Orphaned baby owls being placed with foster families

"Wildlife rehabilitation groups were placing two orphaned barn owl babies with wild foster parents Sunday in Santa Cruz so they could learn survival skills, WildRescue officials said.

Rescuers are hopeful the wild parents will accept the babies and raise them, since they lost their own, according to WildRescue, an organization based in Malibu dedicated to developing programs that promote care of sick, injured and orphaned native wildlife."

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Turning Virtual Lessons Into Life Loans

Devoting her life to communities in Africa and Latin America, Katie Smith Milway was eager to bring home the lessons she learned and pass them on to others.

"I wanted to inspire kids to know, at their age, they can take a step that could have repercussions for their community, for their town and for others," she said.

The result was "One Hen," a children's book written by Milway about micro-financing that's become a hit around the world.

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Laptops help sick kids stay connected to school

Ahmed Hamdi wants to be a superhero when he grows up. A lot of people at his school will tell you he already is one.

A third-grader at Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, Ahmed hasn't seen much of his class in the past few months. That's because he was diagnosed with leukemia 1½ years ago. Although he's in remission, he's still susceptible to complications.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 Good News Story

Don't Toss Tops; Leave the Leaves

"It's called 'nose-to-tail' eating, to borrow the subtitle of British chef Fergus Henderson's wonderful book, "The Whole Beast," and it was the way everyone ate in the days when you raised a yearly hog and used 'everything but the squeal.' In recent years I've enjoyed buying a whole lamb, pig or side of beef from a neighboring farmer, learning ways to cook trotters and finding I prefer flavorful short ribs to steak."

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'Great to Good' Churches: For those who find trying to be great isn't good enough

"Jim Collins's book Good to Great has inspired both business and church leaders. It is a study of 28 good companies that became great as measured by their outperforming the stock market by at least seven time's over a 15-year period. Countless companies are now applying the 'hedgehog concept' and other principles from the book, trying to become similarly great.

Likewise, many churches are seeking to become great churches. Entire ministry industries exist to help that process—from fund raising, to church building programs, to worship resources, to programming. And in nearly every community, there's at least one great church, as measured by numbers and facilities."

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America’s best bathroom found in Tennessee

The Hermitage Hotel has afternoon tea in the grand lobby. Down-filled duvets (that's a fancy word for comforters). A presidential suite with 2,000 square feet. And a really nice toilet.

So nice, in fact, that it's been voted (drum roll please) America's best restroom.

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Builders find Auschwitz message

Builders working near the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp have found a message in a bottle written by prisoners, museum officials say.

The message, written in pencil and dated 9 September 1944, bears names, camp numbers and home towns of seven young inmates from Poland and France.

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