Putting fresh, local, sustainably grown vegetables on the table of everyone in our community is the aim of an organization called City Fresh.

City Fresh is a Cuyahoga County nonprofit program of the New Agrarian Center that supports the creation of a sustainable local food system in Northeast Ohio. Founded by Brad Masi, the program was meant to address the needs of those who are most at-risk within our community.

The New Agrarian Center is committed to building a stronger and more sustainable regional food system in Northeast Ohio: a food system that promotes health in the broadest sense of the word -- healthy land, healthy communities, healthy individuals and a healthy economy.

Could ex-offenders be the key to stimulating growth and stability in our economy? According to the Summit County Reentry Network (SCRN), ex-offenders may just have what it takes.

Through collaboration, the SCRN is working to reduce the percentage of ex-offenders who return to crime (recidivate). At the same time, they are enhancing community safety and promoting family reunification.

Having ex-offenders re-enter society and become productive citizens could create major changes in our city, and world, as we know it. These people need jobs and a second chance. Once ex-offenders become employed, they will contribute to the economy through taxes and the purchase of goods and services, along with paying off their child support, court fees and fines.

Hundreds of songbirds have altered their course on the way to Canada because of Pam Wilson. They stop in her neighborhood to rest, eat and have a bath before continuing on their migration. Some stop at her street and stay the entire season. There are nests everywhere, and those who pay attention can watch babies grow and fledge.

The birds are attracted by 25 feeding stations and seven spotless bird-baths (which are heated in the winter), with plenty of safe spots for perching and raising young. Wilson began her extraordinary care of birds during a bad drought.

She saw tiny birds drinking from a puddle glazed over with the sheen of motor oil and realized she had to do something. “It’s easy to take things for granted and not really look around.” Wilson said. “We hear birds sing, but do we see them, realize how they struggle to survive in all conditions?”

A strange phenomenon.  A cross appears at sunset on Easter Sunday in 2009 and again in 2010.

 My son was looking out the kitchen window on Easter Sunday 2009, and to his surprise he saw an image of a cross in our back yard.  He called me to come and look out the window.  Certain that he didn’t realize what he was viewing, in utter disbelief, shock and awe, my first reaction was to grab my camera as I rushed out the patio door and began snapping shots hoping the cross wouldn’t disappear before I finished taking its picture.  I’ve never seen anything so remarkable and neither had my family.  Not knowing what else to do I just kept shooting pictures.