TV Show Helps Boy Survive In Utah Forest

When he realized he'd been separated from his family on a weekend hike in a northern Utah forest, 9-year-old Grayson Wynne's thoughts turned to television.

Grayson watches Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel every week with his brothers and his dad. On the show, host and adventurer Bear Grylls strands himself in the wilderness and then shows viewers how to survive the sticky situations.

That's where Grayson says he learned to leave clues behind to help searchers find him.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

'Lines that Divide': The Great Stem Cell Debate

"Scientists at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, California, are discovering a potential cure for leukemia and sickle-cell disease. How? By using blood stem cells from the placentas of women who have had Caesarian deliveries.

But researchers at the hospital are frustrated. State agencies have made multi-million-dollar grants available for embryo-destructive research, but money is scarce for its ethically sound counterpart, adult stem cell research."

Read more of Chuck Colson's commentary.

Giving up my iPod for a Walkman

My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.

He had told me it was big, but I hadn't realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.

When I saw it for the first time, its colour also struck me. Nowadays gadgets come in a rainbow of colours but this was only one shade - a bland grey.

Click here to read more about making the switch from an iPod to a Walkman.

Music in Utero: The Smiling Unborn Child

"In 1984, a video called The Silent Scream helped change the way people think about the unborn child. The footage of an actual abortion and the fetus’s reaction reminded us that abortion involves the death of a real person.

A recent bit of footage has similar potential, only it couldn’t be more different from The Silent Scream.

The footage was part of a recent PBS special, The Music Instinct: Science & Song."

For more of Chuck Colson's commentary, click here.

Napoleon exhibit in Philly features more than 300 objects

"Almost two centuries after Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo, all many people may know about him is that he was short. Except he wasn't, really.

The life of the Corsica-born military genius who rose from obscurity to command the armies of France and conquer much of Europe before ending his life in lonely exile is celebrated in "Napoleon," an exhibition at the National Constitution Center through Sept. 7."


Click here for more on the exhibit.

Redeeming Twitter

"The U.S. State Department asks Twitter to delay maintenance plans for the weekend so Iranians voting in Friday’s election can communicate instantly, and defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi uses Twitter to organize protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The FBI tracks Twitter to stop a crazed Oklahoma City man from turning the April 15 Tea Party Protests into what he warned would be a bloodbath. Beating even The New York Times, a ferry passenger on the Hudson River uses Twitter to deliver the first reports and pictures of U.S. Airways Flight #1549's emergency landing."

Click here for more on why Twitter is such an important facet of our world.

Small U.S. businesses thrive with Ethiopian woman's help

Alfa Demmellash grew up on less than a dollar a day, and against the backdrop of torture and murder. But these days she's living the American dream and helping others do the same.

"Entrepreneurs are at the very heart of what the American dream is all about," says Demmellash, a native of Ethiopia. And from her small office in Jersey City, her nonprofit, Rising Tide Capital, is helping small businesses flourish.

Robin Munn, who runs a flower shop in Jersey City, says the skills she learned through Demmellash helped her transform the way she operates her business. "I was thinking about closing, but once I started taking the classes I found that the fire came back."

Click here to read the rest of this story.

New Slidell health clinic will provide more access to the poor, uninsured

"The poor and uninsured will have greater access to pediatric care through a new health center that is a collaboration between Slidell Memorial Hospital and St. Charles Community Health Center, healthcare providers say.

The St. Tammany Community Health Center, slated to open Wednesday at Slidell Memorial, will be the first federally qualified health center in St. Tammany Parish, officials said."

Click here for more on the opening of this new center.

Health games become serious business

Videogames were once blamed for rising obesity rates but are now being championed by the medical industry and for use by government departments for their health benefits.

Games like Electronic Arts' "EA Sports Active" and Nintendo's "Wii Fit" have got players of all ages moving -- and game developers and investors looking for hot new titles to cash in on this booming segment of the market.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Strengthen your team and impact the world: World Vision puts a new twist on teambuilding experiences for businesses

"As the economy has tightened, high-end sales meetings have gone by the wayside. Companies continue to look for innovative and less expensive ways to build teams, have fun, and do good all at the same time. World Vision has created a dynamic opportunity for businesses to inspire their co-workers, and band together to make a difference in the lives of children and families in need. In a short period of time, employees can assemble anywhere from 500 – 5,000 kits, which will dramatically change the lives of the children and families who receive them."


To learn more about this program, click here.

Faith

By Flickr Member ArteZoe

Disabled children to get new playground in Folsom

"Mia Garza is like many other 2-year-olds. She keeps her mother, Anita, busy as she quickly maneuvers around neatly organized chairs and tables during a recent community meeting in Folsom. Mia’s giggling even draws the attention of speaker Jim Pelley, who quips, 'I love the laughter in the background.'

But Mia is not your average toddler. The smiling tot suffers from cerebral palsy and uses a walker to get herself around."

Click here for more on the efforts of adults to bring play to children with disabilities.

Couple floats into zero gravity nuptials

The bride wore white and earrings resembling tiny planets, the groom a tuxedo and cuff links shaped like spacecraft, and the wedding party attended in blue jump suits.

New York City couple Erin Finnegan and Noah Fulmor floated into matrimony on Saturday thousands of feet (metres) above the Gulf of Mexico in what organizers said was the world's first weightless wedding held in zero gravity conditions.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Brigham study to test vitamin D, fish oil supplements

"Boston researchers are launching a large, national trial of vitamin D and fish oil to see whether the dietary supplements reduce the risk of developing cancer or cardiovascular disease. They are also testing the idea that lower levels of vitamin D might explain higher rates of these diseases among African-Americans."

Click here for more on the study.

Cancer spread to liver responds to experimental treatment

When Linda Campbell of Lexington, North Carolina, started to lose her vision in winter 2000 she knew something was wrong. After a diagnosis of ocular melanoma, a rare cancer, she went through numerous treatments to save her eye. Despite one recurrence, by 2007 Campbell was pretty sure she had beaten the odds. That was until last year, when her doctors found lesions on her liver. Her melanoma had spread.

"It was pretty devastating," she said.

Scans showed Campbell's liver was peppered with cancer. There were so many spots, they were impossible to count.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Video Preview: 'Daisy Chain' by Mary DeMuth

"Chuck Colson says her books are 'beautifully and sensitively written, and her characters are realistic and well-developed. She has a true gift for showing how God’s light can penetrate even the darkest of situations, and start to turn lives around. Even her villains are not beyond the reach of God’s grace.'

Her latest book is 'Daisy Chain' and you can can check out a free video preview."

Click here for an insight into Mary DeMuth's new book.

Vt. farmers cut cows' emissions by altering diets

"Can a cow's diet really make a difference in its contribution to global warming? Some dairy farmers are finding they can make smart choices to reduce emissions by their herd."

To find out how they do it, click here.

Opry in Tenn. offers captions for hearing impaired

"The Grand Ole Opry remains steeped in a tradition of sound, but the 83-year-old country music program will offer captions for the hearing impaired for the first time Saturday.



About 450 people participating at the Hearing Loss Association of America convention in Nashville this week will attend one of the Opry's evening shows and will be able to follow along with captions on large projection screens."

Click here for more of this historic event.

Prison-trained puppies help wounded troops

If there's anything Oprah Winfrey knows for sure, it's what the love of a dog can do for your life. "There is nothing in the world like puppy love," Oprah says.

Still, dogs are more than just companions. They can be the eyes for those who can't see, lead those who can't walk and calm people suffering from conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder.

Where do these service dogs get their start? For some, it all begins behind prison walls...

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Louisiana Quality Foundation announces excellence award winners

"The Louisiana Quality Foundation has announced the 2008 Louisiana Performance Excellence Award winners."

Find out who the winners are by clicking here.

How To Get A Heart-Healthy Kitchen

With heart disease the number one killer of men and women in the United States, maintaining a healthy heart is vital.

And according to CBS News> medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, you don’t need to look any further than your own kitchen cupboards for that key to heart health.

She said Wednesday on The Early Show you just have to know what to buy.

Click here to learn more.

After 208 years, Vt. village schoolhouse closes

The aged maple floorboards are scuffed and creaky, worn thin and smooth by thousands of youngsters over the years in the Hancock Village School. Banks of tall windows, a dozen panes over a dozen panes each, flood a pair of classrooms with sunlight.

A 19th-century image of Abraham Lincoln hangs on a back wall in one classroom where studies began in 1801, 60 years before he took office.

That history comes to a close on Thursday. Fewer kids and rising costs prompted townsfolk this year to vote to close the elementary school and instead pay tuition to send their roughly 20 children to neighboring schools.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Get a Grip: Truth about Fingerprints Revealed

The long-held notion that fingerprints marks help us grip more firmly appears to be wrong. Instead, a new study finds that the marks actually reduce the friction between skin and surfaces.

Click here to read more about fingerprints.

2009 Lantern Award winners to be honored tonight

"Louisiana Economic Development and the Louisiana Industrial Development Executives Association will honor the 2009 Lantern Award winners for excellence in manufacturing and community involvement at a reception this evening at the Governor's Mansion.

Lantern Award winners are selected based on their contribution to their local community, including employment growth and facility expansion. Each business must also demonstrate sustainability by remaining in operation at least three years prior to the nomination."

Click here for more on these businesses.

Strategies: Shriver's big on small loans, for good reason

It was an ordinary day at the San Francisco offices of Kiva — the online community that enables people to loan very small amounts of money to aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses in developing countries.

The young president, Premal Shah, and CEO, Matt Flannery, were in the midst of one of their daily arguments. All of a sudden, with no warning, in walked the first lady of California, Maria Shriver.

Click here to learn more about Kiva and micro-loans.

Parton delivers 'Many Colors' patch to scouts

"Country singer Dolly Parton delighted hundreds of Tennessee Girl Scouts when she made a surprise entrance at a ceremony to present them with a patch created in her honor.

Parton appeared on stage at the Pines Theatre in Pigeon Forge, where 400 Girl Scouts were receiving the new 'Coat of Many Colors' patch. It is named for Parton and her 1971 song of the same name."

Click here for more on this special occasion.

Church Reaches Out to Job Seekers in El Dorado County, CA

"Green Valley Community Church in Placerville, CA is teaming with Cameron Park Rotary to host an 8-week Job Seekers program. Other churches in the area will be referral partners in the project.



The first session begins on June 29, at the church."

Click here for more on how the family of God is reaching out to job seekers.

CCM Legends Reunite

"Nearly forty years into their respective careers, Christian music pioneers Randy Stonehill and Phil Keaggy have finally recorded a full length album together."

Click here for more on this "decades in the making" project.

Fox steals more than 100 shoes

A fox has been unmasked as the mystery thief of more than 100 shoes in the small western German town of Foehren, authorities said Friday.

Click here to read more about the shoe stealing fox.

Lost High School Class Ring Returned to Its Owner -- 47 years later

"Jill Bakke was weeding her flower bed recently at her Oak Park house when she found a school ring from Oak Park and River Forest High School, Class of 1942. Engraved inside were three initials.

Someone else might have shrugged.

Bakke, a software tester, set to sleuthing."

Share Bakke's search by clicking here!

Mother and son are reunited — after 43 years

As the car bearing the mother he never knew pulled up to his house, Ron Stewart knew for sure — after 43 years — that he wasn’t an orphan any more.

No sooner had the 70-year-old woman gotten out of the car than Ron had her in his arms.

“It’s a miracle,” she whispered, her head pressed against his chest.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

One nation, different public holidays

"Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day narrowly escaped being axed as legal holidays in Massachusetts recently. In the state Senate, South Boston Democrat Jack Hart even suggested that cutting the holidays would put the state on a slippery slope to eliminating Christmas.

But throughout the country, states officially celebrate holidays that range from nationally obscure to highly controversial."

To learn more about the variety of things we celebrate, click here.

The day I held a sobbing WWII medic in my arms

I'll never forget holding World War II medic Tony Acevedo in my arms. He wept and convulsed for more than 10 minutes, his body constricting and tightening in a way I'd never seen before. "I'm sorry," he said, repeating, "I'm sorry. I want to say more, but I can't."

I held his hand and hugged him until he calmed. I had asked what I thought was a simple question. "When I say the name Erwin Metz, what comes to your mind?"

That's when the demons of 1945 took over.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Father's Day and a New Angle on the Prodigal Son

One of the most beloved stories that Jesus told has been called the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Many have identified with his need for mercy after his excursion into arrogance and stupidity.

By focusing on the prodigal son, however, we miss the central lesson of the parable. The central character in this story is not the son, but the father. Perhaps if we called it the Parable of the Incredible Father we’d find it easier to focus on the portrait Jesus painted of him.

He is like no father you have ever known and with Father’s Day approaching, it might be an appropriate time to reexamine this familiar story from an unfamiliar angle.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Shakespeare Fest has hit: Play about Bear Bryant

"The 26 years since legendary Alabama coach Paul 'Bear' Bryant died have not dimmed his fame nor the urge for 'Bama fans to revel in his story.

Now a drama about the dirt poor Arkansas farm boy who became a college football icon is coming to the city where he showcased the Crimson Tide and recorded many of his 323 victories."

Click here, for more on how Bear Bryant is helping the Shakespeare Fest.

Wall Drug endures as tourist attraction

Ted Hustead's family knows a thing or two about running a tourist attraction during tough economic times.

Consider Wall Drug, on the north edge of South Dakota's Badlands.

Hustead's grandparents, Ted and Dorothy Hustead, bought the store in this small town in 1931 — during the Great Depression.

Click here to read more about Wall Drub.

Donations pour in for pizza deliveryman

"The plight of the pizza deliveryman in Evanston who was beaten up and had his car hijacked and wrecked has touched many readers of the Chicago Tribune who saw the story in Monday morning's paper.

According to Omar Gutierrez, who organized and has managed an effort to raise money to help replace Stephen Walker's ruined Kia, readers have barraged him with e-mails and donations. By 10 a.m., more than $4,000 had been donated to the fund through a PayPal account. Walker will get the money Tuesday from the Clyde Avenue neighbors group."

To read more on this uplifting story, click here.

Chicago Cubs' Ryan Dempster and infant daughter fight rare disease

"Shortly after Ryan Dempster and his wife, Jenny, welcomed daughter Riley into the world on April 1, they learned their daughter suffers from DiGeorge syndrome, a rare congenital disease that prevents her from swallowing and digesting food.

Dempster has commuted to Childrens Memorial Hospital over the last seven weeks as his daughter undergoes procedures to keep her alive while she learns to swallow on her own. After initially asking the media to respect his privacy and not mention Riley's health scare, Dempster decided to speak about the subject this weekend."

For details of the interview, click here.

Drive-in's survivin' in the suburbs

"Looks like the world's first drive-in movie critic, Joe Bob Briggs, called it right, way back in the '70s: 'The drive-in will never die!'

Despite being on the endangered entertainment species list for four decades, the American drive-in theater lives.

The proof?"

Click here to find out more.

WW II vet's return to France takes a detour

"In town for a short stopover before visiting France, World War II vet and Chicago native Carmen Miceli watched as the cab drove off -- with his bags and passport still in the trunk.

Miceli was on his way Monday to D-Day commemorations in Normandy. With time running out, he needed the bags, or a new passport."

Will he make it? Click here to find out!

A New Graduate Guide to Managing a Paycheck

There you are, a college graduate with your newly-minted degree in one hand and new job in the other -- or the assurance that you will have one soon.

For years you have waited for a real job with a real paycheck so you could get a decent car, apartment and a respectable wardrobe. After all, these are the things you so richly deserve for having nearly starved to death for these many years.

Well, not so fast, Buckaroo. Before you do a thing we need to go over the fundamentals of managing a paycheck -- a small detail that may have been overlooked in all of the courses you took to prepare you for the real world.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Ice cream flavors spice things up

"This is the hottest frozen thing around. Spicy, salty, savory ice creams - concoctions such as bitter basil, salty caramel, spicy chocolate, and curried coconut - are lined up in freezers and scoop shops. They're hot in more ways than one. Even though they're icy, some are so spicy the heat is startling."

To get the lowdown on this cool story, click here.

Reagan returns to Washington, D.C., in bronze

"Even in death, Ronald Reagan can still pack 'em in.

A standing-room-only crowd filled the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday for the unveiling of a statue of the former president, representing California in Washington's version of a national hall of fame."

Click here for more on the story.

New obesity surgery leaves no scars

Doctors are testing a new kind of obesity surgery without any cuts through the abdomen, snaking a tube as thick as a garden hose down the throat to snap staples into the stomach. The experimental, scar-free procedure creates a narrow passage that slows the food as it moves from the upper stomach into the lower stomach, helping patients feel full more quickly and eat less.

Click here to read more about this new weight loss surgery.

Sony, Nintendo unveil game offerings at E3

With the big three gaming-system makers all previewing new or upgraded motion-sensing controllers this week, a new arms race is under way in the video game industry.

Joysticks and push-button controllers seem to be on their way out, replaced by simpler, more intuitive devices -- similar to Nintendo's Wii -- that let gamers move their arms and legs to guide their avatars' movements onscreen.

Click here to find out what more is in store for gamers.

Got allergies? 10 foods allergy sufferers should try

"More than 11 million Americans are estimated to have food allergies, which occur when the immune system reacts poorly to certain food. If you have an allergy, you know: Within minutes of eating the offending food, you may experience hives, swelling or have trouble breathing. Less obvious and more common are food intolerances, which can be digestive issues that don't involve the immune system. Try some of these lower risk alternatives to the most common food allergies, including milk, eggs, peanuts and soy."

Click here for these healthy choices.

Music as medicine: Docs use tunes as treatment

As Victor Fabry napped in his hospital bed, a quiet symphony filled his room. The steady pulse of a cardiac monitor marked the progress of his mending heart. Over that beat, the swaying strains of a Brazilian guitarist pumped nearly nonstop from a CD player on the shelf.

For nine days after his surgery at the Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute in Morristown, N.J., Fabry soaked up that tranquil, wordless strumming. And while he praised his surgeon, he raved about the musical score that accompanied his recovery.

His heart literally fell in rhythm with guitarist Tomaz Lima. The music became his medicine.

Click here to read the rest of this story.