A decorated Vietnam veteran accepted the apology of a Texas judge after he was wrongly jailed for 25 years and released when new DNA tests this year proved he couldn’t have commited the rape for which he’d been convicted. On Tuesday, Larry Fuller, 57, walked free saying, "My faith was tested and I won."…
DNA Clears Man After 25 Years in Prison
Kindness is Returned When One Waitress Helps Out
A waitress in a small Texas diner lent money to a raggedy customer for bus fare, and bought her some pancakes. The customer came back and returned the favor sharing the good news that she’d gotten a job. "Can one act of friendliness start to generate peace? I believe it can. Peace begins with one person but spreads like warmed syrup. When I connect with my neighbors, they return it in kind," she wrote in her essay, This I Believe, for NPR News.
Being Nice Makes You More Successful
One hugely successful New York advertising agency was built on kindness, said the founders Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval in their new book, The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World With Kindness
In an era when the corporate world glorifies a dog-eat-dog mentality, these two dynamic women built …
World of Warcraft Can Cure Obesity
Gaming with World of Warcraft can cause you to lose weight without having to move from your computer, a gamer has claimed. Greg shed 41 lbs. from a 274-pound frame in just 3 months — and did it playing World of Warcraft….
KFC Restaurant Swears Off Trans-Fat Oils in Health Move
Responding to pressure from public health advocates, Kentucky Fried Chicken said Monday they would stop frying chicken in trans fats, which raise your bad cholesterol and lower your good cholesterol more than other oils. Other fast food restaurants, like Wendy’s, already use non-trans fat oils for frying. Switching to soy bean oils will keep the customer healthier but still satisfied say KFC officials who conducted secret taste-tests that registered no measurable differences from diners. (Register-Guard in Oregon)
Halloween Candy Safe, After All
It is time we de-bunked the myth that trick-or-treat candy is in need of an x-ray before our children are allowed to dig in. (Reprinted from Oct 1999 GNN story) Fact: There has never been a single confirmed serious injury from “tainted treats” having been altered by a stranger since fears began spreading among the public in the late 50’s…
University of Southern California sociologist Barry Glassner checked the facts. Glassner points to Southern Illinois University sociologist Joel Best who investigated every incident of tainted Halloween candy since 1958, but couldn’t find a single instance of serious injury or death resulting from corrupted candy doled out by a stranger. Nearly all of the alleged tamperings were in the end proven to be false alarms or hoaxes, usually perpetrated by young pranksters.
Professor Glassner says that many reporters don’t check the facts, and end up repackaging the same fears year after year. Glassner’s book, The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, asserts that the media, in search of ad dollars and ratings revenue, publicize “poignant anecdotes in place of scientific evidence, the christening of isolated incidents as trend and depictions of entire categories of people as innately dangerous.”
Incidentally, the two Halloween fatalities uncovered were tales of children poisoned by their own families, one to hide an accidental ingestion of heroin and the other to collect insurance.
Spicy Spin on Easing Arthritis
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Turmeric been used for centuries in traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine to counter inflammation. Now the spicey herb has shown its promise to researchers throughout trials treating arthritis in rats… (WebMD) Thanks to GNN suporter, David M. for submitting the link!
A Commune for Grownups
ElderSpirit is an experimental community of older adults committed to spiritual growth, caring for one another, respect for the earth, and service to the larger community. The ElderSpirit Community is an ideal place to retire for the citizens over 55 years old who built this cohousing neighborhood in Abingdon, Virginia. A second ElderSpirit Community is in planning stages because the waiting list for residents is so long…
Resources for Entrepreneurs
I like the selection of tips for entrepreneurs provided on the Business Week Web site. Regardless of whether you’re just getting started or launching your umpteenth venture. The tipsheets offer lots of subjects from hiring to financing, from Starbucks advice to scoring venture capital funding…
Timber Company Awarded for Protecting Forests
A timber company in Chile won the “Leaders for a Living Planet” award for their conservation efforts protecting their nation’s coastal forests. Masisa’s corporate spokesman said, “Like all companies we are in business to make a profit, but our objective is not to obtain this profit at whatever cost."…
African Billionaire Creates Cash Prize for Worthy African Leaders
An African business leader who sold his cell phone network for $3 billion, has launched a radical new prize for Africa’s presidents, awarding them $5 million when they practice good governance and a pension for life. Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair are pledging their support…
Landmark Voting in DR Congo
People in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been voting in one of Africa’s most significant elections for many years. Congolese hope the election will end years of conflict and abuse of power. Incumbent President Joseph Kabila faces ex-rebel Jean-Pierre Bemba… (read more at BBC)
Photographers Double Adoption Rates for Foster Care Kids After Photo Exhibits
The file folders of foster kids are filled with bland pictures unable to express the children for who they are, unique individuals longing to be adopted by a loving family. Photographer Jackie Mathey had the idea to try to capture the soul of a foster child in a unique photo session that could express their distinct personality and capabilities. She then displayed the photos at a public exhibition hoping to inspire the audience toward adoption. Not only was the exhibit effective, it’s been *extremely* effective…
What became known as The Heart Gallery has now become a national movement. Implemented in 40 states, the Heart Gallery has significantly increased adoption rates. In some places, the adoption rate after an exhibition is more than double the nationwide rate of adoption from foster care. At one New Jersey location, there was a 280 percent increase in adoption inquiries, mostly attributed to The Heart Gallery photographs. 
In addition to founding this inspiring movement, Jackie Mathey was so touched by photographing one foster child, Faye, that she and her husband adopted the child in 2003. Faye is now 14 years old and happy to know that she is in a permanent family and a permanent home. (Read more at ABC’s 20/20)
Cristina Frick is a psychology major at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, and an enthusiastic supporter of the Good News Network.
G is for GNN-i Newsletter Launch
I’m preparing to launch the Good News Network newsletter — a weekly e-mail that will be easy on the eyes and an inspiration to the soul. If you are a registered user at GNN-i, or if you’ve subscribed to the newsletter on our homepage, you’re already on the list to get the first issue. It’ll feature the Top Ten Good News of the Week, which you can forward to your friends, and also weekly advice on how to create a life of good news — a few steps that are certain to improve your outlook, your health and even your prosperity. Sign up now using just your e-mail address. You won’t want to miss the first edition.
Farmers Go Green to Fight Global Warming
A growing number of farmers concerned with the potential effects of global warming are now adopting environmentally friendly farming methods including soil management techniques like no-till plowing, where farmers, plant crops, and turn over the soil without using machines. … "This is about my children and my grandchildren's generation," said one farmer. (AP)
(Thanks to GNN contributor, Neil Berdiev, for submitting the link)
Tough New Law Protects Indian Women From Domestic Violence
A landmark new law seeking to protect women from domestic violence has come into effect in India. The law also bans harassment by way of dowry demands and gives sweeping powers to a magistrate to issue protection orders where needed. Domestic violence, under the new law, includes "actual abuse or the threat of abuse whether physical, sexual, emotional or economic." (BBC)
The Link Between Violence and What We Eat
There is a striking correlation between violence and nutrient in the diet. A clinical trial at the U.S. government’s National Institutes for Health and earlier studies involving people with violent records found that those given supplements have been able for the first time to control their anger and aggression…
The causes of increase in violent crime in the last decades may well be decaying pathways of the brain deadened by the lack of nutrition in the stomach. The story in the Guardian also recalls an earlier study of prisoners from 2002 striking in its results. Yet, surprisingly the discovery caused little stir in the media and no perceivable action from government.
This 2002 GNN story, “The Appleton Revolution” documents the profound benefits witnessed by problem teens when their diet is completely changed and enhanced. It also mentions the 2002 study documenting the effects of multi-vitamins on prisoners. (Guardian)
Wars are on the Wane Worldwide
The world has become dramatically more peaceful since 1992, according to the Human Security Report. The number of wars, coup d’etats, and acts of genocide has declined by 40 percent. Weapons sales between countries have dropped 33 percent during the same time, and the number of refugees has diminished by 45 percent…
The first Human Security Report released in 2005 is an in-depth analysis of world conflict. that documents a dramatic, but largely unknown, decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuse over the past decade. Published by Oxford University Press, the Report argues that the single most compelling explanation for these changes is found in the unprecedented upsurge of international activism and peacekeeping spearheaded by the UN in the wake of the Cold War.
Despite this, the “nature of media reporting” leads many people to believe war is on the rise, says Andrew Mack, director of the University of British Columbia’s Human Security Center, which compiled the report. “If it bleeds, it leads,” he said of the media focus. “You automatically tend to report wars that break out. If conflict quietly peters out, nobody reports it.”
For optimists worldwide, here are some hopeful signs for the future:
– The number of international crises – defined as situations that leaders consider imminently threatening to their countries’ security – has declined by more than two-thirds since 1981, according to the Human Security Report.
– Instances of genocide and mass killings of ideological foes are also down from 10 a year in the early 1990s to one in 2004, according to Barbara Harff, a conflict historian at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. That one is grave, however: It’s in Darfur, Sudan, where Arab militias have killed at least 70,000 black Africans.
– In 1946, 20 nations in the world were democracies, according to the Maryland institute’s Peace and Conflict 2005 report. Today, 88 countries are. Many scholars contend that democracies go to war more slowly and rarely fight one another.
– The number of United Nations peacekeeping operations more than doubled from 1988 to 2005, from seven to 17.
“Until the 1990s, the international community did little to stop wars. Now it does lots,” said Mack. And it’s working, Mack added, citing a report by the Rand Corp., a U.S. research center, that two-thirds of U.N. peacekeeping efforts succeed. (Knight-Ridder)
One Man Has Sent 100,000 Students to College
In a Northern California town, one man, made it possible for anyone who wanted to go to junior college to do so. He created a scholorship fund 60 years ago and to date has sent 100,000 young people to college. This year a check for $5 million financed the education of 5,500 students, some whose grandparents received the same grant, thanks to Frank Doyle. (Morning Edition – audio only)
