| SHOCK TRAUMA: |
| City Desk staff was recently involved in a roll-over accident on the highway, which involved your humble editor getting transported by an ambulance to the trauma bay of a local ER. From the EMTs to the emergency-room docs, the care was excellent and the whole experience was certainly educational. |
| Follow the course of care that local accident victims undergo starting from firefighters and EMTs treating often critically injured patients at the side of the road to their emergency care and subsequent hospitalization. |
| NATIONAL TRAIL DAY: |
| National Trail Day is June 7. Map out some great hiking/biking/walking trails around your area, break the list down by difficulty, and include info on the location of pit stops like restaurants or coffee shops along the way, disabled access and parking. |
| For more information, including lists and locations of trails in your area, go to: http://www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx. |
| STRONG NEIGHBORHOODS: |
| These days people move more often, spend more time in traffic and have schedules that are fuller than ever -- in spite of that do residents in your area still find ways to bond with their neighbors and otherwise build strong and friendly neighborhoods? |
| Think block parties, community yard sales, neighborhood cookouts or pool parties, vigils and neighborhood watches, and jogging, cooking, craft or other clubs. |
| GARDENS: |
| Around this time of year, amateur gardeners begin the annual battle with bugs. Invite a professional horticulturalist to dispense a top-ten list for keeping bugs under control. Expert should know what types of insects commonly attack local gardens. |
| Experts can tell how to detect signs that bugs are at work in flower and vegetable gardens and advise gardeners on the latest "green" methods for combating bugs. |
| THEFT AT THE PUMP: |
| With the price of regular gas going up and up, has gas theft increased in your area? Are there any telltale signs a theft is about to occur? Also ask if gas-station employees have been caught stealing gas, and warn consumers about one way this can happen -- one West Virginia woman who used her debit card to buy gas found out later that because she did not press the "clear" button on the pump's payment keypad after her purchase, an employee in the station was able to fill up his/her car as well as a friend's on the customer's nickel. |
| Talk to local police and gas-station owners. |
| FOR RENT: |
| Local firms that rent formal clothing are having their peak season. Tuxedos are in demand for high-school senior prom, and all kinds of formal clothing is rented to bridegrooms and groomsmen for June wedding parties. |
| Use this busy rental season as a peg for a news feature about the formal-clothing rental businesses in your town; most popular styles, problems encountered and funny anecdotes (for example, when the tux was picked up, the jacket fit but the pants didn't). |
| SMOKING: |
| According to a recent CDC study, the number of states with strong smoke-free laws tripled between 2005 and 2007. During the study period, 18 states strengthened smoke-free protections in private sector worksites, 18 states strengthened protections in restaurants, and 12 states strengthened protections in bars. What are the current smoking laws in your town, county and region and are they set to be strengthened? Interview non-smokers and smokers alike on this continually evolving issue. |
| For further info: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5720a3.htm. |
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| Web Site of the Week |
| WWW.BRAINYQUOTE.COM |
 Find a brainy and appropriate quote for your hard-news or feature article at this website. Search by author type (actor, coach, diplomat, economist, explorer, journalist, physicist, royalty, sculptor are just some of the choices), topic (age, death, computers, faith, friendship, government, peace, science, etc.) or author name. |
| http://www.brainyquote.com/ |
| The Date Book |
| June 3, 1808 |
| (200 years ago), Confederate president Jefferson Davis born in Todd County, Ky.; |
| June 3, 1972 |
| (36 years ago), Sally Jan Priesand becomes first woman rabbi in the U.S.; |
| June 4, 1989 |
| (19 years ago), Chinese troops fire on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square; |
| June 5, 1968 |
| (40 years ago), JFK's brother Robert F. Kennedy shot and mortally wounded in L.A.; |
| June 6, 1755 |
| (253 years ago), American patriot Nathan Hale, who said, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," before he was hanged by the British, born in Coventry, Conn.; |
| June 6, 1883 |
| (125 years ago), economist John Maynard Keynes born in England; |
| June 6, 1944 |
| (64 years ago), D-Day, when Allied Forces landed in Normandy, France to open a second front in Europe against Germany; |
| June 7, 1848 |
| (160 years ago), painter Paul Gauguin born in Paris. |
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