| Protect Your Family During Mosquito Season
(Family Features) - Just one is all it takes. One mosquito bite can transmit West Nile virus or other diseases. One tick bite can result in Lyme disease. In 2006 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 3,887 cases of West Nile virus in the United States, resulting in 120 deaths. And according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), more than 100,000 cases of Lyme disease have been reported here.Traditional insect repellents can be effective, but the potential health risks-especially to children-have many parents thinking twice about slathering man-made chemicals on their kids' clothing, arms, legs and faces. The American Academy of Pediatrics cautions against using products containing DEET on children less than 2 years of age. And even for older children, it recommends avoiding application of DEET to their face and hands.
Survey: Teens face stress at higher rate
Stressed out by your high-pressured job? Don't assume your kid is any less stressed out by school, especially if she's a she. Young people experience stress at a high rate, and females more than males, an extensive Associated Press/MTV survey shows. .
Schools contend with unpaid school lunch bills
UNDATED (AP) - In Arkansas, as in other states, many public school districts are having problems picking up the tab for children who don't qualify for the federal school lunch program and whose parents don't send money with them to school for lunch. Last term, unpaid cafeteria charges in the Conway public schools, for instance, reached $14,000. By the end of the term, only about half of that had been collected. A food services group is looking for ways to resolve the ongoing problem for public schools in the state. Some want to merge the free-lunch and reduced-price programs. The Arkansas School Food Services Association says the state could pick up the cost, estimating an additional $3 million-a-year expense. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.
Cruise explores a harsh universe of thinning ice
It's well past midnight, but the sun is still gleaming just behind jagged peaks, washing the sky with a rosy shimmer. A waterfall gushes from a rocky cleft beneath the downy hood of a glacier. Light glints off the ice floes like sequins scattered on the calm water before us. No one can bear the idea of going to bed. "It's just amazing," says Martina Becker, a German woman clinging to the endless day. "Everywhere you look there's ice pouring down. I think this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen." Someone spots a disturbance in the water ahead, and we dash to the front of the glassed-in deck just in time to see black fins roiling the water. A whale, we suspect. Or maybe not. In this surreal universe north of the Arctic Circle, possibilities seem infinite.
Community Almanac
Friday, August 31, 2007
Friday, Aug. 31COUNTY FAIR AND BOOK RELEASE: Copies of the Fair Book can be downloaded from the Coconino County Web site www.coconino.az.gov/parks.aspx?id=480 and are also available in Coconino County offices. Coconino County Fairgrounds, three miles south of Flagstaff at Exit 337 off of Interstate 17.COUNTY FAIR FREE PASSES: Through today, blood donors will be thanked with one free gate pass to the Coconino County Fair. To make it convenient for donors to give blood, United Blood Services has scheduled more than 30 blood drives in the Flagstaff area through August. Coconino County Fairgrounds (three miles south of Flagstaff at Exit 337 off of Interstate 17).LAVA TUBES AND SNOWBOWL SKYRIDE: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Join U.S. Forest Service interpretive ranger Heidi Strickfaden for this extraordinary walk into the lava tubes of Hart Prairie shield volcano.
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