For a few weeks, the fingers of Chris Spicer and many of who work with YouthBuild of Jackson were crossed for good luck. The organization had applied for a federal grant through the U. S. Department of Labor which would continue to fund them for three years. However the odds were stacked against them, as they were one of approximately 880 applicants nationwide. But the good luck wishes and federal funding did come true for YouthBuild last Friday, when they were told they would receive the $700,000 grant for the first two years, then a “follow up” grant for the third year.
FRANKFORT – U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has granted Gov. Steve Beshear's request for disaster assistance to Kentucky farm families in 29 counties, due to severe weather conditions that occurred beginning April 17. “The severe storms and flooding impacted all facets of Kentucky’s agricultural industry" Gov. Steve Beshear said in a press release, "and assistance from the USDA will help offset resulting income losses.” Counties covered in the declaration include:
I've been to Rome, so I've seen the dark side: a traffic intersection where everybody decides to get where they're going at the same time, so no one gets anywhere. Cairo might be even worse. This isn't a parking lot, it's a street...
City people are always pushing; if you think you won't get caught, you keep moving. The rules don't matter. The signs don't matter.
Stephen Colbert has run for President. He's testified before Congress, created a political action committee, and assisted the U.S. Olympic speedskating team in the role of assistant sports psychologist. He has a spider named after him (the Aptostichus stephencolberti) as well as a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor (the Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream) and a NASA treadmill (the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT.)
It's time for movie critic Bob Mondello's latest home-viewing recommendation, for those who want to pop in a video and pop their own popcorn. This week, Bob's suggesting a new Blu-Ray collector's edition of The Bridge on the River Kwai.
British prisoners of war marching into a Japanese labor camp, whistling "The Colonel Bogey March" as a way of thumbing their noses at their captors, then building one magnificent railroad bridge — the best that British military engineering (and director David Lean's production crew) could manage.
"According to sufferers," the BBC writes, "it is as if someone has parked next to your house and left the engine running. The Hum is a mystery low frequency noise, a phenomenon that has been reported across Britain, North America and Australia in the past four decades."
Delisia Matthews, a doctoral student in consumer, apparel, and retail studies at UNC-Greensboro, spent last summer interning with NPR's consumer products group. She collaborated with the research team to execute a multi-phase survey to better understand what motivates individuals to purchase from the NPR Shop. Delisia is currently incorporating the research in her thesis and gave us a brief update of her findings.
It's not often that a novel leaves me (temporarily) speechless. But Ann Patchett's new novel isn't called State of Wonder for nothing, because that's exactly the state I've been in ever since I first opened it. The numbness has worn off by now, but for days, all I could say to friends who asked me about it was the one-word review: "Wow."
