If you were born prematurely at 29 weeks with congenital cerebral palsy and motor function impairment, what would you be doing when you reached your teens?
From the age of five, Natasha Tse has used therapeutic riding to re-invent herself as an athlete.
She put all the problems and operations behind her and learned to ride a horse, working so hard that she earned Hong Kong a place in the London Paralympics equestrian dressage competition this week.
First Lady Michelle Obama announced at a Naval base today that 2,000 businesses around the country have hired or trained more than 125,000 military veterans and spouses in the past year, exceeding a White House goal of 100,000 by the end of next year.
This effort, called Joining Forces, led by the First Lady and Mrs. Biden, along with recent legislation, has achieve a 20 percent decrease in veteran unemployment compared to this time last year.
A Radford University student has a newly restored car and added security system thanks to Virginia businesses that took a firm stand against bullying.
The young man’s car was vandalized four times this year, it’s tires slashed, windows broken and, worst of all, gay slurs carved into the side of the vehicle.
A manager at Quality Auto Paint and Body in Roanoke, Richard Henegar Jr., heard what happened and rallied local businesses to help.
A Radford University student has a newly restored car and added security system thanks to Virginia businesses that took a firm stand against bullying.
The young man’s car was vandalized four times this year, it’s tires slashed, windows broken and, worst of all, gay slurs carved into the side of the vehicle.
A manager at Quality Auto Paint and Body in Roanoke, Richard Henegar Jr., heard what happened and rallied local businesses to help.
This morning a baby bird fell out of its nest just outside the window that is near my desk. I watched it tumble from the dense pillow of twigs and leaves tucked into the eaves under the deck, falling a distance of 12 feet to the cement patio below.
The mother bird dashed to the baby’s side, hopping in a circle around him. After a few stunned moments, the fledgling righted himself and faced her. She screeched at him, wings extended, beak thrust forward. I knew what she was saying: “Why did you sit so close to the edge? What were you doing? Wrestling with your brother? Didn’t I tell you…?”
A small round lithium-ion battery has been hacked to charge itself when it is flexed or compressed, a breakthrough that could lead to a class of small, portable electronics that stay charged without ever being plugged in.
Such an advancement could decrease trash in landfills as the need for chargers are eliminated.
A non-profit organization, working 15 years to save a historic property owned by Nikola Tesla, learned a lot about the power of social networks this week.
In just five days, a grassroots campaign set up by an artist was able to raise $829,000 from citizen donors contributing money to buy back Tesla’s laboratory and turn it into a museum that honors the pioneering physicist and engineer.
A non-profit organization, working 15 years to save a historic property owned by Nikola Tesla, learned a lot about the power of social networks this week.
In just five days, a grassroots campaign set up by an artist was able to raise $829,000 from citizen donors contributing money to buy back Tesla’s laboratory and turn it into a museum that honors the pioneering physicist and engineer.
Phyllis Diller, the first woman to make it big as a comedian, was an American pioneer. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife. She made self-deprecating jokes about her age and appearance, her terrible cooking and housekeeping, and her fictional husband named “Fang”.
Diller’s signature was her unusual laugh, a booming cackle she let loose always while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder. Her jokes later in life about her many facelifts made the procedure seem “more normal” for Americans, she said.
When government fraud squads crack down on one Medicare scheme, another pops up close by.
But the fraud squads that look for scams in the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs have been bolstered with new weapons: tools provided by the Affordable Care Act.
54 children from across the country were invited to the White House today for the first ever “Kids’ State Dinner” to celebrate healthy eating and the First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign.
Baked Zuccini Fries and Cabbage Sloppy Joes were two of the winning recipes chosen to be on the lunch menu from among the hundreds of healthy meal ideas submitted by the kids, aged 8-12 from all 50 states.
Not only is it the first State Dinner where the guests of honor were all under the age of 13, it’s also the first time the White House kitchen has served a formal meal where the entire menu was created by cooks who have no formal training.
Epicurious, a website that co-sponsored the contest, reports that the President also warned the kids about Bo, the family dog. “Try not to drop any scraps on the floor because Bo is on a diet right now, and he will eat anything that he sees.”
The winners arrived in Washington, D.C. yesterday and toured the new Julia Child exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution.
This morning at the White House they were treated like heads of state, dining among elaborate table decorations and using 
the red china designed by Nancy Reagan.
You can get a PDF cookbook with the 54 winning lunch recipes from the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge at LetsMove.gov.
Winners were selected from among 1,200 recipes, which were evaluated at D.C. Central Kitchen by a panel of judges that included White House Assistant Chef Sam Kass. Watch the White House chefs talk about the menu in the video below.
(READ more in a story with photos from NPR)
Visit Let’s Move on Facebook
54 children from across the country were invited to the White House today for the first ever “Kids’ State Dinner” to celebrate healthy eating and the First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign.
Baked Zuccini Fries and Cabbage Sloppy Joes were two of the winning recipes chosen to be on the lunch menu from among the hundreds of healthy meal ideas submitted by the kids, aged 8-12 from all 50 states.
Not only is it the first State Dinner where the guests of honor were all under the age of 13, it’s also the first time the White House kitchen has served a formal meal where the entire menu was created by cooks who have no formal training.
Epicurious, a website that co-sponsored the contest, reports that the President also warned the kids about Bo, the family dog. “Try not to drop any scraps on the floor because Bo is on a diet right now, and he will eat anything that he sees.”
The winners arrived in Washington, D.C. yesterday and toured the new Julia Child exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution.
This morning at the White House they were treated like heads of state, dining among elaborate table decorations and using the red china designed by Nancy Reagan.
You can get a PDF cookbook with the 54 winning lunch recipes from the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge at LetsMove.gov.
Winners were selected from among 1,200 recipes, which were evaluated at D.C. Central Kitchen by a panel of judges that included White House Assistant Chef Sam Kass. Watch the White House chefs talk about the menu in the video below.
(READ more in a story with photos from NPR)
Visit Let’s Move on Facebook
For the first time in its 80-year history, Augusta National Golf Club has female members.
The home of the Masters, under increasing criticism the last decade because of its all-male membership, invited former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore to become the first women members when the club opens for a new season in October.
“These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership,” Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said today in a statement.
Augusta did not have a black member until 1990, within its membership of some 300 men.
(READ the story in the Washington Post)
As Annaleise Carr left the water Sunday, she became the youngest girl ever to swim the 32-mile (52 km) crossing of Lake Ontario, besting her long-time hero Marilyn Bell, who made the first such crossing in 1954 at the age of 16.
After the brutal 27-hour ordeal, the 14-year-old Carr smiled wide as she laid hands on the rungs of a ladder that would lead her out of the lake she had just conquered.
Her fundraising goal of $50,000 was exceeded Sunday while in mid-swim, when she received a single donation of $10,000 to buoy her spirits.
Army Sgt. Davin Dumar gave a lot to his country when he lost a leg last year in combat in Afghanistan, and people like Kid Rock wanted to thank him.
On Saturday in Macomb Township, Michigan, Kid Rock joined Dan Wallrath, founder of Operation Finally Home, and the home builders, Pulte Group, in presenting Dumar and his new wife with a free new home.
The rocker along with members of the Dumar family hid inside a Pulte model home to surprise the young couple, and promise a fully furnished home delivered by year’s end.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from the Huffington Post)
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Army Sgt. Davin Dumar gave a lot to his country when he lost a leg last year in combat in Afghanistan, and people like Kid Rock wanted to thank him.
On Saturday in Macomb Township, Michigan, Kid Rock joined Dan Wallrath, founder of Operation Finally Home, and the home builders, Pulte Group, in presenting Dumar and his new wife with a free new home.
The rocker along with members of the Dumar family hid inside a Pulte model home to surprise the young couple, and promise a fully furnished home delivered by year’s end.
“A French swimmer who lacks legs and arms has successfully swum the frigid waters separating Alaska and Russia with the aid of paddle-like prosthetics,” reports Reuters.
Seeking to raise awareness of the abilities of handicapped people, Philippe Croizon, whose limbs were amputated after an accident at age 26, completed his dream of swimming between five continents.
His amputations were required due to a severe electric shock accident which occurred in March 1994. At the time, Croizon was employed as a steelworker at Fonderie du Poitou, 26 years old and married, with one son, and another baby on the way.
He wrote a book entitled J’ai decide de vivre (I Decided to Live), using a speech-to-text computer system. He also made a parachute jump.
On September 18, 2010, at the age of 42, he swam across the English Channel in less than 14 hours.
In April 2012, Croizon announced a new project, to swim four straits separating five continents. The planned trips included Australia to Asia, across the Red Sea (linking Asia and Africa), the Straits of Gibraltar (linking Africa and Europe), and the Bering Strait (linking Asia and America)
(READ more in story w/ photos at the NY Daily News)
“A French swimmer who lacks legs and arms has successfully swum the frigid waters separating Alaska and Russia with the aid of paddle-like prosthetics,” reports Reuters.
Seeking to raise awareness of the abilities of handicapped people, Philippe Croizon, whose limbs were amputated after an accident at age 26, completed his dream of swimming between five continents.
A host of services were available to homeless veterans and their families at the 2nd Orange County Stand Down in Costa Mesa. Veterans and their families could receive medical care, legal advice, housing and employment assistance, as well as massages and acupuncture treatments.
“I see a lot of love for the people who served … I plan on staying here the whole weekend.”
It’s been a good year for Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec farmers who bought into solar energy. Farmer Michael Donohue estimates his investment of $400,000 for nine towers of solar panels will be paid off in about seven or eight years.
“When I installed that, it probably never crossed my mind that it was any sort of risk-management tool.”
