Louisiana Grocery Store Worker Befriends Teen With Autism, Kindly Shows Him How to Stock Shelves

A simple act of kindness to a teen with autism made the young man’s day.

At 17, Jack Ryan Edwards doesn’t talk much. His attention span is extremely short. His senses are easily overloaded doing what others consider mundane — going to the grocery store, for example.

“He needs help and prompting with everything,” said his sister, Delaney Edwards Alwosaibi, of her brother with autism. Sometimes people look askance at the teen, with pity or fear in their eyes, she added.

But on a recent trip to a local supermarket in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the young man looked at a stock clerk loading orange juice into a refrigerated case and saw pure beauty.

His father, Sid Edwards, thought Jack Ryan wanted juice. But that wasn’t it. He wanted to pick up the plastic container and place it on a shelf.

Employee Jordan Taylor, 20, read Jack Ryan’s look. “Do you want to help me?” he asked the young man. Oh yes indeed, Jack Ryan did.

As Taylor handed each bottle to Jack Ryan, the teen carefully placed it in the cooler. His father was so taken with his son’s deliberate concentration he pulled out his cellphone and started filming. He called it “a miracle” that his boy was so enthralled with something that he kept after it.

In all, Taylor spent about 30 minutes with the teenager, an unheard of amount of time for anything to captivate Jack Ryan, his family said.

Sid Edwards sent the video to his daughter, who put it on her Facebook page, where it’s been viewed 15,000 times and shared by more than 8,000 users.

After watching it many, many times, Alwosaibi said, she cried for hours. Her heart was full not only for her little brother, but for the simple kindness of a stranger who broke open Jack Ryan’s world with a single question.

“I have no idea what experience this young man has with people with disabilities,” she told InsideEdition.com. “He was so patient and kind with him. Jordan was prompting him, telling him where to put” the containers.

Alwosaibi is a special education teacher, just like her mother. Her dad is a football coach at the local high school, where his wife works and which Jack Ryan attends. They have another son with autism.

“Between my brothers and my students, I know they’re employable,” Alwosaibi said of people with special needs. Jack Ryan is meticulous and detail-oriented, she said. “That’s what stocking is all about — presentation.”

Two wondrous things have come from Jordan letting Jack Ryan help him. The folks at Rouse’s grocery store have offered Jack Ryan a job. And a GoFundMe site established by Alwosaibi to help Jordan realize his goal of going to college has raised more than $59,000 in one day.

“It’s unbelievable,” Alwosaibi said. Jordan told a local station the looks on the faces of father and son were payment enough.

“If you would have flipped the camera, you would have seen his dad’s face. It said it all. He was just happy and he [Jack Ryan] was happy putting the juices up and I was just happy that I could make someone else happy and make their day,” Jordan told WAFB-TV.

The Edwards family has not decided whether Jack Ryan should take the job. School starts soon. But there is no question about their gratitude to the man who noticed their boy.

“Jordan was brave that day,” said Alwosaibi. “It was brave for him to say, ‘Do you want to help me?”’

Source:
https://www.insideedition.com/louisiana-grocery-store-worker-befriends-teen-autism-kindly-shows-him-how-stock-shelves-45641

When construction changed a blind man’s route, a bus driver took a detour to help him

(CNN) We don’t often think of our public transportation drivers as heroes. But in a Wisconsin town, most of the transit system is made up of everyday heroes.

From a bus driver who literally ran through traffic just to help a man in a wheelchair, to a driver who pulled over to help an elderly man who fell in the snow, the Milwaukee County Transit System bus drivers have become as important as the county’s first responders.

The town’s latest hero is Thaddaus Turner, a 28-year-old bus driver who didn’t think twice about helping one of his passengers cross the street after finding out he was blind.

“The route was barricaded, it was rough for me as a driver, I can only imagine how rough it was for him,” Turner told CNN.
Helping others comes as a second nature to Thaddaus Turner.

The passenger, Gene Hubbard, has been taking the same route to and from work nearly every day for the last 20 years. But the route is now under construction, making it difficult for Hubbard to get around, transit spokesman Brendan Conway said.

Thaddaus Turner, a public bus driver, walks Gene Hubbard, who is blind, across the road.

A bystander snapped a photo of Turner helping Hubbard and sent it to the transit agency. The agency then shared it on Facebook and it quickly caught the attention of local new stations.

“I just can’t say enough about all the bus drivers,” Hubbard,69, told CNN affiliate WITI. “If I don’t have a regular locating point to start from, I may as well be in the middle of the ocean.”

Turner says the attention the photo generated has really caught him off guard.

“I was surprised when I saw it in the news,” he said. “I didn’t think I would be here right now over something that is second nature to me, and my colleagues.”

SOURCE : CNN

Man celebrates his 100th birthday by jumping out of plane

Stu Williamson said he would love to snatch the title from Bryson William Verdun Hayes of Devon, England, who became the oldest man to perform a tandem parachute jump last year at 101 years and 38 days old, according to Guinness World Records. The Seattle man celebrated his 100th birthday by skydiving out of a plane, and says it is his new life mission to do it again next year, to become the world’s oldest skydiver.

InsideEdition.com’s Keleigh Nealon (http://twitter.com/KeleighNealon) has more.

Source:

This man carried his dog up an escalator because it was scared and it will make your day

It must be tough being a dog sometimes. You know, constantly being dragged about by your owner, not given a choice about where you’re going or who you’re going there with.

At one point, this dog had enough and quite literally put its paw down.
When its hooman tried to make it walk up an escalator in a shopping mall, it just lay on the ground and point blank refused.

We don’t know why it refused exactly (we can’t read dogs’ minds), but it appears to have been scared of the huge moving staircase in front of it.

But this dog’s owner wasn’t put off. Instead of forcing his scared pooch up the escalator, he picked him up and carried him in his arms.
We can see why the video has been such a hit. The dog looks completely comfortable and relaxed in his master’s arms – almost resembling a big quadruped baby.

Many people were overjoyed by seeing the video on Twitter, and agreed that the doggy should be carried on the escalator.

-Some said they too spoil their pooches in a similar way. (see tweet)

-One made a good point that escalators are probably painful for pooch paws.(see tweet)

-Some empathised with the pooch.(see tweet)

-Yep, apparently doggies shouldn’t take escalators because they could get injured. (see tweet)

-Other dogs out there are more confident when it comes to escalators. (see tweet)

Whatever your take, there’s one thing that’s undeniable. Dogs are man’s best friend – but sometimes, we give them a helping hand (paw!?) too.

Read the full story here:

RadioShack is back. Kinda

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) – You can soon tune back into RadioShack.
The twice-bankrupt brand is being reborn, but it won’t be as noticeable as before. Instead, it will be called “RadioShack Express,” a store-within-a-store that will open in 100 HobbyTown stores across the United States.

“We are excited about the HobbyTown partnership, as it will allow us to reengage and directly serve our core hobby and DIY communities,” said Steve Moroneso, CEO of General Wireless Operations, which owns the 97-year-old RadioShack brand.

HobbyTown sells specialty toys. The company said the partnership “will enhance the product selection and services” at its 150 locations.

It’s been quite a ride for RadioShack over the past three years. The company first filed for bankruptcy in 2015, when General Wireless acquired the company. It filed for bankruptcy again in 2017, which led to many of its 1,500 stores being shut down.

Roughly 400 standalone stores in rural locations are still open.

Continue reading full story here : https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/26/news/companies/radioshack-back/index.html

NASA astronauts first landed on the moon 49 years ago today. Here’s what the landing looked like and how the US pulled it off.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy put a monumental goal before Congress:

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth,” Kennedy said. “No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

Indeed, it took eight years to reach the moon after that, and NASA burned through $25.4 billion dollars before the Apollo program was finished. But on July 20, 1969, as people throughout the world gathered around fuzzy television sets, astronaut Neil Armstrong announced: “the Eagle has landed.”

Here’s how the US made it to the moon 49 years ago.

The first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 1, ended in tragedy in 1967. All three crew members died in a fire inside their capsule during a pre-launch test on the launch pad.

From left, Apollo 1 astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee in front of their Saturn 1 rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA

NASA said design changes after the accident made the Apollo spacecraft safer for journeys to the moon.

By July 1969, NASA astronauts had flown to the moon’s orbit twice, and the crew of Apollo 11 was ready to land on the lunar surface.

From left to right: Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin Jr. NASA

U.K. Supermarket to Have ‘Quieter Hour’ for People With Autism

By Ceylan Yeginsu

LONDON — Dim the lights. Silence the piped-in music. Turn down the checkout beeps. For an hour on Saturdays, a British supermarket chain is introducing a weekly “quieter hour” aimed at helping people with autism have a better shopping experience by easing sensory overload.

The move by the supermarket, Morrisons, which begins on Saturday and runs from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., has been welcomed by the National Autistic Society, which says that even small changes can make a big difference in the lives of people with autism and their families.

“Around 700,000 people are on the autism spectrum in the U.K.,” Tom Purser, of the National Autistic Society, said in an email. “This means they see, hear and feel the world differently to other people, often in a more intense way, which can make shopping a real struggle.”

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people communicate and relate to others and how they experience the world around them. More than 60 percent of people with autism avoid shops, and 79 percent say they feel socially isolated, according to figures published by the society.

Jeddah Tower: What does the world’s next tallest skyscraper look like now?

These are the images that show what will soon be known as the world’s next tallest building rising from the desert. When the 3,280-feet-tall (1,000-meter-tall) Jeddah Tower, in Saudi Arabia, opens in 2020, it will knock Dubai’s iconic Burj Khalifa off its throne as the tallest skyscraper in the world by 236 feet (72 meters). Construction of the landmark is estimated to cost $1.4 billion.

When CNN visited the site at the end of 2017, the tower was 252 meters (826 feet) high and already had expansive views of the kingdom.

A tall order?
The tower will be the crown jewel of Jeddah Economic City, a commercial and residential project of 57 million square feet (5.3 million square meters), that will feature homes, hotels and offices, as well as tourist attractions.

But the project hasn’t been smooth sailing.

There have been various delays since construction began in 2013. Since November 2017, two of the project’s most prominent backers — Saudi Arabia’s Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a prolific investor and businessman, and Bakr Bin Laden, chairman of Jeddah Tower’s construction company Bin Laden Group — have been caught up in the kingdom’s anti-corruption purge, which saw hundreds questioned on accusations of corruption.
Jeddah Economic Company, the developer behind the skyscraper, however, has confirmed to CNN that the project will be completed by 2020, as scheduled.

Al-Waleed’s company declined to provide comment to CNN, while Bin Laden Group couldn’t be reached.

Miami Herald’s Jacqueline Charles wins Maria Moors Cabot Prize

Jacqueline Charles, the Miami Herald’s Caribbean correspondent, has won a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize. Emily Michot emichot@MiamiHerald.com

Jacqueline Charles, who has reported on the Caribbean for the Miami Herald since 2006, has been awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.

Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism announced Wednesday that Charles was among the four recipients of this year’s Cabot Prizes, the oldest awards in international journalism.

While Charles covers various Caribbean nations, Haiti is her specialty. The Cabot judges highlighted that in their citation:

“Charles’ great contribution has been as a narrator of the agonies of Haiti, the hemisphere’s poorest country, crippled by misgovernment and battered time and again by nature.”

Jacqueline Charles, center, the winner of a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot award, is shown with the late Don Bohning, left, and Bernard Diederich. Bohning, who served as Latin America editor for the Miami Herald, was a 1974 Cabot award winner, and Diederich, a long-time Caribbean correspondent, won the award in 1976. Miami Herald

Continue to read here :
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article215038775.html

BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@miamiherald.com

K-9s Trained to Sniff Out Devices Holding Child Porn

The number of child sex exploitation cases is rapidly rising in the Washington, D.C., region, and so, too, is pressure to find new tools for law enforcement to catch the predators.

U.S. Justice Department records obtained by the News4 I-Team in a public records request show more than 300 federal prosecutions for child sex crimes in D.C., Maryland and Virginia since 2016, including cases in which devices capable of holding tens of thousands of child sex images were seized.

“It happens everywhere, in the smallest towns and the biggest cities,” said Steve Grocki, chief of the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

“(Predators) can very easily be communicating with people in Russia, China and anywhere in the world,” Grocki said. “It’s so easy online now, and language is not a barrier.”

The increase in prosecutions comes amid fast-evolving technology to record and share exploitative images, according to federal officials.

“Every person walks around 24 hours a day with a high definition photography device,” Grocki said.

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