May 22, 2012
“Ever since I’ve gotten hurt I’ve had good spirits about anything and everything. I’m going to do what I want to do, you know. I’m not going to let it slow me down.”
In this Feb. 9, 2012 photo, wounded war veteran Marine Cpl. Joshua "J.B." Kerns, poses with actor Gary Sinise during a news conference in Martinsville, VA.
22-year-old Patrick County Marine Cpl. J.B. Kerns, who lost his right arm below the elbow and both his legs below the knees in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2011 during his third tour of duty. Actor Gary Sinise, famous for his role as Lt. Dan in “Forrest Gump” is raising money to build several “smart homes” for wounded veterans across the country as part of an ongoing efforts to support U.S. military personnel and first responders. The foundations partnered to create the Building For America’s Bravest program to build the homes. For Kerns, the new home will help him be more independent, but he said his disability hasn’t stopped him from living life to the fullest.
(Read about Cpl. Kerns at: m.roanoke.com/mapp/story.aspx?arcID=306675)
(Read about the program “Building for America’s Bravest” at:
garysinisefoundation.org/about/programs_detail/557 and tunneltotowers.org/homes_for_the_brave.aspx)
May 15, 2012
Lydia Amito
“I never thought I would meet the Queen and then get to sing for her…”
“It’s a song about my country [Uganda] and about Jesus.”
10-year-old Lydia Amito, explaining the song Beautiful Africa that her choir sang for Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, written to express their hope that, with God’s help, there will be a better future for the continent. Lydia is a member of Uganda’s Watoto Children’s Choir, part of a organization set up 18 years ago to care for the thousands of children orphaned in the country. Lydia’s father was murdered by a rebel army and her mother died soon after from disease.
Visit the Watoto website at: watoto.com/about-us/news-updates/beautiful-africa-music-video
May 8, 2012
“The time to fix this problem is now. We need to create a culture…that’s a can-do culture, not a no culture.”
Maine Governor Paul LePage, urging fellow Republicans at the Republican party convention to reform welfare, saying structural changes must be made to a system that is “cannibalizing the rest of state government.” While he said he supports programs for the elderly and disabled, he thinks others should not continue to receive benefits. “To all you able-bodied people out there, get off the couch and get yourself a job,” he said, prompting a standing ovation.
Read the article at news.bostonherald.com.
Read about Governor LePage at maine.gov/governor/lepage/about/index.shtml.
May 1, 2012
“We have a lot more important things to do, but these are things that are quality of life issues…”
Middleborough, Connecticut Police Chief Bruce Gates, explaining why he a plans to start enforcing a longstanding but rarely-used law that will allow police to hand out $20 fines for public profanity [cursing]. The chief will make his case for a more easily enforceable system of fines for public cursing before a Town Meeting in June. (Some townspeople told a local reporter they think the fine should be $100 per curse.)
NOTE: Old laws punishing profanity and blasphemy are still on the books in many states or municipalities – a surprising number of state laws still prohibit such speech. Even though the laws are rarely enforced, they are still on the books. Some anti-profanity laws were passed to shield women and children from foul-mouthed men. Consider this Michigan law: “Any person who shall use any indecent, immoral, obscene, vulgar or insulting language in the presence or hearing of any woman or child shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” Also, Michigan’s blasphemy law says: “Any person who shall willfully blaspheme the holy name of God, by cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”
[from ehow.com: In the United States, the legalities of profanity trace their roots to the First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees free speech. However, this liberty is not intended to incite citizens to roam the streets shouting obscenities. Its intention was to allow uncensored speaking at "peaceful" gatherings and in the media.
In early America, laws banning profanity were based on religion. Back then, serious infractions involved breaking the biblical commandment to honor God's name and laws against profanity often banned using God's name "in vain."
In 1775, General George Washington banned cursing among his troops and required church attendance. Demands like this prompted Judge Zephaniah Swift, in 1796, to declare the government unable to punish a person on religious violation alone, that person must be disturbing the peace as well.
Since then, the U.S. Supreme Court has stated that the context in which the allegedly profane language is spoken generally decides whether the language is protected by the First Amendment.]
April 24, 2012
“Handwriting is fun and special!”
Annie Clark, a 7-year-old born without hands, upon winning a national award for penmanship.
The first grader at Wilson Christian Academy in the Pittsburgh-area was awarded the Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellent Penmanship at a surprise assembly at her school Wednesday, where she was presented with a trophy and $1,000 prize from Zaner-Bloser, the textbook publishing company that sponsors the contest. After accepting the award, Annie demonstrated for the audience how she writes, gripping the pencil steadily between her forearms to perfect the letters and capitalization.
According to Zaner-Bloser, 325,000 students entered its National Handwriting Contest this year.
(Read the entire story at: pittsburghlive.com/x/dailynewsmckeesport/s_791999.html)
April 17, 2012
“This was a horrific event, but I’ve come across people in the neighborhoods in high spirits because they’ve got their lives.”
Rusty Surette, a spokesman for the Central and Western Oklahoma region of the American Red Cross, on the tornadoes that struck this weekend. There were at least 120 reports of tornadoes Saturday and early Sunday, primarily in Kansas but also in northwest Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa, the National Weather Service said. In all, 6 people lost their lives due to the tornadoes.
Watch a video from one of the hardest hit towns, Woodward, Oklahoma below: (if you can’t open video, use this link:
news9.com/story/17454118/tornado-strikes-woodward-causing-major-damage-injuries?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6962254)
April 10, 2012
Firefighting foams covers the scene of a crash of an F/A-18D Hornet in Virginia Beach, Va. (Antonio P. Turretto Ramos / AFP/Getty Images / April 6, 2012)
“We’re so blessed and truly believe a miracle has occurred here with us not having any victims.”
Virginia Beach mayor Will Sessoms, at a brief news conference confirming that no one had been killed when a U.S. Navy F-18 fighter jet on a training mission crashed into an apartment complex in Virginia Beach. Six people, including one of the two airmen aboard the plane, were treated at a local hospital and released Friday. One aviator was still hospitalized Saturday morning, according to officials at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital, but the Navy described his injuries as minor and said he was doing well.
Watch a news report:
March 27, 2012
“On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space,” President Obama, speaking to outgoing Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, referring to newly elected Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility,” Obama told Medvedev, following a meeting at the end of a nuclear security summit in South Korea. The President made the comments to Medvedev privately when when he thought their microphones were turned off. (Read the entire article here)
Watch the video exchange below:
March 20, 2012
“I don’t know if I can honestly say that what I did was the right thing, but it was the only thing that I could do at the moment.”
Missouri mother Sherrie Gavin on being prosecuted by the state for hitting her son’s heroin dealer with a baseball bat.
In an interview about getting addicted to heroin, Clayton Gavin said: “The first couple of times all you think about is it’s the greatest thing in the world. There’s nothing better. And everybody thinks, ‘it’s not gonna happen to me. I can stop when I want.’ It starts with the good feeling, but then it gets to the point you’re sick when you’re not doing it. You’re throwing up constantly.” His family got involved and tried to help him stop. He was sent to live with a relative for a while, and when he was at home he was kept under close watch by his parents. The family says a twenty year old man who lives nearby was providing him with heroin. They say he continually kept trying to bring Clayton back to the drug, in some cases, right under his parents nose. “They came to my house,” Sherrie Gavan says. “They came to my work looking for him. Trying to get him to buy again when he was clean.”
Mrs. Gavan claims the man aided Clayton in relapsing several times. She finally says she had enough in December and went to try and talk to him. “I just wanted him to leave my son alone, and stay away from where I work and stay away from where we live,” she said. In her statement to police she says during the conversation the man reached for something in his car.
“I felt extremely threatened,” the four foot eleven Gavan told us. In the statement she says she hit the man with a baseball bat, telling him to get away. When he approached her again, she says she hit him a second time. After that she left, and nine hours later, she says sheriff’s deputies arrived to question her. Deputies confirm they filed a report, but no arrest was made. About a month later, prosecutors filed a bill of information, charging Gavan with third degree assault for striking the alleged drug dealer. She says she nearly laughed at first, then realized how serious this is. “It is the state prosecuting me for trying to protect my son. And I’m just at this point I don’t know what to do. I could lose my job. I could lose everything I own because I was trying to protect my son.”
March 13, 2012
“The spiders don’t pose any harm at all. They are doing us a favor. They are actually helping us out.”
“The amount of mosquitoes around would be incredible because of all this water…”
Brett Finlayson, Australia’s Taronga Zoo spider keeper, talking about thousands of normally solitary wolf spiders that have blanketed an Australian farm after fleeing a rising flood.
Spiders and other insects fill the trees after flooding last year in Pakistan (Russell Watkins/U.K.)
The flooding has forced more than 8,000 Australian residents from their homes in the city of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. But for every temporarily displaced person, it appears several spiders have moved in to fill the void. “What we’ve seen here is a type of wolf spider,” Owen Seeman, an arachnid expert at Queensland Museum, told Reuters. “They are trying to hide away (from the waters).”
The Australian Museum’s entomology collections manager Graham Milledge told Reuters that there’s even a term for the phenomenon, “ballooning,” and that it is typical behavior for spiders forced to escape rising waters.
Thankfully for local residents, the occupying arachnids are not likely to set up permanent residence… Weather reports say the flood waters in Wagga Wagga have begun receding, meaning that locals will soon be returning to their homes and the wolf spiders will also be returning to their natural underground habitats.
And it turns out the spiders are actually doing quite a bit of good while setting up shop above ground. The spiders are feasting on mosquitoes and other insect populations that have boomed with the increased moisture brought about by the rising waters.
Watch a weather report including information about the spiders: