| Top Trends |
| FINE PRINT: |
| How well does your citizenry understand the utility, auto insurance and other bills they routinely get every month? |
| Have reporter go through the fine print with reps from some of these companies for a consumer-education story series. |
| INTERN PERKS: |
| More often than not, internships are known for hard work and no pay. But as a tradeoff for all the hard work some offices provide various perks to interns, such as tickets to sporting events or summer concerts, free lunches or paying for parking/transportation to work. |
| Take a look at some of the summer internships in your locality and see which offices provide perks to their hard-working interns. |
| DO-IT-YOURSELF HOMEBUILDERS: |
| You don't find it too often these days, but some couples or individuals attempt to build their own house. For some, that means they become the contractor and organize the whole thing; for others, it means they are out there swinging a hammer and doing electrical and plumbing. |
| See if you can find some in-progress or recently completed "do-it-yourself" homes. |
| SUMMER GARDENS: |
| This is a good time of year for a picture-story on outstanding local vegetable gardens. Gardeners love to talk about their hobby and give helpful hints. |
| See if anyone has some award-winning pumpkin, squash, zucchini or other type of plants. |
| GARAGES: |
| These days, garages not only hold cars but also contain a lot of what people used to store in their basements. Most new condominium units don't have basement space, and many homeowners have turned their basements into family rooms or home theaters. |
| Have reporter get local garage builders to connect them with customers who have renovated garages to get the most out of the space. |
| COMPANY E-MAIL: |
| Are local companies reading their employees' e-mail? A new study by data-loss prevention company Proofpoint found 32.1 percent of companies with 1,000 or more employees hire staff to read or analyze the contents of outbound email. Ask local business owners what their policies are. Have they fired anyone for violating email rules? |
| For full report, go to: www.proofpoint.com. |
| RAINY DAY: |
| Many Americans aren't prepared for a financial rainy day -- bills for a car breakdown, new roof, a plumbing emergency, medical crisis, etc. A recent poll by Bankrate found that half of Americans polled (54 percent) are not equipped with an emergency-savings fund (equal to three months' living expenses). |
| Talk with average person in your town about what kind of financial cushion they keep and speak with local financial advisers on weathering a financial storm. Get tips on how to save. |
| TEXT MESSAGING: |
| According to recent teen-driving research by SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, instant- and text-messaging leads the list as the biggest distraction while driving for teens. What does local law say about text messaging while driving, what do local teens report on the prevalence of messaging while driving and what have police been finding as the culprit for some teen crashes? |
| For more info: www.sadd.org. |
|
| Book of the Week |
| THE GRID |
 The Grid
By Phillip F. Schewe
(From the publisher) The electrical grid goes everywhere -- it's the largest and most complex machine ever made. Yet the system is built in such a way that the bigger it gets, the more inevitable its collapse. Constructed of intricately interdependent components, the grid operates on a rapidly shrinking margin for error. Things can and do go wrong in this system, no matter how many preventive steps we take. Just look at the colossal 2003 blackout, when 50 million Americans lost power due to a simple error at a power plant in Ohio; or the one a month later, which blacked out 57 million Italians. And these two combined don't even compare to the 2001 outage in India, which affected 226 million people. As we get more and more dependent on electricity to perform even the most mundane daily tasks, the grid's inevitable shortcomings will take a toll on populations around the globe. |
| http://www.powells.com/ |
| Web Site of the Week |
| YOUR LOCAL SCHOOL'S WEB SITE |
| Most grade schools and high schools, and even some preschools, now have web sites -- encourage parents and other area residents to visit them and find out what's going on in your local education system. |
|
| The Date Book |
| July 30, 1863 |
| (144 years ago), automaker Henry Ford born in Dearborn Township, Mich.; |
| July 31, 1776 |
| (231 years ago), Francis Salvador becomes first Jew to die in conflict during American Revolution; |
| Aug. 1, 1779 |
| (228 years ago), "Star-Spangled Banner" author Francis Scott Key born in Frederick County, Md.; |
| Aug. 1, 1819 |
| (188 years ago), "Moby Dick" author Herman Melville born in New York; |
| Aug. 1, 1942 |
| (65 years ago), Grateful Dead guitarist Jerome (Jerry) Garcia born in San Francisco, Calif.; |
| Aug. 1, 1944 |
| (63 years ago), Poland’s Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis begins; |
| Aug. 2, 1776 |
| (231 years ago), Continental Congress members sign the Declaration of Independence; |
| Aug. 2, 1990 |
| (17 years ago), Iraq invades Kuwait; |
| Aug. 3, 1900 |
| (107 years ago), war correspondent Ernest Pyle born in Dana, Ind.; |
| Aug. 4, 1901 |
| (106 years ago), jazz musician Louis Armstrong born in New Orleans; |
| Aug. 4, 1912 |
| (95 years ago), diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, born in Sweden; |
| Aug. 4, 1964 |
| (43 years ago), civil-rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner found murdered in Mississippi; |
| Aug. 5, 1957 |
| (50 years ago), "American Bandstand" premiered on TV; |
| Aug. 6, 1945 |
| (62 years ago), Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan at 8:15 a.m. (local). |
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