| GUNS IN PARKS: |
| The public has until June 30 to comment on a proposal (no. 1024-AD70) by the U.S. Department of Interior, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/National Park Service, to ease current regulations banning firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. |
| Station reporter near local federal parks and get visitors and/or residents to give their views on this proposal. |
| SALON SAFETY: |
| It's that time of year again when the pedicure palaces of your town bustle with women lined up to get their toes ready for sandal season, but salon clients may also pick up nasty infections, including dangerous staph infections, from improperly sanitized utensils and footbaths. Aesthetician and salon licenses should be prominently displayed, and the salon should look and smell clean. |
| Speak with health-department officials, beauty schools and medical professionals for guidelines every salon should follow. Have any area salons been cited for problems? |
| TEENS AND CELLPHONES: |
| A recent study of North Carolina teens reported that despite laws against talking and texting on mobile phones while driving, teens' usage of phones while driving was on the upswing. Speak with teens in your locality about their phone habits while driving and speak with police on enforcement of any non-phone usage laws on the books. |
| For a copy of study and for a state-by-state list of cell-phone laws, visit the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: www.iihs.org. |
| DRESS UP: |
| A new CareerBuilder.com survey reports that 41 percent of employers state that people who dress better or more professionally tend to be promoted more often than others in their organization. While this poll perhaps restates that old adage "dress to get ahead," how true is this among your local hiring managers? |
| Also, while we've suggested this idea before, take a look at local office dress codes, adding the question to employees: do they think their clothing styles help or hurt them? |
| LIVESTRONG: |
| According to Lance Armstrong's recently launched Livestrong.com health website, while 86 percent of those American polled have tried to change their overall health only 46 percent say they are actually successful. Survey respondents blamed "lack of money," "lack of time," and "lack of motivation" as the chief culprits preventing healthy changes in behavior. How are local gym memberships doing lately? |
| With summer here, and many people ready to get in shape and make positive health changes, now's a good time for a feature on people trying to live healthier lifestyles. Interview persons on the street and a cross-section of docs and other health experts. |
| ONLINE: |
| Currently, one out of every four people online visits social-networking sites, according to the Consumer Intern Barometer. You may be personally familiar with such well-known sites as Facebook and MySpace. Says Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: "Online social networking is an integral part of many people's lives and a natural extension of our means of communication which the Internet has created. The next growth wave will be expanding and incorporating these networks into our business lives." |
| From tweens to 30-somethings, speak with your local social networkers about the importance of online networking to their lives and ask about popular local social-network sites. |
Got Top Trends? |
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| Web Site of the Week |
| WWW.PRESERVATIONNATION.ORG |
 Until it was decommissioned as a federal highway in 1985, Route 66, completed in 1927, stretched 2,400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles, dotted with tourist attractions ranging from giant sculptures of Paul Bunyan to motels shaped like huge teepees. Now, those historic sites are in danger of disappearing. Does your area contain Route 66-era structures under siege, or are there other roads in your area where notable tourist attractions are in decline after bypassing roads were built? |
| http://www.preservationnation.org/ |
| The Date Book |
| June 25, 1876 |
| (132 years ago), Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana where Gen. George Armstrong Custer was killed; |
| June 25, 1962 |
| (46 years ago), U.S. Supreme Court banned school prayer as a violation of the separation of church and state; |
| June 25, 1903 |
| (105 years ago), George Orwell, the English author of "Animal Farm," born in Bengal; |
| June 25, 1950 |
| (58 years ago), Korean War begins; |
| June 26, 1892 |
| (116 years ago), author Pearl Buck born in Hillsboro, W. Va.; |
| June 26, 1914 |
| (94 years ago), Olympic athlete Mildred "Babe" Didrikson born in Port Arthur, Texas; |
| June 26, 1945 |
| (63 years ago), 50 nations sign United Nations Charter in San Francisco; |
| June 28, 1577 |
| (431 years ago), Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens born in Germany; |
| June 28, 1712 |
| (296 years ago), philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau born in Switzerland; |
| June 28, 1906 |
| (102 years ago), first American woman to win the Nobel Prize, physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer, born in Germany; |
| June 28, 1914 |
| (94 years ago), Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo touched off World War I; |
| June 1-31, |
| National Hot Dog Month. |
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