Maureen O'Haire of Rockland, Mass., supports the troops, and not in the patronizing, bumper-sticker sort of way. She really supports the troops.

And in particular, a platoon of soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. O'Haire has given them so much - starting with her son.

Last year, just before his 21st birthday, Lance Cpl. Walter O'Haire was killed in Iraq.

"God has a date we come in and a date we leave," O'Haire said. "And Wally did what he had to do and it was time to go back."

Obviously, you can't ask for anything more from a Gold Star mom. But that proud Irish woman wanted to give more anyway.

Using the $20,000 death benefit she got from the government, O'Haire offered to fly the whole platoon for a St. Patrick's Day bash in Boston. She welcomed them like family … exactly like family.

"You bring all that mud in my house I'm kicking your ass," she said to one of the Marines.

"They come into my home and they're just like having my other kids around," she told Hartman.

O'Haire is widowed with eight other kids. She certainly had plenty of other ways to use that $20,000 - and yet she chose to spend it on the boys her son served with - for three days she put them up in a nice hotel, and took them all to church with her.

Encouraging words

My name is Joshua Jensen. I am a senior at Murray High School. I have a learning disability. The first elementary school I attended told my mother that I would never get past a first-grade reading level, that I would not ever graduate from high school and not to think about me going to college. My mom always told me to never give up, and that I would graduate from high school and go to college.

We moved, and I entered Horizon Elementary in the fourth grade at a kindergarten level. My mother went and talked to the teachers and told them about my experience at the other school and how she felt that I was smart enough to graduate from high school and go to college. They told her that they felt the same way and that they would never put limits on a child.

When I was 11 I started to take opera and piano lessons and my reading and learning skills started to improve. I decided to sing Italian opera. I now sing on stage with a perfect Italian accent. I sing each year for the Italian Festival in Salt Lake City. I sang at the ZooLights! festival for Christmas. I plan on making singing my career.

I graduate this year at an eighth-grade reading level. I have passed the math and reading parts of the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test and I am waiting to hear about the writing part. I will start college in the fall. I am thankful for my mother for always believing in me and for the teachers in the Murray School District who never gave up.

Joshua Jensen
Murray

Homeless family in woods bonds with Police officer
The West family lives in the woods just off some back roads leading to the major-money thoroughfare of Mansell Road.

Here, the homeless and the policeman trade cell numbers, go by first names and greet each other warmly.

When one thinks of homelessness, Alpharetta isn't what comes to mind. Neither is this bond of trust and goodwill.

Joyner, a former Roswell police chief and head of security at Lockheed Martin, wants to change those perceptions — at least the latter. After all, what harm comes from showing these woods dwellers some amity? And how can having more eyes and ears on the streets be a bad thing?

"These people are part of the community I serve," he said. "They are good folks, just down on their luck."[...]

Every couple of weeks, Joyner drops by for a chat. Sometimes he brings them blankets or clothes that have been donated; sometimes he brings money from a church. One day last week, he brought $250 cash, the remainder of Christmas money some Alpharetta residents wanted distributed to the homeless.

"It wasn't a huge amount, maybe 700 or 800 dollars," Joyner said, "but the idea was to give it to them in installments, to help during the cold season."

And the wet season. With the recent heavy storms, the Wests know all too well that tents only afford so much protection.

The Wests use some of the money to buy warm clothes. Some of it goes for food. Some for the dog.

Every community has at least isolated pockets of homelessness, but the way that Joyner has reached out is not the norm. [] Joyner is doing exactly what he was hired to do and has the full blessing of his supervisors in the Alpharetta Public Safety Department.
[...]

"I think a lot of the people I come in contact with, they are going to live in the woods no matter what," Joyner said. "They are down on their luck, most of them have worked or are working something now and just can't afford a place to live.

Neri appeals for '1-year political cease fire'
Acting Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri called on political leaders to abandon the "politics of hate" and declare "one year of social peace" so that the country could focus on solving its problems.

"I urge our political leaders to abandon this politics of hate and go for the politics of hope and progress where we practice human decency and respect for the dignity of our fellowmen," Neri said in a statement.

"I urge our political leaders to declare one year of social peace so we can focus on the real solutions to our nation's deeply-rooted problems," he said.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said the Palace supports Neri's call for a one-year "political ceasefire."

Fajardo said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo only has less than two and a half years left in her term, so she should be given the chance to unify the country and continue her administration's growth program.

She said the bickering among some senators over the witnesses in the broadband deal probe weakens their credibility.

She called the senators should set aside their personal motives, act as statesmen and think of the welfare of the majority.

Punishing a lazy team member can be counterproductive and it may be better to simply walk away, researchers said on Wednesday.

The researchers at Harvard University found that people who go to the trouble of punishing colleagues, co-workers or others in one-on-one situations do not profit from their revenge.

Such behavior does not pay off for a group, either, they reported in the journal Nature.

"Put simply, winners don't punish," said David Rand, who worked on the study. "Punishment can lead to a downward spiral of retaliation with destructive outcomes for everybody involved."