| Doing Good: Teacher's hope is to get hearts to homebound kindergartner
From the start, 6-year-old Carolyn Hastings had the heart of her Seymour Primary School kindergarten teacher, Elisha Brown. Now Brown hopes to brighten Carolyn's Valentine's Day with some heartfelt thoughts from others in the community. Brown is trying to collect 1,000 Valentines to send to Carolyn, who was diagnosed early this year with polymyositis. The rare autoimmune disease occurs when white blood cells spontaneously invade muscles, inflaming muscle fibers. The cause is not known. Around November 2007, Carolyn began having a hard time walking and told her parents her legs hurt, said her mother, Julie Hastings. "We didn't know if it was growing pains or what," Julie Hastings said. By December, Carolyn couldn't sit down, dress herself or even go to the bathroom unassisted.
Saline nasal wash helps kids battle cold
BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet)-- A saline nasal wash solution made from processed seawater may help children with a common cold, according to a new report in Monday's Archives of Otolaryngology. The solution can help by reducing symptoms associated with the common cold, as well as reducing the risk of recurrent respiratory infections, the study said. It may be that the salt water has a simple mechanical effect of clearing mucus, or it could be that trace elements in the water play some more significant role, though the exact reason why such a solution works is not known, said Dr. Ivo Slapak and colleagues at the Teaching Hospital of Brno in the Czech Republic. The researchers studied 390 children between 6 and 10 who had uncomplicated cold or flu symptoms for 12 weeks in the winter of 2006.
Mexican Senate Approves Anti-Smoking Law
Mexican federal congressman Javier Gonzalez Garza smokes a cigarette during a parliament session in Mexico City, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008. The Senate passed tougher laws to ban smoking in public sessions yet several lawmakers have filed appeals allowing them temporary restraining orders so they can smoke on the floor of Mexico's Congress. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) (Marco Ugarte - AP) .
Call to scrap Hogmanay party tickets
Steve Cardownie, who also serves as the city's deputy council leader, said the street party had become a victim of its own success with revellers being lured to "copycat" celebrations elsewhere.The event peaked in 1997 when 300,000 people crammed into the city centre – raising safety fears and prompting a cordon and a strict ticket-only policy. Then 180,000 celebrated the millennium in Princes Street but the number of revellers has dropped further with just 100,000 this year opting for the £5 or £20 tickets.Mr Cardownie said: "At one time, the street party was the only one of its kind in the UK, but it has now been replicated in cities like Newcastle, Liverpool and Glasgow so people aren't coming to Edinburgh in the vast numbers they did in previous years."That means we might not need the enclosed spaces and the expense of stewarding which could also allow us to get rid of charging people for tickets."Mr Cardownie, who is responsible for Edinburgh's festivals and events, suggested it was time to look further afield for ideas on how to improve the street party.
Golfer masters the hole-in-one
Then contact Community Sports Editor Mike Camunas at mcamunas@sptimes.com or (352) 544-9480. At a glance A breakdown of Meurn's nine holes-in-one It's remarkable that Carl Meurn has nine holes-in-one, but what's not remarkable is that he remembers each one vividly. Here's a list of each of his aces: No. 1: Broadwater Golf Club, Biloxi, Miss., No. 7, 107 yards, March 1, 1973 No. 2: Pine Lakes Country Club, Morton Ill., No. 8, 165 yards, September 1973 No. 3: Bethpage State Park Yellow Course, Bethpage, N.Y., No. 7, 150 yards, May 28, 1980 No. 4: Seven Springs Golf and Country Club Challenger Course, No. 2, 146 yards, June 1984 No. 5: Mount Hawley Country Club, Peoria, Ill., No.
Childhood imagination
Two bicycles leaning curbside were the only indication of any children nearby. Beyond them was the woods and not a soul to be seen.
But my son's red-and-blue bike and another one just like it in acid yellow gave it away. The boys were exploring the camp of the "Homeless Man," an invention of their elementary-school imaginations, whom they are certain lives in an empty lot in our subdivision.
It was late afternoon. The school bus had arrived a while ago. It was that meandering hour between schoolwork and homework, when small boys abandon thinking according to the rules, and simply let their minds take them to worlds of their own making.
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The Di Blasi trike: A different kind of green tech hybrid
Last year about this time, I brought my neglected 15-year-old GT mountain bike down to a local repair shop for some much-needed TLC. After spurning all sales pitches to invest in a new one, I then dropped nearly as much moolah to get my faithful ride street-legal. And there it sits, tires going flat in the garage. Chalk it up to the hills in my New Jersey town, which are a little bit too intense for my desk-job thighs. New Year's Resolution #1 … So, what to do for quick trips into town? Oh, for the old moped I used to share with my brothers in high school. Actually, scratch that. I don't even want to know how fuel-inefficient it was. Today, there are so many more interesting options available to folks like me who are trying to avoid taking the car out except when necessary for longer treks.
Unit 5 vote revisits District 87 merger talk
In recent months, at multiple informational meetings about Unit 5's $96.7 million construction referendum, at least one person has asked a question related to merging with Bloomington's District 87.Would a merger save money by requiring less staff? Would it help with Unit 5's overcrowding? Would it improve educational opportunities for students?District 87 Superintendent Bob Nielsen said before anybody can definitively answer those questions — or argue for or against merger — a thorough and fair study of benefits and costs is needed.“All facts should be known" because a merger would have so many implications for both districts — and the community as a whole, Nielsen said.“We'd need to do a fairly large study to see if there are any (cost) savings," Unit 5 Superintendent Gary Niehaus agreed.The only time voters in both districts cast ballots on a merger was in 1996.
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