Volunteers and prospective volunteers may wish to note this Frequently Asked Questions posting on the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office site on the processing of CCW applications.

 
As I was preparing to write this article on an event twenty years ago today, I noticed the headline that a shooting has just occurred in a Connecticut elementary school with 28 dead, 20 of them children.

I was laid up in bed with my still swollen ankle propped up on a pillow, a zip-lock bag of now melted snow pressed against it. A much-abused copy of Billy Joel's Kohept played on the stereo across the room. The room was sweltering, the window next to me open wide and the snow long-since melted from the overhang, but I wasn't going to limp down the stairs to adjust the thermostat back down again. A knobbed stick lay propped against my milk-crate nightstand surmounted by an ugly lamp, which was now off, the room lit dimly by the lamp-posts of the small cluster of upper class modular apartments, Mods, nestled in the snowy woods. A stack of untouched textbooks lay between me and the window, a Weis and Hickman novel closed and marked on the sill itself.

Samaritan's Purse, the international Christian relief organization, is still recruiting individuals and teams, including youth groups, to help rebuild homes devastated by the Joplin EF-5 tornado. As we approach the holiday season and look forward to spending time visiting with family, it is important to remember that some of our neighbors are still without homes.

 
"Successful resuscitation from cardiac arrest was optimized at 100–120 compressions/minute."
A recent study appearing in the Journal of Emergency Medical Services ("Study Determines Optimal Chest Compression Rate") examined results of rescuer CPR for optimal blood flow and best patient survival to hospital discharge. The study largely confirmed the belief that rates of compression over 100 per minute were best but also established that rates of compression over 120 per minute decreased victim survival rate.