When it comes to personal finance, there was a number of positive advancements for US consumers this year that should help people make better choices and avoid becoming a victims of fine print legalese.
One of the good things was the opening of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which will promote financial education and write federal rules to combat unfair, deceptive, and abusive financial practices and products.
A family buried alive in snow while trapped in their SUV was rescued last week from a rural New Mexico snowdrift after two days.
Rescuers had to dig through 4 feet of ice and snow along the roadside to free the parents and their 5-year-old daughter, whose Yukon got stuck on U.S. 56 while in route to a ski holiday.
Even though the family had packed lots of water, food and sleeping bags, their core body temperatures had still dropped to 90 degrees, which marks the beginning of hypothermia.
An Irish man received a touching Christmas gift when a 100-year-old letter from his mother to Santa was printed in a newspaper. The scorched letter, dated Christmas Eve 1911, had been sitting on an upper shelf inside the chimney for more than 80 years until the home’s new owner discovered it while installing a heating system.
Victor Bartlem’s mother, Hannah Howard, had written her Christmas wish list — asking for gloves, toffee, and a doll, when she was 10 years old.
Toyota Motor Corp on Monday launched the world’s most fuel-efficient hybrid car, as the company looks to fight off competition from pure electric vehicles.
The compact car, dubbed ‘Aqua’ in Japan and the ‘Prius C’ overseas, has a listed fuel efficiency of 35.4 km/litre (83.3 mpg), beating the current top Prius, which gets 32 km/litre.
The Japanese car maker said it had received orders for 60,000 Aqua hybrid cars ahead of its launch.
Here it is, the annual Top 10 best good news stories of the year. From this list, you get the sense that 2011 has been an amazing year! Here’s hoping we have an even better one in 2012.
From the heartwarming embers of the #10 story to the world-changing heroics of #1, share this with your friends and provide an uplifting holiday-end boost.)
10) Bystanders Lift Burning Car to Save Trapped Biker – Caught on Video
A 21-year old motorcyclist who collided with a BMW on the campus of Utah State University was lying unconscious beneath the burning wreckage when bystanders rushed to help. Workers at a nearby construction site tried to lift the car along with students, while a professor shot the scene on his camera phone from an upper floor window.
Debra Meyerson was hiking 15 months ago when a stroke destroyed part of the left side of her brain, leaving her literally speechless. It happens to more than 150,000 Americans a year.
But now she is learning to talk again through an approach that trains the undamaged right side of the brain where even those who can’t speak can access the ability to sing with the help of singing speech therapy.
“Singing therapy” has for many decades helped stroke survivors to eventually speak again.
(READ the story or Listen to it at NPR)
A retired Navy mechanic has been refurbishing bicycles for needy children in Fayettesville, NC. for nearly 20 years.
His workshop has been especially busy preparing 1,100 bikes for kids who lined up to choose new wheels for Christmas.
They have Moses to thank, a man known locally simply as The Bicycle Man.
(WATCH the video below from NBC’s Making a Difference)
Christmas came early for a Boston music student who was reunited with the US$170,000 violin she forgot in the overhead compartment of a regional commuter bus she rode last week, while overcome with travel fatigue.
The 176-year-old instrument, on loan to Hsieh from a Taiwanese cultural foundation.
(READ the story in the National Post)
Neighbors in Greenwood have banded together to give another neighbor a special Christmas present: a new roof.
The story began several weeks ago when four concerned neighbors watched Piper, who never married and has no children, climb atop her roof to apply tar to the many leaky areas. The roof had been damaged in a thunderstorm so Piper had covered it with tarps, but the tarps blew away, exposing the leaky plywood.
So the neighbors gathered at a dinner party and plotted how to help.
Sony has unveiled a paper-powered battery prototype in Japan.
The technology generates electricity by turning shredded paper into sugar which in turn is used as fuel.
If brought to market, the innovation could allow the public to top up the power of their mobile devices using waste material.
The team behind the project said such bio-batteries are environmentally friendly as they did not use harmful chemicals or metals.
After watching the devastation of neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina, Barnes and Noble CEO Leonard Riggio promised to give away new homes to 100 displaced families.
A celebration last month marked the completion of the 101st and final home built through Project Home Again. (See original heartwarming video from 2009)
As a gospel choir sang “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” in front of the last newly constructed house in the hard hit neighborhood of Gentilly, 55-year-old Corliss Gaines’ eyes swelled with tears.
The sight of the new home — six years after Hurricane Katrina — hits her hard.
“It’s a beautiful thing, a beautiful day.”
After watching the devastation of neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina, Barnes and Noble CEO Leonard Riggio promised to give away new homes to 100 displaced families.
A celebration last month marked the completion of the 101st and final home built through Project Home Again. (See original heartwarming video from 2009)
As a gospel choir sang “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” in front of the last newly constructed house in the hard hit neighborhood of Gentilly, 55-year-old Corliss Gaines’ eyes swelled with tears.
The sight of the new home — six years after Hurricane Katrina — hits her hard.
A little girl’s Christmas wish is coming true after a letter to Santa soared 684 miles on two little pink balloons, landing on a rural California ranch.
When the girl asked for toys and clothes for Christmas, her mother wasn’t sure how the family could afford it. She is out of work and her husband only recently found a job, with a paycheck to cover the overdue electric bills.
The rancher, who recognized the tattered letter written in Spanish as a note to Santa, traveled 50 miles to the nearest shopping mall on one of the busiest days of the holiday shopping season to battle the crowds and find gifts for the little girl. He planned on shipping the presents overnight on Friday hoping to get them to the Washington family by Christmas.
(WATCH the video below, or read the story at KOMO-TV)
A little girl’s Christmas wish is coming true after a letter to Santa soared 684 miles on two little pink balloons, landing on a rural California ranch.
When the girl asked for toys and clothes for Christmas, her mother wasn’t sure how the family could afford it. She is out of work and her husband only recently found a job, with a paycheck to cover the overdue electric bills.
The rancher, who recognized the tattered letter written in Spanish as a note to Santa, traveled 50 miles to the nearest shopping mall on one of the busiest days of the holiday shopping season to battle the crowds and find gifts for the little girl. He planned on shipping the presents overnight on Friday hoping to get them to the Washington family by Christmas.
The holidays are a time for giving.
Even the smallest deeds, such as visiting a lonely senior citizen on Christmas Day, helping a neighbor with a chore, or cooking a meal for a needy family, goes a long way.
If you need a way to make a difference, here are 20 selfless things to do this holiday season…
(Tell us about something you’ve done to brighten someone’s holiday…Comment below.)
In place of a holiday party, computer technology company NVIDIA conducted one of Silicon Valley’s largest-ever employee volunteer events, with 1,500 employees and community members gathering to bolster a local farm’s ability to continue providing students and families with access to fresh local produce.
NVIDIA’s annual holiday initiative called Project Inspire began on December 9 and in two days transformed Full Circle Farm’s operations, building structures to enable it to become financially self-sustaining and to expand its ability to provide nutrition education to students and families in Silicon Valley.
Employees constructed a new farm stand for selling produce, large swathes of land were primed for spring planting, irrigation was added to the farm’s orchard and they created an outdoor teaching facility where students can learn about the science of food and how to prepare healthy meals. They also improved the food storage and packing area, building and furnished an entirely new facility.
In place of a holiday party, computer technology company NVIDIA conducted one of Silicon Valley’s largest-ever employee volunteer events, with 1,500 employees and community members gathering to bolster a local farm’s ability to continue providing students and families with access to fresh local produce.
NVIDIA’s annual holiday initiative called Project Inspire began on December 9 and in two days transformed Full Circle Farm’s operations, building structures to enable it to become financially self-sustaining and to expand its ability to provide nutrition education to students and families in Silicon Valley.
Employees constructed a new farm stand for selling produce, large swathes of land were primed for spring planting, irrigation was added to the farm’s orchard and they created an outdoor teaching facility where students can learn about the science of food and how to prepare healthy meals. They also improved the food storage and packing area, building and furnished an entirely new facility.
Rachel O’Neill fell in love with the sweeping vistas of Malawi, Africa, but especially with the little girls, whose only clothing were the thread-bare dresses on their backs.
Her original idea was to get a church group to sew dresses for her to bring back for the children.
Eventually, word spread and dresses were sent from all fifty states, so many that it took teams of volunteers to sort them, and it became a symbol of friendship from women 8,000 miles away.
A heartwarming update to a story that aired on NBC in September about a family in Florida down on their luck and facing foreclosure: A Texas businessman and his family, after seeing the tears of the teenage daughter, decided to help.
The Texan, John Vann, began by sending monthly checks for $2,000 and making personal contact with the family through employees who worked nearby in Florida.
John recently received a Christmas card from the daughter, Gavi, and good news from her father, who had been job hunting.
(WATCH the inspiring story below – See our original video here)
Fairy Dog-Parents, a non-profit group, aims to help dog owners keep their pets through tough financial times.
After the project’s founder Marlo Manning was featured in a Making a Difference segment on NBC a year ago, money and assistance rolled in — $50,000 to help keep dogs in homes with their families.
Fairy DogParents even assists with owner’s veterinary bills.
