| Exeter area events
Awards will be given during awards night at the recipient's high school and will be paid to the college/university the recipient will be attending. Applications will be available at guidance departments in area high schools by Feb. 15 or may be obtained from the Wiggin Memorial Library or the Stratham Historical Society after that date. Applications may be downloaded from the library Web site at www.WigginML.org. Click on Historical Society Scholarships. For information, call 772-4118 or 778-8370.
Center offers winter activitiesGREENLAND — The Great Bay Discovery Center is offering its Animal Autographs program during winter school vacation. The same one-day program runs Feb. 26 to Feb. 29 from 9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. No program will be offered on Monday. This is a Winter Bay Ventures for kids ages 7 to 11.
SGPC again expands itself
The SGPC today promoted five employees as assistant secretaries and two as additional secretaries, making the mini parliament of the Sikhs top-heavy. Avtar Singh today issued the promotion orders, which were his first order after becoming SGPC president for the third consecutive year. Interestingly, the SGPC had four full-fledged secretaries against one post during the tenure of Gurcharn Singh Tohra, who reigned the SGPC for 27 years. With the new promotions, the number of assistant secretaries and additional secretaries has risen to 15 and eight, respectively. Though the SGPC chief has claimed that the promotions will not put any additional burden on the exchequer of the SGPC, insiders say the newly promoted employees will be entitled to use the additional facilities like telephone, official vehicle etc.
London's Poor Air Quality Tackled With Launch Of Low Emission Zone
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, launched the London-wide Low Emission Zone, designed to reduce harmful emissions from the most polluting diesel-engined lorries, coaches and buses. Cars and motorcycles are not affected.
The capital has the worst air pollution in the UK and among the worst in Europe. Over one million Londoners live in areas that exceed statutory air quality limits. Poor air quality worsens asthma and causes the premature death of an estimated 1,000 people each year in London. Seven out of ten Londoners say they are worried about pollution from traffic exhaust fumes.
The introduction of the zone means that, from today, all diesel-engined lorries weighing more than 12 tonnes will be required to meet strict emissions standards. Vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, buses and coaches will be required to meet these standards from 7 July.
Let a little hydrangea be planted in New Orleans
It's only a week and a half before Mardi Gras, and Carnival reigns in New Orleans. On Bourbon Street it's beer and booze and blaring music and Mardi Gras beads. Human statues hold their poses on almost every corner, and girls go wild on balconies. Parades appear out of nowhere; so do mounted police, their huge horses maintaining crowd control by size alone.
I'm in the French Quarter of the Paris of the New World, the town also known as the Big Easy, where a street kid named Louis Armstrong once searched garbage cans for food and now the airport is named for him. Where Fats Domino and Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis and Al Hirt marched to their own music. Where Tennessee Williams started writing a play named for a streetcar.
Actually, I'm not here to revel but to attend a board meeting of the Garden Writers Association.
Learn water-wise ways to keep garden green, streams clean
Last year most of us were not worrying much about storm water runoff. Isnt it interesting how quickly our focus shifts from dealing with pollutants in runoff water to not having enough water? Whichever end of the water spectrum we are in at any given moment, water is always on our minds. In fact, the concerns about too much water and too little water are high on the list for both home gardeners and landscape professionals. Ann Higgins of Higgins Horticultural Services has noticed a big shift in customer requests in the past year. Not surprisingly, there has been a jump in the number of requests for landscape designs using drought-tolerant plants. But she is also seeing the increasing awareness of water pollution issues. Its exciting that we are starting to have requests from some large developers to address issues with water runoff, she said.
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