News Room

This is how a happy workforce can transform a company
- Financial & Workplace Well-Being
- March 24, 2014
Why should you care if your employees are happy? Here’s one good answer: “Happy workers are better workers. Positive workplaces have higher levels of engagement which goes directly to performance and productivity, innovation and creativity, team work and collaboration,” explains Timothy Sharp, founder of The Happiness Institute, an Australian based corporate consulting organization. What he also says should come as no surprise: “Positive organizations attract and keep better employees far more effectively. Ultimately, all of this adds up to greater profitability.”
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Grandma Betty is the toast of Instagram thanks to great-grandson’s tribute
- Making a Positive Difference
- March 21, 2014
What is the best gift a teenager can give his great-grandmother these days? Zach Beldon decided to create an Instagram account to honor his Grandma Betty, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The soon-to-be college student saw it as a way to help lift his grandma’s spirits and give her courage. It seems to be working. She already has more than 85,000 followers and counting! Zach’s mom, Hope Beldon, explains, “It gives her something to look forward to every day. She still asks every morning, ‘How many more friends do I have today?'”
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U.S. Risks National Blackout From Small-Scale Attack
- Environmental Well-Being
- March 14, 2014
What would happen if terrorists were able to sabotage as few as 9 key electric-transmission substations out of 55,0000 across the U.S.? Could it cause a catastrophic nationwide blackout? The Wall Street Journal reports on research done by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that points to the possibility that such an event could lead to weeks and even months of darkness. Security is only required for sub-stations near nuclear power plants, but what can be done to protect the others?
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High school wrestler’s touching gesture moves crowd to tears
- Making a Positive Difference
- March 14, 2014
High school wrestler Malik Stewart may not have won a title at the Minnesota state championship, but he certainly won the hearts of the audience when he did something unexpected after his match. Stewart could have just walked away disappointed after losing to opponent Mitchell McKee. Instead he showed what being a “good sport” really means.
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Email Enigma: When the Boss’s Reply Seems Cryptic
- Financial & Workplace Well-Being
- March 14, 2014
How many times have you been confused or bothered by a short email response from a co-worker or your boss? Quick communication has become the norm and email inboxes fill up quickly. Sometimes it can be hard when you’re looking for guidance to figure out what a one word reply means. Some bosses simply don’t have much time to answer all their emails, while some employees have a hard time getting straight to the point in writing them.
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Group warns almost 500 products contain chemical found in yoga mats
- Environmental Well-Being
- March 9, 2014
It’s a chemical you may not be familiar with, but it’s possible that you unknowingly consumed it. Azodicarbonamide (ADA) is used to make yoga mats. But it turns out it also can be found in food products, as it’s used to bleach flour and make dough stronger.
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Boy Author Raises $750K For Sick Friend
- Making a Positive Difference
- March 5, 2014
What would make a 6-year-old not only think that he could raise a lot of money to help a friend battling a life-threatening disease, but then actually go ahead and do what most adults could not? Well, you’d have to ask that 6-year-old, Dylan Siegel.
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The Shooting at Chardon High: A coach’s courage helps a high school recover
- Making a Positive Difference
- February 28, 2014
You may not have heard about a school shooting that happened two years ago at Chardon High School in Ohio. Lives were saved when assistant football coach Frank Hall sprang into action. In an interview with 60 Minutes, Hall said he wished that he was seen as a “regular guy” instead of a hero for what he did that day.
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Long-Lost Love Letter Restores Glow in 1959 Chevy
- Making a Positive Difference
- February 23, 2014
Dean Sparks purchased a beat-up 1959 Chevy in a Nebraska auction intending to fix it up, but while working on the car he found something unexpected inside. It was a love letter from 1963 written by a young woman named Beverly Barber to her love, Ronnie Waterbury. With the help of social media, Sparks was able to find out that the couple had a son, Wade, and contacted him.
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When a hysterectomy is a death sentence
- Health & Healing
- February 21, 2014
Having a hysterectomy used to mean 4 to 6 weeks of recovery time. Then along came a new procedure called morcellation, which allows the uterus to be removed through an incision in the belly button. This medical advance was greeted as welcoming news for women who could now recover in a little as 3 to 5 days. While tens of thousands of women each year currently opt for morcellation, for some it can prove deadly.
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Laughter Improves Overall Health
- Lifestyle & Relationships
- February 21, 2014
The old saying “laughter is the best medicine” really does ring true. Dr. Cynthia M. Thaik, author of “Your Vibrant Heart,” writes: “Laughter is similar to a mild workout: A good laugh contracts your abdominal muscles, gets the blood flowing, decreases blood pressure and stress hormones, improves sleeping patterns and boosts the immune system by increasing the number of T-cells in your body.”
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Love through the Lens
- Lifestyle & Relationships
- February 19, 2014
Photographer Brandon Stanton, who has a website called Humans of New York, is on a mission to show what love means through his pictures. To date, he has taken over 5,000 photos of people in love around New York City, from older couples who know only too well each others “flaws” to young love that is just beginning and will change in time.
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Dad’s letter to daughter: Forget makeup, your beauty is inside
- Home & Family
- February 17, 2014
A father’s words of wisdom can stick with a little girl for a lifetime, and this dad certainly knows a few things about making his daughter feel appreciated and beautiful, both inside and out. Dr. Kelly Flanagan, a licensed clinical psychologist, first shared this note to his little one on his blog, UnTangled. The message
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Why Philip Seymour Hoffman’s 23 Years of Sobriety Didn’t Mean He Kicked the Habit
- Celebrity HealthStyles
- February 16, 2014
Philip Seymour Hoffman was sober for 23 years, but that didn’t mean he was any less likely to relapse and overdose. “We treat addiction like you can make it go away with a 28-day stint in rehab and that’s the end of it, but that’s not how it works.
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Assault on California Power Station Raises Alarm on Potential for Terrorism
- Environmental Well-Being
- February 16, 2014
This story is only now receiving national attention, but it happened last April. An electrical substation that powers Silicon Valley was knocked out after a sniper attack in which AK-47 assault weapons were reportedly used. It took almost a month to fully repair the station, and Jon Wellinghoff, who was chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time, is calling it “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred.”
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