NEWS

Teen Trades Cell Phone, Gets Porsche on Craigslist
<img style="float: right;" class="border" alt="porsche-boxter-s-2000" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/homelife/porsche-boxter-s-2000.jpg" height="100" width="140" /> High school student Steve Ortiz is zipping around in a 2000 Porsche Boxster that he acquired as a result of trading up his cell phone on the Craigslist bartering page. It took him just 14 trades over two years, and a lot of patience, to finally acquire the sports car. The 17-year-old spent hours every day browsing Craigslist looking to swap. "So many people say, 'Can <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/great-kids/trades-cell-phone-for-porsche.html">Read more...</a>

Cheerleader Tackles Would-be Thief at Mall
<img style="float: right;" alt="cheer-button-logo" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/sports/cheer-button-logo.jpg" height="100" width="100" /> A High School cheerleader, ripped a page out of the football team's play book when she tackled a would-be thief Sunday evening. An ordinary trip to the mall became extraordinary when the 16-year-old junior, who was on the phone with her mother, saw the alleged perp running in her direction. Her block-and-tackle maneuver allowed mall security time to catch up and apprehend the suspected shoplifter. <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/great-kids/cheerleader-tackles-mall-thief.html">Read more...</a>

Her Mission is Helping Senior Dogs Who Need a Home
<img style="float: right;" alt="muttville slogan" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/logos/muttville-logo.jpg" height="100" width="180" /> A San Francisco hairstylist developed a passion for older dogs: those last to be adopted, and first to be euthanized, so she founded the non-profit Muttville in 2007. "What I wanted to do was rescue senior dogs, so I started taking them home one at a time and cleaning them up and finding them homes," says Sherri Franklin. (READ the story or WATCH the video at<a target="_blank" <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/pets/muttville.html">Read more...</a>

Families Open Homes to Pets Impacted by Oil
 <img style="float: right;" class="border" alt="NBC video feaatures dogs adopted in Gulf since oil spill" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/pets/shelter-dog-gulf-spill-nbcvid.jpg" height="100" width="98" /> Hundreds of families facing hardship in the Gulf were forced to give up their pets to a local shelter. After an NBC News report last week, thousands of pet lovers in all 50 states called the shelter and are in the midst of adopting pets to give them new homes. Now, dogs like Lucky, pictured here on his <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/pets/pets-in-gulf-adopted.html">Read more...</a>

Ten Hero Kids Voted Most Huggable, Each Awarded $10,000
<img style="float: right;" class="border" alt="Huggable Heroes 2010" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/kids/huggable-heroes-2010.jpg" height="100" width="111" /> Ten youth judged as this year's Huggable Heroes were honored today for their volunteer efforts at making the world a better place in total, raising funds and collecting items valued at more than $22.5 million. They gathered at the Build-A-Bear Workshop company headquarters in St. Louis, after having volunteered an average of more than 650 hours each month dedicating their time to: <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/great-kids/huggable-heroes-2010.html">Read more...</a>

Westerners Rally to Bring Free Hay to Horse Owners in Need
<img style="float: right;" class="border" alt="horse-haybank-founder-nbcvid" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/pets/horse-haybank-founder-nbcvid.jpg" height="100" width="115" /> Horses cost much more to feed than normal house pets  at least one hundred dollars for bales of hay every month. Out of the recent recession a Colorado woman has emerged to help horse owners keep four-legged family members fed. Since January, her non-profit<a target="_blank" href="http://thehaybank.com/main.html"> Hay Bank</a> has helped 30 horse owners who have fallen, due to illness or job loss, on hard times. Recently Amy <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/pets/hay-bank-nonprofit.html">Read more...</a>

Father and Son Team Hoyt Inspire Other Families to Run With Disabled Members
<img class="border" style="float: right;" alt="team-hoyt-nbcvid" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/sports/team-hoyt-nbcvid.jpg" height="100" width="94" /> If you have not heard the inspiring story of <a target="_self" href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/inspired/individuals/team-hoyt-intro.html">Team Hoyt</a>, watch this update from NBC about how other families have picked up the baton and started running races with their disabled children. Feeling the wind in their faces, they experience real participation in sports, from their front row seat in jogging wheel chairs. WATCH the Making a Difference video below, or at <a <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/general/team-hoyt-inspires-other-families.html">Read more...</a>

Dramatic Drop in Youth Smokers Down Under
<img style="float: right;" alt="cigs" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/health/cigs.jpg" height="100" width="102" /> A new survey has revealed a dramatic drop in the numbers of youth smokers in New Zealand over the past decade. The Action on Smoking and Health survey, which has been run yearly since 1999, showed 5.6% of students aged 14 to 15 smoked daily, compared to 15.6% when the survey started. The survey also revealed 64% of students had not taken a single puff of tobacco, compared <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/great-kids/youth-smoking-down-nz.html">Read more...</a>

Activists Keep Horses From Going To Slaughter
<img style="float: right;" class="border" alt="horses-head" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/animals/horses-head.jpg" height="100" width="95" /> With the financial backing of a California winery owner, activists on Saturday purchased all 174 stray horses up for sale at a state-sanctioned auction in Nevada to keep the horses from going to the slaughterhouse. A spokesperson for the Livesavers Wild Horse Rescue group said activists purchased the horses for $31,415. "We're excited so many people came together to save the horses," she said. <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/pets/activists-save-174-stray-horses.html">Read more...</a>

Hometown Hero: Teen Fills Void When Youth Music Programs are Cut
<img style="float: right;" class="border" alt="Harlem School for the Arts file photo" src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/recreation/pianist-harlem-school-for-arts-photo.jpg" height="100" width="108" /> When 14-year-old Larry Wang heard about the local school district cutting the fourth-grade band program, he knew he had to try to save the music. Fourth grade is the level at which Larry, as a public school student, got his first chance to learn an instrument. "Fourth grade really inspired me, and if you took that away that <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/great-kids/teen-fills-in-after-music-program-cut.html">Read more...</a>

Solar Power in U.S. Homes Saves Money in the Short Term, Too
<img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/buildings/solar-home.jpg" alt="solar-home.jpg" style="margin: 5px; float: right; width: 178px; height: 100px" title="solar-home.jpg" class="border" height="100" width="178" /> Solar power is inching closer to the mainstream, with a 40% increase last year in U.S. households installing the renewable power source. The costs have sharply decreased in the past few years and the return on investment is attractive for some while the investment builds home value similar to installing a new kitchen. In states <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/general/solar-saves-in-short-term.html">Read more...</a>

Giving Kids Social Skills to Get Ahead
<img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/kids/kids_in_england.jpg" alt="kids_in_england.jpg" style="margin: 5px; float: right; width: 133px; height: 100px" class="border" height="100" width="133" /> Growing up in the digital age, kids may not be regularly practicing skills that could get them into a favorite college or impress adults who might help them get a job. A college professor was taken aback by the behavior of students in her class and decided to teach a basic social skills class for younger children who need to <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/general/social-skills-class.html">Read more...</a>

Haitian Boy Remains Enterprising, Resourceful Despite Chaos
<img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/kids/haitian-boy-hand-crafts-oxfam.jpg" alt="haitian-boy-hand-crafts-oxfam.jpg" style="margin: 5px; float: right" title="haitian-boy-hand-crafts-oxfam.jpg" class="border" height="100" width="68" /> As Haiti continues its recovery from the devastating earthquake, their need to re-establish and find ways to earn a living continues to be one of the pressing challenges.  Many people are working out ways for themselves, like Jeanot Dossus, a 15-year-old boy who has created a business for himself making handbags out of tossed chip bags in Haitian camps in order to fund his <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/great-kids/haitian-boy-chip-bag-crafts.html">Read more...</a>

Happy Ending for British Child Migrant Returned Home After WWII Expulsion
<img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/peopleunknown/child-migrant-return-honored.jpg" alt="child-migrant-return-honored.jpg" style="margin: 5px; float: right; width: 74px; height: 100px" title="Tony Chambers, left, presented with coat of arms from Hemel Hempstead" class="border" height="100" width="74" /> The terrific cost of World War II, both human and financial, forced England to consider sending away thousands of its children to live in the far reaches of its empire, even ripping them from homes and families to do so. One such child experienced a happy ending, after the lad, <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/general/british-child-migrant-story.html">Read more...</a>

One Woman's Guide to Eco-Friendly Home Rennovation
<img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/energy/insulation-foam-soy-based.jpg" alt="insulation-foam-soy-based.jpg" style="margin: 5px; float: right" title="soy-based foam insulation" class="border" height="100" width="126" /> My husband and I began renovating our old home in a green and economical manner to test the proposition that "green" and "affordable" were no longer mutually exclusive, thanks to advances in technology and the various tax incentive and rebate programs designed to encourage people to kick the fossil-fuel habit. The 100-year-old-farmhouse has been transformed from a musty, abandoned shell into <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/general/guide-for-eco-friendly-home-rehab.html">Read more...</a>

15-Year-Olds Plant Garden in One of the Worst Neighborhoods in Detroit
<img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/kids/teens-planting-detroit.jpg" alt="teens-planting-detroit.jpg" style="margin: 5px; float: right" title="teens planting in Detroit CNN" class="border" height="100" width="124" /> Despite her own struggles, one teen has stepped up to help revitalize Detroit. She led a group of volunteers with shovels to plant a vegetable garden and rebuild an abandoned lot. Eventually they will donate the food grown here. The group Build On supervises Ivory Price's work on the crime-infested block and believes that because the youth <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/great-kids/teen-revitalizes-detroit.html">Read more...</a>

9-year-old Girl Helps Police Nab a Purse Snatcher
<img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/peopleunknown/girl-catches-purse-snatcher.jpg" alt="girl-catches-purse-snatcher.jpg" style="margin: 5px; float: right; width: 108px; height: 100px" title="girl catches purse snatcher" class="border" height="100" width="108" /> Quiana Coronado was sitting by the window doodling when she witnessed a man snatching a purse from an elderly woman walking down the street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She yelled to her parents and sprung into action with her dad. Quiana kept sight of the robber as he took off down an alley. She and her father <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/great-kids/girl-helps-nab-purse-snatcher.html">Read more...</a>

Pay It Forward Kidney Donations Give 14 Patients New Life
 <img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/inspiration/joy-jumper.jpg" class="border" alt="joy-jumper.jpg" style="margin: 5px; width: 64px; height: 100px; float: right" title="Photo courtesy of Sun Star" height="100" width="64" /> It started with an ordinary life-saving organ donation, but after the recipient's husband decided to 'pay it forward' with his own kidney donation, a chain of transplants delivered 14 patients new life. "A precious daughter died and gave my wife life," said Ralph, 48, "and I'm going to be so selfish to say, 'I'm going <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/general/14-pay-it-forward-kidneys.html">Read more...</a>

Happiness Linked to Financial Planning, Research Shows
<img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/business/smmoney.JPG" alt="smmoney.JPG" style="margin: 5px; float: right; width: 99px; height: 93px" title="smmoney.JPG" class="border" height="93" width="99" /> A June 16 report claims that overall happiness and self-esteem are influenced by our sense of financial control and not by how much we earn each year. The study from UK insurance company Aviva reveals that overall happiness, wellbeing and self-esteem are influenced by our sense of financial control and not by how much we lodge in the bank <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/general/happiness-via-financial-control.html">Read more...</a>

Gala for Animals Lebanon Raises $45K for Critter Welfare
<img src="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/images/stories/recreation/gala-animals-lebanon.jpg" alt="gala-animals-lebanon.jpg" style="margin: 5px; float: right; width: 140px; height: 100px" title="Gala photo by Daily Star Star Scene" class="border" height="100" width="140" /> Animals Lebanon took center stage for animal welfare in Lebanon less than two years ago, but the determination of its five founders quickly built a movement involving schools and businesses that has spayed and neutered 600 animals in that time and rescued countless more. This month, the group held its first Gala for <a href="http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/pets/animals-lebanon-gala.html">Read more...</a>