Hoping to clean the air for better views from mountains, 16 ski resorts have transformed 100 percent of their power to green energy sources including wind, hydroelectric, solar, bio-mass and geothermal. (AP via CNN)
Pride of Britain Awards Salute Heroes
The Pride of Britain award winners for 2006 were honored Tuesday in a gala event featuring the Beckhams, Rod Stewart, Jude Law, Prince Charles and Tony Blair. The inspiring examples of courage, compassion and bravery included Daniel and Jason Rodd: “The brothers were 14 and 12 when they spotted a group of three adults being swept out to sea… Against their mother Carol’s wishes, and as other adults simply looked on, the boys jumped into the sea with their body boards.” … (Link submitted by GNN member, lottery_dreams)
Another pair of honorees were inspired to try to raise the number of black donors of bone marrow when their son was diagnosed with leukaemia and found that only 550 of 285,000 potential UK bone marrow donors were non-white and fit as a potential match. This year is the 10th anniversary of their charity and they have raised the number of black donors in the UK to nearly 20,000. (Daily Mail)
Read about past winners at Pride of Britain Website
(Thanks to GNN supporter Lottery Dreams for submitting the story idea)
Saved by… the Bible
Two Gideon Bibles in the shirt pocket of a man in Jacksonville saved him from a bullet as he exited a Christian outreach organization he runs. (AP) … Thanks to GNN supporter Denice Ramirez for submitting the story.
Activist for World Peace, Nassiri, records children all over the world singing, “Love Sees No Color”
“In an effort to promote worldwide peace and healing through music, Nassiri is currently preparing to film a music video in several countries around the world. The music video will feature Nassiri with children singing the chorus of his “Love Sees No Color” song in their native languages. A unique performer with a positive message, Nassiri is dedicated to spreading love, peace, understanding and unity through music. The focus of Nassiri’s mission is peace.”
See his website for more info: www.nassiri.com
Congress Gets First Muslim Lawmaker
Minnesota voters elected the nation’s first Muslim member of Congress. The winner, Keith Ellison, said, "We tried to pull people together on things we all share, things that are important to everyone." He said his campaign united labor, minority communities and peace activists. "We were able to bring in Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists," he said. "We brought in everybody." (AP reports)
Daniel Ortega Campaigning With John Lennon
The Nicaraguan leader, who is campaigning for president for the fourth time, is preaching harmony, love and reconciliation while John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” plays in the background…
Ortega, the one-time president who lost in 1990, “lowered illiteracy rates from 60 percent to 12 percent and built a free health care system,” says the Associated Press.
Now 60 and balding, he has toned down his revolutionary rhetoric, invoking both John Lennon and God and promising to favor free trade policies and improve health care and education. (AP full story)
Rare Medicinal Plant Turns Up After 115 Years
A scientific journal reported that Indian scientists working in a tropical forest in the country’s remote northeast have found a rare medicinal plant last seen 115 years ago. (AP)
G is for Good Governance
EDITOR’S BLOG
For the first time in a long while, a majority of American voters agree with me! And, it’s worth celebrating. . . In nationwide polls on Tuesday they seemed to say, "Enough." They are tired of the incompetence; tired of the hypocrisy; tired of corruption; tired of the poisonous atmosphere of politics. They are longing for good governance based on the values celebrated here at the Good News Network: responsibility, integrity, and cooperation…
Pelosi Seeks to Heal Rifts as First Female House Speaker
Democrats, fielding many moderate candidates, gained more than 25 seats in yesterday’s elections for the US House of Representatives, placing Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 66, on track to become the first female House leader and the highest-ranking woman in U.S. political history — second in line behind the president. Voters weary of corruption heard in last night’s victory speech, Pelosi’s intentions to lead the most honest and open House in history…
Teen Hailed as a Hero for Teddy Bear Project
People magazine named 16-year-old Taylor Crabtree one of its top five heroes of 2006 for creating a nonprofit that has raised more than $100,000 to purchase teddy bears for 23,000 young cancer patients at 300 hospitals throughout the nation. Taylor has been doing this since age seven, when she was inspired during her grandmother’s bout with colon cancer. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
There’s Just ONE Story Today
I’ll be electioneering at the polls all day, watching returns all night!
Gangs Embrace Truce, Violence Drops 80%
A secret negotiated truce between two of the most dangerous street gangs in Boston has dramatically reduced bloodshed.
“Violence stopped abruptly in July, when a temporary cease-fire took effect. In the nearly four months since, there has not been a single shooting, and overall violent crime where the gang members live has plummeted by as much as 80 percent.”…
Within days of the two gangs shaking hands on the treaty, members of other gangs began contacting clergy and youth workers to ask for similar peace summits. Police and clergy are talking with eight other street gangs, hoping to broker truces — with similar incentives and commitments — across the city.
Many of those involved were also key players in the “Boston Miracle,” a collaboration of police, ministers, and community leaders that helped end a murder wave in the 1990s.
(READ the Boston Globe story here)
Peace Being Sown Among Olive Trees
Since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, Palestinian olive grower, Fuad Amer has been prevented from harvesting his crop. Jewish settlers from hilltop communities in the West Bank had harassed pickers, and destroyed olive trees. But in 2004, two Israeli rights groups – the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Rabbis for Human Rights – filed a court petition on behalf of farmers. This season, an Israeli high court granted Palestinian growers protection from settler violence giving Amer the ability to successfully harvest the olives from his 60 trees…
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers and police are patrolling stony hillside groves near Jewish settlements in the West Bank, vowing to keep the peace. Palestinians, usually fearful of Israeli authorities, are welcoming their presence.
“We are happy that the army is here. We feel like we’re being protected,” said Amer, who has been harvesting his olives within shouting distance of the hilltop settlement of Bracha. So far, he says, there have been no problems.
(From the story written by John Murphy, Baltimore Sun Foreign Reporter)
Fish Stocks Highest in 50 Years Since Creek Restoration
The restoration of Nile Creek from a river that was devoid of fish into a salmon and cutthroat trout-bearing stream rich in life prompted Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) biologists to hail it as an example for the rest of British Columbia. The project was so successful that fish stocks were restored to capacity, with pink salmon smolt even surpassing what the creek produced in the 1950s…
From Russia with Love: Orphan Sisters are Reunited
Two teenage sisters who had been pulled from an abusive home in Russia were united with their two younger sisters who’d already been adopted by a Utah mom, and who also grew up in an abusive family. The Simmonses now enjoy a large, happy home with nine children, six of whom are adopted. Heart-touching story and photos of the Russian sisters in Deseret News.
100 Children You Must See (Video)
“Living Compassion” made this video to show you the faces of the first 100 children they are feeding and schooling in far away Zambia. The kids will remind you of your neice, your neighbor, or your child. They are happy because they are, for the first time, being fed and educated — by lovely volunteers from America. These 100 Children live in a slum in one of the poorest countries in the world, but you can’t tell by their faces. You must see these 100 children and hear the inspiring story of the Kantolomba Project…
The Kantolomba Project is undertaking no less that the complete transformation of an African village. “From clean water, to safe housing to medical care to substantial, sustainable employment… the creation of a self-sufficient community.” “Living Compassion” does this work, they say, “Not because there is something wrong or something to fix, but rather because we are moved to participate in life with our fellow human beings.”
After you see the children, please visit the Kantolomba project website and donate the money you would spend on just two Cafe-latte-mocha-chino-espresso-grande’s with skim. Join us at the Good News Network as we help the Kantolomba project meet their goal of raising $100,000 by year’s end — they are nearly there! Please donate any amount. (The music, “I can see the beloved in you,” is by Karen Drucker.)
Wal-Mart Eyes Carbon Bounty in its Supply Chain
Wal-Mart is sending engineers to its supply-chain factories to find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "Green" means green in their pocket: "What we found absolutely staggered us," said one engineer. The electricity bills were slashed by 60 percent at one factory, simply by installing readily available low-emissions lighting. (Reuters)
From Miner to Superhero, then a Cold Beer
An Australian man noticed a serving tractor-trailer truck on the other side of the road on his way to work. He turned his car around sped up to the truck and confirmed his suspicion that the driver was in trouble — slumped over the wheel. He parked his car, ran toward the truck and climbed inside it to pull the hand brake. An ambulance officer called to the scene said….
“In my 10 years in the service I have never seen or heard of anything like this. He is an absolute lifesaver. Even though the truck was not travelling at a great speed, it is an enormous vehicle…. Me and my ambulance partner had to climb on board this huge truck while it was stationary, once, and it was hard. I could not imagine how difficult it would have been while in motion.” (The Age – includes photo)
This comes under the heading, “I’m not a hero; I did what anyone would have done.” I read countless stories, while searching for good news, about people pulling strangers from burning buildings, and intervening in car wrecks, even when the cars are on fire, or sinking into lakes… The amazing thing is that *every time* the person says, “I’m not a hero; I did what anyone would have done.” I just love that…
Macs Join the Maasai Tribe
Retired tech executive Patrick O’Sullivan, moved by the plight of a Maasai tribe that needed three years to complete a school for their children, raised the money and materials needed to build a new school that runs day and night on solar panels.
He brought three new laptops, along with some colleagues from Apple, to East Africa. One of them, a 14-year-old, trained the teachers to use the computers. Now the village kids are gazing wide-eyed at the ocean for the first time…
Vermont Experiment Keeps Seniors at Home, Out of Nursing Homes
A unique experiment is under way in Vermont that allows older people to stay home and avoid nursing homes. Under Vermont’s Choices for Care program, Medicaid-eligible senior citizens who need home care can be tended by a family member, friend or neighbor, who is then paid by the state $10 per hour. That means 93-year-old Florence can keep her cat, tend her plants and attend a weekly 25-cent poker game with neighbors… (AP)
