Honest Woman Returns $300,000 Found on Street
BRIEF STORY 1- 300,000. 165-170
Some people would just take the money and run. But when Laura Lynn Hardy found $300,000 lying on the street, she bicycled 20 miles through a Christmas Eve snowstorm to return the cash to its rightful owner.
After having a Christmas lunch with her grandfather in Lincoln, Hardy spotted a thick manila envelope on the sidewalk in front of Lincoln Federal Savings.
The 19-year-old yoga instructor tossed it in her backpack and pedaled home to Locust Valley.
When she opened the envelope at home, Hardy discovered $300,000 in cash and checks payable to Fenster Ford, the area’s largest car dealer.
Hardy alerted the bank, hopped back on her bike and raced to Lincoln just as snow was starting to fall. Xavier Mooney, president of Lincoln Federal Savings, and Fred Fenster, the car dealer’s owner, were at the bank.
They thanked Hardy and shook hands with her while posing for photos. Hardy then rode back home. Her reward for being honest? A handshake.
BRIEF 2- TOYOTA. 190-200. 2 short quotes
Two teenagers died and a third was injured Sunday after their vehicles slipped on an icy road on Highway 111. Cooper Black, 18, and Mary Sans, 13, were killed after their Lexus SUV found ice on a curve and skidded into the edge of a cliff.
The vehicle plunged and hit a tree. Black, who was driving, and Sans were ejected from the car and fell 10 meters below, landing on a rocky creek. The second vehicle, a Toyota Corolla, also skidded on the bridge but stopped at the edge of the cliff.
The driver, Geneva Franklin, 19, left the vehicle and called the police from a house 500 meters away from the accident. The passenger, Ruth Bookman, 14, tried to climb down to the creek to help Black and Sans, but she lost her balance and injured her leg.
“This was the scariest moment of my life. I thought none of us would get out alive,” she said.
Crews were able to remove Black and Sans from the rocky creek almost four hours after the accident, but they were pronounced dead at 2:30 p.m. Franklin and Bookman were treated from minor injuries at Memorial Hospital.
“I can’t believe my two friends are dead. Life will never be the same,” Bookman said.
BRIEF 3- INTERNET. 1 atri on lead. 1dq and 1 pq
College students obsessed with Internet, study says
College students in the 18 to 22 age range spend too much time online and can develop an obsession with Internet (or can become addicted to Internet). “I do see it as a psychological dependency,” said University of Maryland psychology professor Jonathan Kendall. He compared the overuse of the Internet to compulsive behaviors such as pathological gambling.
Studies on college campuses have shown that between 6 and 12 percent of students may be spending too much time online, thanks in part to the ease of campus Internet access.
The search for identity, the need for intimate relationships and the need for control can play a significant role in this “potentially unhealthy behavior,” according to a study Kendall published in the journal Cyber Psychology and Behavior. College student Stacy Kamaguchi, 26, started tinkering with the Internet a few years ago and found an international pen-pal site. “You get stuck on it for long periods of time,” Kamaguchi said.
Kendall said that, in addition to academic problems, jobs and relationships can also be affected as social isolation grows. Kamaguchi called it “luck” that she met her fiancé online, but she added that going out to look for someone on the Internet may be “dangerous.”
BRIEF 4- HOOKAH. 2DQ 1PF. 190-200
Smooking hookah worse than cigarettes, studies show
Smooking hookah appeals to young crowds for a so-called healthier and more exciting way of smoking tobacco. Dublin University student Patrick Sullivan owns a hookah and smokes it regularly.
“I’ve read some stuff on hookah and it’s not the healthiest alternative to smoking cigarettes. But I think it’s cooler and more relaxing,” said Sullivan.
Many college students across Europe have caught on this Middle Eastern tradition, but smooking hookah may cause greater damage to their lungs than cigarettes. One session exposes the user to as much as 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled in one cigarette, according to the World Health Organization.
Owners of hookah lounges like Fatima Chahine defend this fastgrowing trend because the tobacco of the waterpipe is mixed with natural herbs. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims the smoke from hookah has high levels of toxic agents that cause lung and bladder cancers, and tobacco juices irritate the mouth and increase the risk of developing oral cancer.
Eighty-six percent of many colleges in Europe have at least one hookah lounge within close proximity of the school. Despite the health risks, Sullivan believes that smoking hookah has more advantages than smoking cigarettes.
“It helps us deal with the stress of academic life,” Sullivan said.