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Paramedics at AMR are urging party hosts to help prevent DUI crashes after Super Bowl parties. AMR encourages party hosts to not serve alcohol at their parties. AMR medics advised party hosts to:

Never invite guests by noting youll have lots of alcohol available.

Limit your own alcohol intake so you can determine whether guests are fit to drive and take steps to stop impaired guests from driving.

As soon as a group of guests arrive, ask who is serving as the designated driver. Remember who the designated drivers are and dont let them drink any alcohol at all. You might give designated drivers a reward such as a great spot for watching the game or first pass at the buffet table. Ask non-drivers to hand their keys to their designated driver. If a guest comes alone and is known to drink alcohol, determine at the start of the party who will take him or her home.

Do not pressure guests to drink. Theres a big difference between asking, Would you like something to drink? compared to insisting, Come on, have a drink!

Provide a bartender so guests dont over-serve themselves. Limit servings of alcohol by keeping glasses filled with ice. Dont rush to refill guests glasses with alcohol.

Put non-alcoholic drinks in the same place as the alcohol, displayed just as prominently.

Serve lots of food. Include soft drinks, water and juice plus mocktails. Mocktails are mixed drinks without alcohol in them. For example, a virgin Bloody Mary looks and tastes much like the real thing.

Serve all beverages in the same size and shape glass. That way, those who arent drinking alcohol wont feel or look different.

Do not allow drinking contests. Ask your guests who are drinking to pace themselves, eat plenty of food and alternate alcohol with non-alcoholic drinks.

Link:
AMR: Steps to Prevent DUI Crashes After Super Bowl Parties

Curb appeal is important to many buyers, and a large part of that appeal is a homes landscaping.

That first impression is important, says Frank Lucco, managing director of IRR-Residential Appraisers & Consultants in Houston. If (buyers) dont like the looks of the front of the house, which is mostly landscaping, often they wont even go inside.

A landscaping investment could potentially pay a 215 percent return in home value, says Margaret Woda, a Realtor with Long & Foster Real Estate in Crofton, Md.

Here are some things to keep in mind when prepping your yard to appeal to potential homebuyers.

Maintenance. Start by cleaning up the yard. Remove dead branches, dog droppings, weeds and anything that is broken. Planning ahead is important.

You cant just decide to sell your house tomorrow and expect the landscaping to be ready, Woda says. If youre thinking of moving next fall, (then) this spring, you should be working on your landscaping.

Eric King, owner of King Landscaping in Atlanta, recommends ensuring that downspouts are clean and functional, and drain pipes are properly buried and operational, so water doesnt pool. Make sure that patios, walkways and fences are level and that roots havent pushed up sidewalks or patio stones.

If your deck has wobbly railings or loose steps, fix them, says King. People dont want a mystery.

Remove overgrown shrubs encroaching on the sidewalk or any that are too big, dont flower or are out of style. They look terrible to anyone except the owner, Woda says.

Plants. In the front yard, the landscaping should pull your eyes to the front door. While the real estate agent is opening the lockbox, buyers will be looking around at the landscaping, so have pots of blooming flowers nearby.

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For sellers, good landscaping can add curb appeal

Rusty nails piercing jandals, allergic reactions to sunscreen, sand in the eyes, slips on spilled ice creams, collapsing deck chairs, burns from the barbie, and pulled muscles from playing backyard cricket.

These are just some of the 'seasonal' mishaps that led to ACC injury claims last summer.

A total of 439,878 claims were received between 1 December 2012 and 28 February 2013.

That put summer slightly ahead of winter (435,125 claims) and spring (420,690 claims) but trailing autumn (468,648 claims) as the most 'injurious' season last year.

ACC Injury Prevention Programme Manager, Megan Nagel, says there are always small numbers of claims each year that have a distinctively seasonal flavour.

"Beach-related injuries tend to be more frequent in summer, as you'd expect, while injuries caused by heaters are more common in winter."

However, other types of injuries occur constantly throughout the year.

"Falls in the home are the number one cause of injuries in New Zealand, regardless of what time of year it is."

Ms Nagel's advice to Kiwis wanting to see out the rest of this summer safely therefore includes a mix of seasonal and 'year round' injury prevention tips.

"Summer can be a popular time for socialising and outside DIY, so we remind people to be responsible hosts if serving alcohol, and pay attention to safety when using things like power tools and ladders."

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Sand, sunscreen and flip flops keep ACC busy

Students to plant trees on Durham Cathedral riverbanks

3:58pm Wednesday 29th January 2014 in News

STUDENTS will be helping to plant trees to improve the riverbanks near one of the regions best-loved landmarks.

Around 20 students will be getting their hands dirty next week as they plant trees near Durham Cathedral to improve the area for visitors and locals alike.

A team from East Durham Colleges Houghall Campus are volunteering to help out as part of their diploma in environmental conservation.

The volunteers will be working with the Cathedrals Woodlands and Riverbanks team, which works to improve the Cathedral owned parts of the peninsula for local people and visitors alike.

The project has won lottery funding to work with a team of regular volunteers and specialist teams to clear pathways, rebuild steps and plant new trees.

Gina Davies, from the team said: "We want to encourage more people to use the Woodland and Riverbanks surrounding the Cathedral as a space for relaxation and recreation, so we have been working hard to improve the walkways and the general area."

She added: "It is wonderful to be working with the students from Houghall because they are the conservationists of the future.

"They will no doubt be bringing plenty of fresh ideas and enthusiasm with them when they work with us and having 20 extra pairs of hands to plant trees is a huge help to me too."

More here:
Students to plant trees on cathedral riverbanks

BEIJING/ANHUI (CNN) -- Zhou Xia walks briskly and with a certain purpose.

Carrying three small bags and layered up for the Beijing night, she weaves through traffic and over crowded pedestrian walkways. These are her first steps in a thousand-kilometer trip home to Anhui province.

Zhou is elated.

"I feel great, because I am going home," she says. "I only get home once a year or sometimes maybe twice. I want to go home to see my parents and children because I miss them."

Zhou came to Beijing for the money. She works two jobs as a maid and her husband gets odd jobs as a foreman. Together they earn around $1,200 a month to support their extended family.

"I don't really like Beijing," she says. Her life here is crowded and the work is constant. But opportunities to earn in China have drained from the countryside into the cities. Like many migrants, she is drawn to the capital simply for the money.

And migrants are everywhere in Beijing's sprawl. They clean homes, run fruit stands on wheeled carts, make crispy pancakes on gas fires for the breakfast rush, clean garbage off the streets and clip hedges by hand. They help run this city of more than 20 million.

During the Lunar New Year, they post handwritten signs on their shops, receive red "Hong Bao" envelops stuffed with bonuses, and leave in their millions. Many Beijingers don't notice them until they are gone.

Zhou joins the throngs milling outside Beijing Railway Station, an imposing Maoist and Soviet-style landmark. Everywhere migrants sit on stools and buckets surrounded by their luggage, puffing on cigarettes in the cold.

"I bet you haven't experienced anything like this before," says Zhou as we jam through the bottleneck to board. We're jammed right in the middle of giant swathe of humanity.

Published on January 28, 2014 Department of Community Services says clearing walkways a priority

Reading about seniors killed in a Quebec fire, Julie Martin, couldnt help but worry last Thursday as she heard of snow covered walkways at residences where her own relatives stay at.

ADAM MACINNIS THE NEWS

These steps to Hillside View were blocked by snow last Thursday afternoon after a heavy snowfall on Wednesday.

Her mother in law lives in a seniors complex on Little Harbour Road, which after Wednesdays blizzard, still had many of its entries blocked by snow Thursday afternoon.

This isnt the first time this has happened. Its not right, Martin said. Its dangerous.

She said for essentially two days, many of the seniors were trapped in their homes.

Elizabeth MacDonald, communications advisor for the Department of Community Services, responded to a request from The News for what the policy is on snow removal at seniors apartments.

We understand that residents of all our properties need to feel safe during and after a storm, and that they expect us to ensure snow removal is done in a professional and timely manner, she said. That is our priority and we take this obligation seriously.

She stated that the policy for snow removal for properties managed by the Eastern Mainland Housing Authority is that parking lots are cleared by a private contractor who goes out to clear when two inches of snow has fallen; if the snow falls overnight they are to have the parking lots cleared by 7:45 a.m.

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Snow removal at seniors apartments a concern, says local woman

MOBILE, Alabama -

A Winter Storm Warning continues tonight for the entire News 5 area. Rain, sleet and freezing rain are slowly diminishing but anything other than light snow hitting the ground will freeze on contact. The freezing sleet and freezing rain will be seen all the way to the beaches. It will transition to light snow before ending in the next few hours but dont expect much snow accumulation.

Ice on roadways is making travel hazardous and in some places, impossible. Do not travel. Bridges and overpasses are frozen, and roads with slush on them now will freeze further as temperatures fall. If power lines ice over and get weighed down, or if tree branches ice over and fall on power lines, there is the possibility of power loss. Evening temperatures are in the middle 20s inland and near 30 right at the beaches. North winds will be between 10 mph and 18 mph producing a wind chill in the teens.

The precipitation ends overnight, followed by extremely cold weather. Lows tonight will be in the lower 20s, with wind chills in the single digits. A hard freeze is possible. Your start to Wednesday will include iced roads, walkways, and pavement, and frozen vehicle doors and windshields.

Well only hover near freezing for a high tomorrow. Skies should brighten as we go through the afternoon. Tomorrow night may deliver another hard freeze with temperatures near or below 20. As you are out tomorrow taking pictures, share them with us on the WKRG Facebook page. TIP: it's always better to post the picture, rather than to message it. It makes it quicker and easier for us to see, use, and share them. ...and of course, take the photos in landscape (horizontal), rather than portrait (vertical) so that it fits better on TV!

Unless you get solid sunshine tomorrow, some areas may not see iced surfaces and vehicles thaw until Thursday. With two nights in a row of extremely cold weather, make sure to take all of the safety steps to protect people, pets, pipes and plants.

By Friday we reach 60. The weekend places us back in the upper 60s with some showers each day, but that will be just plain rain.

Free tools for keep up with precipitation- Watch WKRG digital channel 5.2 or use our web interactive radar http://www.wkrg.com/category/260193/weather-interactive-radar to see the radar. Remember that the colors on the radar for sleet or freezing rain (pink), and snow (white), are estimated by math equations. Since the radar shows what's above the ground, you can't be certain what the precipitation is by the time it reaches the ground. That is controlled by the temperature in the layers of air in and beneath the clouds.

Be a citizen scientist and report what reaches the ground where you are using a free weather app called mPING http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/ping/ This helps meteorologists and computer modellers better-understand and forecast ice, sleet and snow. The mPING display shows you what others have reported http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/ping/display/ Note that the greatest number of reports come from larger population areas so represent your small town! It's critical for everyone to know where there may be freezing rain.

Sign up for our free text alerts for your county on your older cell phone http://www.wkrg.com/category/260367/mgna-text-alerts

Continue reading here:
Ice Hazards on Roads; Colder Air Arriving