“OC football player remembered; death cause unknown - Marin Independent Journal” plus 4 more

OC football player remembered; death cause unknown - Marin Independent Journal
Center caters to high-end home design pros - AZCentral.com
Family pet bashed to death in West Perth - News.com.au
Ivy Tech student hopes to make big impression on community - Lafayette Journal and Courier
Ovarian cancer: Early detection key to survival - Longview News-Journal

OC football player remembered; death cause unknown - Marin Independent Journal

Posted: 13 Sep 2009 08:18 PM PDT

GARDEN GROVE, Calif.—Family, friends and classmates gathered for a memorial service for an Orange County high school football player who died after collapsing during a game as authorities continued investigating his death.

Seventeen-year-old Kevin Telles was remembered at a service Sunday night at a St. Columban Catholic Church in Garden Grove.

The Orange County coroner's office said Sunday that an autopsy performed Saturday was inconclusive and the investigation into what caused his death is continuing.

Telles—a senior fullback—collapsed and began convulsing on the field without taking a hit Friday night during a play with just minutes left in the game between Garden Grove High School and Westminster High School. He was later declared dead at a hospital in Huntington Beach.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Center caters to high-end home design pros - AZCentral.com

Posted: 07 Sep 2009 09:19 AM PDT

An upscale, home idea center catering to design professionals, remodelers, builders and affluent homeowners opened in north Scottsdale.

The Home & Design Idea Center, 19120 N. Pima Road, calls itself Arizona's largest and most unique collection of home and garden products and services.

A grand opening planned for October.

Half of the available square footage has already been sold, with many companies taking more than one space, said Mike Atkinson, chief executive officer of Phoenix-based AZ Big Media, owner and operator of the new center.

Not all who have signed up have installed their displays in exhibit space referred to as vignettes.

"We think by the time October rolls around, we'll be fully up and running," Atkinson said.

The Home & Design Idea Center showcases homebuilding, interior design, remodeling, landscaping, gardening, home dcor and furnishings in about 37,000 square feet of space.

"It's like walking through a home catalog," Atkinson said.

More than 200 vendors will be featured, from complete kitchen set-ups to flooring and lighting selections.

Luxury brands will include Robb & Stucky, Legacy Custom Building, Sonoran Rain Landscape Creations and Paramount Windows.

Visitors register and are given a handheld scanner to obtain more information from the displays that interests them. There are no sales people. Each visitor is given a take-home summary. There is no cost. Industry professionals plan to conduct educational seminars open to the public.

The center is the second permanent, self-serve-style home design showroom concept to open up in the Northeast Valley this year.

This spring, America's Home & Garden Expo Centers, opened its third permanent site at Scottsdale and Thunderbird roads in Phoenix.There, visitors can browse through exhibits without encountering a sales person.

Rene Smith, owner of America's Home & Garden Expo Centers, said she is flattered someone else has taken up the concept, which originated in Europe and has become a trend in the United States.

"They liked our idea and kind of ran with it on their own. Is there room enough for both? I don't know," Smith said.

Smith said traffic slowed during the summer, but has picked up. She said her center is in a good location sandwiched between Paradise Valley and Scottsdale. A new indoor marketplace she is debuting this weekend is a separate business from the expo center, she added.

Atkinson said he thinks his new Scottsdale center is different and caters to a higher-end market.

"We have interior designers setting up space. Custom builders setting up. Robb & Stucky is in our building with their design studio," he said.

Atkinson also is confident that the home idea center will do well, noting that sections of the economically depressed housing market are picking up. He said he believes that by the end of the year, the middle to upper-end markets will improve.

He added that the center is located at the doorstep of the highest economic demographics in the state. The area is known for its upscale residential developments, newer construction and custom-built homes.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Family pet bashed to death in West Perth - News.com.au

Posted: 13 Sep 2009 09:29 PM PDT

THE brutually behind a vicious attack on a pet dog in West Perth has left police with concerns on how the offender will react if caught.

Tim, an 18-year-old papillon dog, was beaten against a letterbox and thrown to the ground after being stolen from the front garden of a home in Carr St at 4.30pm.

Police are investigating if the dog was also stabbed during the attack.

Due to the horrific nature of the dog's death, police say they have concerns that the culprit may react unpredictably.

Police are seeking information from anyone who may have noticed suspicious activity in the area at the time.

They also are hoping to contact a woman, of possible Asian descent, who was at a nearby bus stop near the intersection of Charles and Carr St.

It is believed she boarded the 402 bus to Perth.

Information can be forwarded to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The maximum penalty for Animal Cruelty under the Animal Welfare Act is 5 years
imprisonment and/or $50,000.

Subscribe to our Email Newsletter

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Ivy Tech student hopes to make big impression on community - Lafayette Journal and Courier

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 10:56 PM PDT

A new garden at the Purdue Extension Office is home to some of the biggest fruits and flowers in the Greater Lafayette area.

The Gigantics Garden was created this year by members of the Tippecanoe County Master Gardeners to see if the award-winning produce usually on display at the state fair could be grown by rookie gardeners.

"I was kind of skeptical of some things," said garden creator Adam Cooper. "I came up with the idea with my girlfriend to see if you could really grow some of the huge pumpkins and watermelons you always hear about or see on TV."

The garden, which has been in planning since last year, plays host to super-sized tomatoes, watermelons, pumpkins, sunflowers and other items.

Along with the assistance of his family and Purdue Extension educator Jeff Phillips, Cooper has accomplished his goal.

"For the first year we were very happy with a lot of what we grew and disappointed by some others," he said.

Cooper, who has been gardening for just more than two years, said that no additives were used in the soil to help increase growth.

The biggest thing in the garden is a pumpkin grown from Canadian seeds that weighs more than 400 pounds.

"It only took about a month to get that big," said Cooper. "Not bad for a first year."

Along with growing gigantic food, Cooper said working in the garden has helped him figure out how to give back to the community.

"After growing this stuff and learning more about how it works, I know that I want to get into agronomy," he said. "I would like to help plan our food sources in the future."

Cooper, who is a sophomore in the new agriculture program at Ivy Tech Community College, said there already are plans to make the garden larger next year.

Plans for next year include an observation deck that will allow visitors to get a better view of the garden, and fencing to prevent people from stealing what is grown.

"The biggest problem we have had is people taking things from the garden," Cooper said. "One of the biggest things they took is one of the giant watermelons, and it wasn't even ripe yet.

"The worst part is people don't understand how much the seeds in the watermelon are worth and now it's probably just sitting in a Dumpster somewhere," he said.

Linda Cooper, Adam's mother and former president of the Tippecanoe County Master Gardeners, said working on the garden has been a great experience.

"The neatest thing is when people come to see the garden, they always say they have never seen something lake this in real life," she said. "Adam and his girlfriend, Rebecca (Comstock), are first-year master gardeners, and they have put a lot of time into it."

"People can grow all of these things in their home garden," she said. "All they really need is space."

She also said theft at the garden has been an issue.

"People have to be honest and when they look at any garden, we ask that they please respect it," she said. "It is something for the community, and a few people can ruin it up for everyone."

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Ovarian cancer: Early detection key to survival - Longview News-Journal

Posted: 13 Sep 2009 08:46 PM PDT

In December 1995, Pat "P.A." Almquist had lost about 20 pounds to fit into a festive Christmas dress.

So why, she wondered, couldn't she bend over in January to tie her shoes?

"I had a gotten a pot belly after losing the weight," she said. "That just didn't make sense."

It was the first of the classic symptoms of ovarian cancer Almquist would face. "And I had every one of them," she said, rattling them off.

It was end of January when she was awakened by her own violent shaking.

"I had a bad, bad, bad headache and a high temperature," she said. Her husband of 43 years, Stan Almquist, drove her to the emergency room.

"They told me I had a virus or something and sent me home," she said. In March, she suffered from another episode and returned to the emergency room, where she was advised to see her family physician when his office opened Monday, she said.

The frequent need to urinate prompted her to see a urologist, she said, who recognized that it could be gynecological problem.

"He told me to see a GYN, and I said that would take six weeks," she said. "His nurse made a call, and I got in to see (Dr. James Mauldin Jr.) the next day."

It was Mauldin who sent her to Texas Oncology, and it was there she was given the diagnosis.

"For one wildest, freakest second , I thought, no, that's not me he's talking about," she said. "(Ovarian cancer) was so far removed from what I was thinking."

She doesn't, however, know what she did think it could be.

She did, however, figure out why she hadn't been able to bend over to tie her shoes.

"After surgery, I found out my left ovary was the size of a grapefruit and my right the size of an orange," she said.

It doesn't have to be Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, as September has been designated, for the cancer survivor to continue her mission of spreading the word about classic symptoms. Clearly angry her condition was not found earlier, Almquist repeated, "I had all four of the classic symptoms. I just think they should be posted on the wall of every emergency room and Oprah should do a show on this every month."

It really isn't that easy, Mauldin said.

"Symptoms for ovarian cancer tend to be vague," he said . "It can be abdominal pressure, abdominal swelling, pain during intercourse, loss of appetite and general gastro-intestinal symptoms."

Those symptoms could fit several other medical conditions.

"And there isn't a reliable screening for this. It is a myth that the CA 125 test is a good screening tool," he said.

CA 125 is a cancer antigen sometimes found in the blood of women who have ovarian cancer.

"It isn't always specific for ovarian cancer," Mauldin said. "There could be elevated levels for other reasons, such as endometriosis, and other inflammatory conditions such as diverticulosis.

"And sometimes, even when a woman has cancer, the CA 125 is normal."

A pelvic examination is the best starting point when looking for ovarian cancer, he said.

Dr. Matei P. Socoteanu of Longview Cancer Center agrees.

"There is no good screening for ovarian cancer," he said. "Women who are experiencing abdominal pain should talk to their doctor about whether this might be ovarian cancer.

"But many times, there aren't symptoms until the disease is advanced."

He said women who have close relatives on either side of the family who have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer have a greater chance of developing ovarian cancer and should tell their primary physician and gynecologist. Some breast cancer — that associated with the BRCA gene — also is linked to ovarian cancer.

The treatment of ovarian cancer has come a long way, Matei said, especially in maintenance therapy.

"Treatments have improved, mainly helping women who have been diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer to live longer," he said.

Women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer can be treated at the Longview Cancer Center with the same technology and caliber of physicians as Texas Cancer Center in Dallas, Matei said. "The care in Longview is quite comparable to Dallas or any other larger city," he said.

Thirteen years later, Almquist said she enjoys living out in the country between Hallsville and Marshall, sharing a home with her husband and dog, doing a little gardening and a lot of reading. She also enjoys preaching the evils of smoking and other cancer-causing habits and proclaiming the classic symptoms of ovarian cancer.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Home and Garden Tips

Sunday, September 13, 2009