Rescue team sent for laughing man

A helicopter rescue team was sent out after screams were heard in a German forest only to find a man laughing loudly at a new book.

A woman called emergency services after she said she could hear someone being tortured because she heard someone “screaming” for three hours.

The rescue team found Roland Hofmann and ordered him to give up and release his hostage.

Hofmann was shocked and explained to police he had gone into the forest to read “in peace and quiet” and was reading a book that him laugh out loud.

It’s not clear what book the man was reading.

Read more: Rescue team sent for laughing man

Dogs help children learn to read [Video]

Burgh, a Bernese Mountain dog, is assisting in the Tailwaggin’ Tutors program.

“When it’s time for the kids to read, they sit down, she sits down next to them and she listens,” said Carol Vernon, a library employee.

It doesn’t even matter that all the stories sound the same to Burgh.

“(The children are) breaking out of their shell,” said Chris Bohrer, the dog’s owner.  “They’re not so afraid to be around either a dog or an adult and they generally start reading louder and louder.”

The program has made for positive results.

“I just think because you’re training and reading to at least somebody before you read to an actual real person,” said Tommy Fanning of the Reading To Dogs program.  “Whether it’s getting over shyness or just getting confidence in their ability to read aloud, or whether it’s actually improving their reading, I hear about it from the parents.”

The children are going from beginning readers to chapter books in a matter of weeks.

“However you can get them to love reading or enjoy reading, I think it’s a wonderful thing,” said Janel Fanning, the mother of one of the students in the program.

Read more and watch this story: Dogs Helping Children Learn To Read

Comic book character bracket [Video]

OK… here’s a real quick fun feature story. This one is for all the comic book lovers/nerds out there. You should watch the story, it was simple, but the reporter had fun with it.

Fans at Imagicon break out their own brackets.

It’s Superman vs. Venom, Batman vs. Spiderman, Magneto vs. Hulk, Joker vs. Wolverine!

Who will come out on top? Watch the video to find out!

Watch this story: Comic Book Bracket

Young at heart: Elderly librarian says kids keep her alive [Video]

Here is a library worker who is older than many of the books on the shelves but she says her elementary students keep her young at heart.

Arlene Greene turns 82 this summer and she credits the kids at Wengert Elementary for her new lease on life. “When I first came here to Nevada I was sitting around, doing reading, watching T.V. and I was slowly dying and my daughter said, mom, ‘you are going to die like this. You’ve got to volunteer.’”

Greene now volunteers five days a week. Wengert’s principal, Suhaila Mustafa, says, ”She is very sweet, very kind to them.’ Mustafa says Greene resembles grandma and provides a family atmosphere.   

Greene is no push over, though, and the kids know it. A book overdue is a book overdue. And she is a stickler when it comes to saying “please and thank you.”

Greene says, “I would encourage everybody who doesn’t know what to do with themselves, who have nothing, their children have married or gone away, jump into a school. Volunteer and work with the kids. It’s like living all over again.”

Read more and watch this story: Cool at School: Young at Heart

Photo: Flickr user apdk

Dear Mr. President: Boy’s letter to Obama [Video]

 

Meet Michael Bedsaul — philosopher, author, and advisor to the president. This six-year-old Las Vegas boy isn’t just name-dropping when he tells you the president wants to hear what he has to say.

Just when you think you have a pretty good grasp on the way the world works, along comes this straight-talking six-year-old with words of wisdom we could all learn from.

Excited by the inaugural celebrations he watched live on television, Michael decided to write to President Barack Obama to remind him that even in the midst of the country’s economic chaos, we need to focus on what really matters, “It is important to say please and thank you.”

But it was the picture Michael sent with his letter that really blows your mind, “This is a heart sun, this is a real sun, and this is Barack Obama.”

Michael goes on to explain that a heart-sun spins in the sky, sending God’s love to everyone all over the world, including President Obama.

Michael’s handwritten letter and picture were selected from thousands submitted by children from around the world, and though he’s not impressed, it will be included in a bound volume and presented to the president.

Michael has no plans of politics in his future. He wants to be a Transformer.

Read more and watch this story with the super cute little guy: Boy’s Letter to Obama Included in Book