Web Content Barnard Hopes to Help Break Language Barrier Immigrants come to the United States seeking a better life for themselves and their families, but for many, a lack of English skills stands between them and education, employment and access to healthcare. Christi Barnard has been helping immigrants learn English for a decade as an English as a Second Language instructor for the Conway Adult Education Center, but Monday night marked the first time that Barnard has brought an ESL class to her native Greenbrier. (more) When Your Child Has Cancer When your child is diagnosed with cancer, it can feel like the world has dropped out from under you. Many parents report feeling hopeless and helpless, but there are steps you can take to help you and your child cope with the diagnosis. (more) Jet Blue Retains Its Spot At the Top of Satisfaction Survey Economy airline JetBlue suffered major public relations nightmares this winter after leaving passengers stranded in planes on the runway and suffering from weather related flight delays, but their overall reputation survived as a report released today by the consumer satisfaction research firm J.D. Power and Associates showed. (more) Maroon 5 Sticks to the Tried and True It's been five years since Maroon 5 burst into the national consciousness with their multiplatinum disc "Songs About Jane." Now the band that women love and critics love to hate is back with the May 22 release of their second studio CD, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long."
Old fans will find much to love on "Soon," and while the band attempts to stretch its musical wings --including incorporating rock and dance elements into their signature sound-- without alienating their core fans, they don't do much to secure any new fans. (more) The Truth About False Confessions: A Legal History of the Wrongly Convicted On September 2,1666, the Great Fire of London started in a small bakery before spreading through the ancient City of London, destroying 13,000 homes and churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral. Frenchman Robert Hubert, claiming to be an agent of the Pope, confessed to starting the fire by throwing a firebomb in through a bakery window.
He was found guilty of the crime and was promptly hanged on September 28. During his trial, there were questions about the validity of Hubert's confession, namely that he had been out of the country until September 4, that there were no windows in the bakery and that Hubert was crippled and could not have thrown the bomb. Hubert was convicted based on one of the first known cases of false confession. (more) | Fiction The Walk The journey into Gulu used to hurt my feet. I walked alone then. I carried a blanket and I would cry as I walked. I would cry because my feet hurt. I would cry because I was afraid. I didn't want to leave my family to walk alone into the city, but the city was safer than my village. The rebels come and take children in the night. They cut off their noses. They force them to kill their parents. They make soldiers of the boys and wives of the girls. I do not want to kill my parents. I do not want to be a wife, and so I walk. But I don't walk alone. Not anymore. (more) The Garden Lila plunged her hands into the hot dry soil, drawing life and energy into her tired old hands. The garden had been her husband's once. Doyle had spent countless hours on his knees, pulling out individual weeds by hand, shoving in the little white fertilizer sticks. Every year he would grow more tomatoes and zucchini than they could ever hope to eat, so she was forced to can the tomatoes and bake loaves of zucchini bread for church bake sales. He would bring the hateful things into the house by the bushel, dropping dirt all over the floor that she had worked so hard to sweep and mop. The dirt didn't bother him any, though. She had watched from the kitchen window as he twisted a tomato from the vine and sank his teeth into it. "You're going to catch something eating that without washing it, and when you do, I'll be damned if I take care of you," she yelled through the window. The words haunted her now. (more) |