship.
(WATCH the video below from WGN News) — Photo: WGN news viceo
A formerly-homeless Australian man is converting a bus into a mobile shelter to provide more than eight-thousand “safe sleeps” per year.
Simon Rowe has raised more than $100,000 in a crowdfunding campaign for his “SleepBus” project designed to shelter 22 homeless people– and their pets, at the same time.
He sees it as a short-term solution to give homeless folks a safe place to stay overnight–and hopes to have 300 of the buses cruising around Australia within six years.
The SleepBus will feature 22 private “sleeping pods” (above) — small compartments similar to Japanese capsule hotels. Each pod will have a mattress, sheets, and blankets — washed daily — USB ports for charging cell phones, individual climate controls, and a TV with a special channel devoted to advertising services available to the homeless.
Each pod will also have a roll-top door that can be locked for privacy and security. In addition, the SleepBus will have two restrooms, pet kennels, and storage for belongings along with an overnight caretaker.
Because they’re mobile, the buses can move around a city to areas where they are most needed.
Each bus and its conversion is expected to cost $50,000 and the first bus is already under construction.
The idea of retrofitting a bus to help the homeless is being tried in the U.S. as well. Project LIFT in Hawaii launched last year to turn unused city buses into homeless shelters and California nonprofit Lava Mae began turning buses into mobile shower stations for San Francisco’s homeless in 2013.
Rowe was homeless himself for four months in 1993 and was spurred to action last year when the sight of a homeless man sleeping on a Melbourne street brought back memories — and brought him to tears.
“No one should have to live like that,” Rowe told the Daily Telegraph. “I want to help people get off the streets now, even if it’s only overnight.” MULTIPLY the Good! Share This…
When construction delays on their new building threatened Sunday services for a Unitarian Universalist church in Michigan, a local Muslim house of worship came to the rescue.
The Islamic Society of Greater Lansing offered a temporary home to the UU congregation, offering its worship space — for free.
There was no charge whatsoever, but Rev. Kathryn Bert and her churchgoers decided to donate their collection money from one Sunday each month to the hospitable hosts.
The Imam and his mosque, in turn, plan to donate all or part of the offering to Islamic Relief USA, which locally is helping victims of the Flint water crisis, and to resettle refugees.
He started off shy and awkward playing his own arrangement of a Queen song, and just as it appeared that the Britain’s Got Talent judges were about to lose interest, the tempo changed and a flash mob of musicians and singers popped up from every corner of the theater.
The look on Simon Cowell’s face alone is worth watching.
(WATCH the video above from Britain’s Got Talent) — Photo: Britain’s Got TalentFlashmobs are the Best! Share This Brilliant One….
When Dave Reynolds’ family laughed at him for falling off the toilet in the dark, he created a glow-in-the-dark toilet seat and laughed all the way to the bank.
The Pennsylvania man had been trying to sit on the toilet in a new house and wound up falling into the bathtub. He wasn’t seriously hurt, just a bruised body–and ego, after he became the butt of family jokes.
He called up his friend Tom Fittler and together they came up with a way to manufacture glowing seats that give off just enough light to let you safely navigate any bathroom, without lighting up the whole room.
A craft beer maker in Florida has created a six-pack ring that feeds animals instead of endangering them.
Saltwater Brewery has replaced the dangerous plastic rings with their own innovation–a 6-pack carrier made out of the wheat and barley waste leftover from making beer. The rings are as strong as the usual plastic ones, but are biodegradable and even safe for animals to eat.
The brewery was founded by fishermen and surfers who have close connections to the sea. They realized that even if you cut plastic rings to keep animals from getting entangled in them, birds and turtles still eat plastic–so they were going to figure out a way to keep the litter from piling up.
It’s expensive to make the edible rings, but Saltwater Brewery president Chris Gove says if other breweries adopted the idea, mass production could bring the cost down to be competitive with plastic.
This adorable dachshund named Arvo wanted to go to sleep, but needed its teddy bear to cuddle with.
At first the stuffed animal seemed too big to pull into the dog’s kennel, but persistence and determination can often turn the seemingly impossible into the doable.
When she was 14-years-old Nicole was hospitalized for months to treat her Anorexia. While hospitalized, only Nicole’s parents were allowed to visit and only at very specific times. Nicole was suddenly cut off from her friends, school and everything else that was in her life.
She received stuffed animals as presents. Those stuffed animals were a tremendous support. “Reminders that there are people in my life and they care about me and want to help me get through this,” she said.
Nicole explained that since the stuffed animals made such a difference to her, she decided to provide handmade teddy bears to other kids through her nonprofit Cubs for Coping.
“We want to let these kids know that someone cares. We want to provide support for whatever they’re going through.” she says.
A bold cancer therapy that uses the polio virus to attack a form of brain cancer has been so successful, it’s been given “breakthrough status” from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The status means hundreds of patients can receive the treatment, before testing is even completed, or the FDA has finally given its approval— a process that can normally take years.
Glioblastoma is usually fatal within just months of diagnosis, but Duke University researchers developed the treatment that has resulted in quick and complete recoveries among patients in clinical trials.
The researchers took samples of the polio virus and removed its ability to cause the disease. They then spliced in part of the genes from the common cold virus.
This creates a whole new virus — PVS-RIPO — which can only grow by feeding on the abnormalities found in diseased cells. As a result, it destroys cancer cells while ignoring healthy ones.
Cells in the polio virus have a natural receptor that can attach to almost all tumor cells. This lets PVS-RIPO break into the cancer cells, and once inside, it strips tumors of their protections against the immune system.
The process unleashes the full power of the immune system directly against now-defenseless cancer cells.
One patient diagnosed with Glioblastoma in 2011 and treated with the therapy saw her tumor shrink for 21 straight months until it disappeared. Three years later, she is completely cancer-free. She was one of the patients featured on a recent news report on 60 Minutes.
(WATCH the video below from 60 Minutes) — Photo: 60 Minutes
When Lynn Murphy, a homeless mother of four, saw the police cruiser pull up, she thought the trooper was there to remove her for panhandling. She was surprised when Bonin offered her the choice of the two meals instead.
The trooper then sat with her on the side of the road and talked with her while they both had lunch.
Bonin never told his superiors or fellow troopers about the good deed, but a passerby snapped a photo of the scene and passed it along to the state police.
“Yes, Trooper Bonin, we know you do not want or expect publicity,” the Massachusetts State Police wrote on its Facebook page. “We know you didn’t want to be noticed, but you were, and the job is proud of you. We commend you for your selfless act, and for ‘doing the right thing’ for someone less fortunate than most people.”
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Youthful entrepreneurs like this one should be lifting their glasses to toast the Louisiana legislature after lawmakers unanimously voted to protect their sidewalk lemonade stands.
Legislators were appalled when they learned that city police had been ticketing kids for not having a business license to run the entrepreneurial stands.
State Senator Gary Smith of Norco introduced the bill that exempts any business making less than $500 a year from an occupational license. Lawmakers in both the house and senate unanimously passed the bill, and Governor Bill Edwards will be signing it into law.
It’ll take effect August 1, during some of the hottest days of summer when a glass of lemonade will taste the best.
(Photo: Pat Long, Twitter) Declare Support for Doing This in Your State: Share It…
Moses Kamara has been a Manchester United fan for a quarter century. When he finally got the chance to fly 3,000 miles to see the English Football heroes play in person, a bomb scare threatened to crush his hopes.
“It’s my dream and I’ve been saving for a year,” the 40-year-old told CNN after the match was cancelled. “I was sad – I just cried.”
Moses is a security guard at the airport back home so he understands the decision to put safety first, even though he realized his goal would not be realized.
Or, so he thought. Manchester United fans heard about his plight and rallied to his side helping him stay in the UK.
They raised money to reschedule his airline ticket, gave him accommodations and food, and best of all, a fan donated a ticket to see the cup final at Wembley stadium. He even gets to see another match before the final, so will be enjoying two, instead of one.
When a Dutch inventor got bored with walking on his treadmill, he decided to take it on the road — and turned it into an electric bike.
Bruin Bergmeester created the “Lopifit” — a unique “walking bike” that can go 34 miles on a single charge.
Walking on the treadmill begins turning the drive gears, and also starts an electric-assist motor. A steady, strolling pace lets riders ramp up the speed to that of a regular bike with a fraction of the effort.
The $2,500 Lopifit bike features a battery that can be charged in four hours, and right now is available in parts of Europe, the Mideast, Canada, and the U.S.–but Bergmeester is recruiting dealers around the world, now that production is, well, “up and running.”
The weather wasn’t windy, but her wind chimes were making a racket. When she looked out, she saw a young moose operating the chimes and appearing to enjoy every note.
A retiree’s new career is devoted to creating a “seed bank” of endangered rhinos in Australia to save their species from extinction.
Former sales executive Ray Dearlove immigrated to Australia from South Africa 30 years ago, and has launched an effort to have 80 rhinos follow the same route to his adopted country.
A demand for rhino horn in Asia has led poachers to hunt the animals faster than they can reproduce. Deerlove’s solution is simple — move them out of the reach of the illegal hunters — creating a biological insurance policy for the species’ survival.
His plan to airlift the animals is ambitious — it will cost $44,000 to fly each rhino 6,800 miles to Australia. He plans to reach his goal of bringing all 80 rhinos into the country within four years. Dearlove founded the Australian Rhino Project in 2013 to raise the money and deal with the complicated logistics of moving the giant animals across the Indian Ocean.
The first of six rhinos will leave in August after a two-month-long quarantine. They’ll spend another two months quarantined in their new country before being released to a safari park.
Rhinos without Borders has moved roughly 100 of the animals from South Africa to the relative safety of neighboring Botswana in recent years, but Dearlove’s plan would put an entire ocean — not just a few miles — between the poachers and their quarry.
“I thought Australia is one of the safest places on the planet to start this breeding herd,” Deerlove told ABC News. “With the eventual intention that they would be repatriated to Africa when those [poaching] issues are sorted out.”
(WATCH the video below) — Photo: Australian Rhino Project
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Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation Friday ending greyhound and any other kind of dog racing in the state.
“Greyhound racing has run its course in Arizona,” said Governor Ducey. “It’s heartening that these beautiful greyhounds will soon be off the track and in loving homes. For any families looking to adopt a new canine companion this summer, I encourage you to consider one of these gentle and intelligent dogs.”
Although the new law, unanimously approved by the state legislature, allows for racing until the end of the year, the Tucson Greyhound Park–the last such establishment in the state–will be ending its live dog races by the end of June, according to the governor’s office–and the animals involved will be ready for adoption this summer.
An active adoption movement in the U.S. has assisted retired racing dogs and found homes for them as pets, with an adoption rate of over 90 percent.
Arizona becomes the 40th state to outlaw the activity, according to the Denver Post, since Gov. Hickenlooper signed a measure that prohibited commercial greyhound racing in Colorado in 2014.
In recent years, several state governments in the United States have passed legislation to improve the treatment of racing dogs in their jurisdiction–and four more states hold no greyhound races, despite the “sport” being legal there.
In the remaining states where it is practiced, the profitability has declined rapidly. The total amount gambled on greyhound racing nationwide declined by 67% between 2001-2011.
In Florida, where 12 of the 22 operational dog tracks in the US remain, the financial decline is even more significant– 72% between 1990 and 2013. RACE This Story to Your Dog-Loving Friends… Click to Share. (Photo by AngMoKio, CC)
President Obama awarded the Medal of Valor, to thirteen public safety officers who have exhibited exceptional courage, regardless of personal safety, in the attempt to save or protect human life.
Since 2001, police, firefighters and other first responders have been nominated by their agencies and recommended through the Medal of Valor Review Board.
“It was your courage and quick thinking that gave us our safety,” Obama said at the White House. “Although, this particular moment for which you are being honored is remarkable … we know every day you go out there, you have a tough job.”
One of the recipients whose stories were described in the ceremony, which was held today during National Police Week, is a fallen officer posthumously honored. Philadelphia Police Sergeant Robert Wilson III was shot in a video game store robbery during which he confronted two gunman, and moved away from customers and shopkeepers to keep them safe.
The other recipients of the 2014 Medal of Valor are:
Officer Mario Gutierrez (Miami-Dade Police Department, FL)
For bravery and composure while enduring a violent attack. Officer Gutierrez sustained multiple stab wounds while subduing a knife-wielding assailant who attempted to set off a massive gas explosion that could have resulted in multiple fatalities.
Patrolman Louis Cioci (Johnson City Police Department, NY)
For courageously resolving a volatile encounter with a gunman. After witnessing the murder of his fellow officer, Patrolman Cioci pursued and apprehended the gunman at a crowded hospital, thereby saving the lives of employees, patients, and visitors.
Officers Jason Salas, ad Robert Sparks, and Captain Raymond Bottenfield (Santa Monica Police Department, CA)
For courage and composure in ending a deadly rampage. Officer Salas, Officer Sparks, and Captain Bottenfield placed themselves in mortal danger to save the lives of students and staff during a school shooting on the busy campus of Santa Monica College.
Major David Huff (Midwest City Police Department, OK) For uncommon poise in resolving a dangerous hostage situation. Major Huff saved the life of a two-year-old girl after negotiations deteriorated with a man holding the child captive at knife point.
Officer Donald Thompson (Los Angeles Police Department, CA)
For courageous action to save an accident victim. While off duty, Officer Thompson traversed two freeway dividers and endured first- and second-degree burns while pulling an unconscious man to safety from a car moments before it became engulfed in flames.
Officer Coral Walker (Omaha Police Department, NE)
For taking brave and decisive action to subdue an active shooter. After exchanging gunfire, Officer Walker single-handedly incapacitated a man who had killed and injured multiple victims on a shooting spree.
Officer Gregory Stevens (Garland Police Department, TX)
For demonstrating extraordinary courage to save lives. Officer Stevens exchanged gunfire at close range and subdued two heavily-armed assailants preventing a mass shooting.
Officer Niel Johnson (North Miami Police Department, FL)
For swift and valorous action to end a violent crime spree. Officer Johnson pursued a man who had shot a Miami police officer and two other innocent bystanders, withstanding fire from an assault weapon, and apprehended the assailant.
Special Agent Tyler Call (FBI)
For his heroic actions to save a hostage. Special Agent Call, who was off duty with his family, helped rescue a woman from her ex-husband who had violated a restraining order and held the victim at gunpoint.
Deputy Joey Tortorella (Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, NY)
For placing himself in grave danger to protect his community. Deputy Tortorella confronted and subdued a volatile gunman who had shot and wounded his parents inside their home and by doing so prevented the gunman from threatening the safety of students at a nearby elementary school.
