Free Republic

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and timber giant Sierra Pacific Industries on Wednesday evening announced the nation's largest forest carbon-offset project, meant to keep millions of tons of climate-warming gases out of the atmosphere over the next century. Forestry and some conservation groups said the deal shows the state's new rules on forest offsets, adopted last week by the Air Resources Board, will be attractive to landowners. But some environmental advocates said it's a sign that the timber industry is poised to capitalize on a provision that allows clear-cutting on land enrolled in carbon-offset programs. "This is the thing we were worried...

FALLUJAH — A 132-kilovolt substation, projected for completion in October, will result in more consistent and stable electricity for residents here. The $14.8 million project is being managed by the Gulf Region Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq, and funded by the Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction Fund. The substation was damaged in a fire caused by circuit breaker failure in January 2005, and was identified by the Division’s Gulf Region District as a significant capacity-building project for the city. Maj. Joseph Geary, the officer in charge of the District’s Fallujah resident office, praised the team for working steadfastly...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., Aug. 21, 2009 – An Army National Guard colonel who led a brigade in Iraq and a Vietnam veteran who retired from the Guard as a brigadier general recently helped New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine launch an oral history project to preserve the Garden State’s military legacy. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, right, talks with Army Col. Steven Ferrari on Aug, 17, 2009, about his experiences in Iraq commanding the New Jersey Army National Guard’s 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Robert Neill  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Col. Steven Ferrari...

Iraqi construction workers place new sections of pipe for a sewer network in the Salhiyah neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, recently. The project was funded by Coalition forces, but the plan and execution were in the hands of local Iraqi government officials. Photo courtesy of 1st Infantry Division. BAGHDAD — The effort to restore essential services in Baghdad has seen a significant increase as security improves throughout the Iraqi capital.  One example of this is the competition of a major sewer network project for the residents of Karkh. "I was pleased to see this sewage project in our area," said Mobarak,...

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama met with ACORN leaders and reminded them of his history with ACORN and his work in Project Vote! In 1992, while he was working as a community organizer in Chicago, Obama headed the Chicago operations of Project Vote!, an ACORN effort to register voters nationally. "I came out of a grassroots organizing background," Obama bragged on his campaign website "Fight the Smears," in a section that apparently has been removed. "That's what I did for three and a half years before I went to law school. That's the reason I...

NANGARHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, April 20, 2009 – Joined by government and local leaders, the provincial reconstruction team here celebrated the completion of the Grand Canal repair project during an April 12 ribbon-cutting ceremony in Jalalabad. Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team commander Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Cabosky take turns cutting the ribbon for the Grand Canal repair project during a ceremony in Jalalabad, April 12, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Dustin Hart  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The repairs took about nine months to complete and cost $2.8...

BISBEE — Seventeen-year-old Andrew “Andy” Laborin has nearly achieved a project of upgrading Memory Gardens Cemetery on Highway 92. At 10 a.m. Saturday, community members will dedicate the refurbished memorial area. “I found a lot of veterans in there,” the Bisbee High School senior said, describing his Eagle Scout project with Troop 1. The pinnacle of his good turn was the installation of a 30-foot-tall illuminated flagpole at the cemetery. To do that, Laborin rallied community support. Jim’s Electric, located on Naco Highway across from Bisbee’s Safeway, donated half of the cost of the $1,400 flagpole and provided all the...

Shake the cobwebs out of your brain! Come join the REVOLUTION! Welcome to the GLENN BECK LIVE television thread! All posters and lurkers are WELCOME!!

My middle school son has a project due which requires a survey about gun ownership. He has a survey up here: Survey MonkeyThere are only 3 or 4 questions. You have to have a legit email address in case the teacher checks the link, but you can certainly use a fake name. If you have a throwaway email and would like to help him out we would greatly appreciate it. He needs a dozen or so more responses and has run out of people to ask,

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, TIKRIT — As security in the Salah ad Din province continues to improve and people return to their normal way of life, boosting the economy through more job opportunities is at the top of the to-do-list for cities in the region. And that means starting and growing businesses. Joe Pinon, a member of the Salah ad Din Provincial Reconstruction Team, Lt. Col. David Hodne, battalion commander, 3rd Squadron 4th Calvary Regiment, along with key staff members of 3-4 CAV visited the Balad Canning Factory, Nov. 24, to assess the operational status and economic possibilities the factory...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 2, 2008 – Iraqi civilian and military dignitaries broke ground on the Army Canal Rehabilitation Project in Baghdad’s Sadr City district yesterday. Gen. Abud Kanbar-Hashim, commander of Iraqi Operation Baghdad, shovels the first bits of dirt Dec. 1, 2008, to mark the beginning of a project to dredge and refurbish the Iraqi capital’s Army Canal. U.S. Army photo by Scott Flenner  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The ceremonial groundbreaking marked the beginning of a commitment by the Iraqi government to spend $50 million during the next three years in reconstruction efforts along the al-Kanat Road and...

BAGHDAD, Oct. 22, 2008 – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with Iraqi officials to shore up construction on new piers and a seawall in Iraq’s southern province of Basra in the first Foreign Military Sales project for USACE in Iraq. With construction scheduled to begin at the end of the year at Umm Qasr, leaders from the Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division and the Iraqi navy and Defense Ministry, along with contractors and support staff, met Oct. 16 to discuss the new conceptual design for the project. Foreign Military Sales is a program that allows the...

MEIENDORF CASTLE, Russia, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign minister said on Wednesday the United States had to choose between partnership with Moscow and the Georgian leadership which he described as a "virtual project". "We understand that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of the United States, but one day the United States will have to choose between defending its prestige over a virtual project or real partnership which requires joint action," Sergei Lavrov told reporters. U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday demanded Russia resolve a crisis with Georgia and said he would dispatch U.S. military aircraft...

Eight New Human Genome Projects Offer Large-scale Picture Of Genetic Difference ScienceDaily (May 2, 2008) — A nationwide consortium led by the University of Washington in Seattle has completed the first sequence-based map of structural variations in the human genome, giving scientists an overall picture of the large-scale differences in DNA between individuals. The project gives researchers a guide for further research into these structural differences, which are believed to play an important role in human health and disease. The results appear in the May 1 issue of the journal Nature. The project involved sequencing the genomes of eight people...

Enron was allowed to fail, thank God. But some airlines are like the living dead! And guess who's forced to feed the zombies? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vesSL0M-Fu8

Can the blogosphere [And Freerepublic] really do things big media can’t? Let’s find out. I have a project I think is perfect for just the sort of folks who read The Corner and other political blogs. This project is way too big for me to do all by myself. What’s needed to make it work is an informal alliance of local bloggers, student newspapers, and concerned citizens across the country. Through Freedom of Information Act requests and discussions with officials at the Department of Education, I recently obtained a comprehensive list of large gifts to American universities originating in foreign...

BASRA, Iraq, Jan. 30, 2008 – The Basra Children’s Hospital project can get its hooks into people. Workers take a lunch break while others work at the Basra Children’s Hospital, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project in Iraq’s Basra province. Photo by Mohammed Aliwi  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Take Army Lt. Col. Kenneth McDonald, for example. He’s an area deputy commander in the Gulf Region Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and he leads the Basra Area Office in the division’s southern district. Part of his job is overseeing the Basra Children’s Hospital project,...

1/4/2008 - LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- A recently-approved $300,000 construction contract promises economic growth for Afghans here, according to the Airman leading engineering efforts for the Mehtar Lam Provincial Reconstruction Team. The contract for the construction of four new agricultural buildings in the Mehtar Lam agricultural compound was signed Dec. 30, according to PRT engineer, Capt. Peter Joo. One of the agricultural buildings will be for farm equipment storage and maintenance, the second building will be for general purpose storage (to include feed and fertilizer) and the third and fourth, smaller buildings will be used for cool storage. "The...

BAGHDAD, Jan. 3, 2008 – Thousands of families in eastern Baghdad soon will have their neighborhoods free of raw sewage in the streets. Kamaliya’s new sewage system in eastern Baghdad nears completion. The improvement connects homes in eight neighborhoods to a functioning network for the first time. The Iraqi construction crew has installed pump stations, trunk lines, manholes and laterals to homes and businesses. More than 150 workers have been on the crew since the project started in 2005. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Iraqi construction workers are completing a $30 million sewer project in...

CAMP AL TAQADDUM — The Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 1, currently deployed to several locations in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Micronesia, recently made the final concrete placement marking the completion of an overhaul of the runway system at Camp Al Taqaddum. Already one of the largest logistics hubs in the region, the airfield transfers passengers and millions of pounds of cargo daily. Upon completion of the project, Camp al Taqaddum’s airfield will be fully-operational for the first time since the Coalition air strikes of Operation Desert Storm. NMCB 1 is the fifth battalion to tackle the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 18, 2007 – Cradled in his hands, Hamzah Zayd Kazim held the promise of a new beginning. The plastic bottle held nothing more than water drawn from a small hole tunneling more than 30 feet underground. But to the people living around the Iraqi village of Sedamine, the bottle held much more than just water. It meant regaining their livelihood and independence. Villagers build a fence for protection around newly dug wells, while U.S. forces talk with a volunteer helping to provide drinking water to more than 5,000 people around the Iraqi village of Sedamine, Dec....

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2007 – Staten Island residents are getting a little help sending mail to servicemembers these days thanks to a local troop-support group. Staten Island Project Homefront Inc. in the New York City borough has set up a “Postage Due” account for those sending mail to troops from the community’s main post office, its executive director said. “Our main effort is to send items to our military,” John T. Semich said. “We also help families by supplying postage (for Staten Island residents to send packages) to the combat zones.” The project’s volunteers focus on packing up special-request...

DUHOK — The Duhok-Aqra 132kV overhead line was handed over to the Ministry of Electricity here recently, with one circuit fully energized to supply a mobile substation at Aqra. In an area of northern Iraq with historically low electrical availability and capability, the new overhead line significantly and immediately benefits people in more than (100) Kurdish villages in and around the Aqra area. “For many years, the people here have depended on diesel generator sets, receiving commercial power less than two hours per day,” said Gary York, resident engineer at the Duhok and the Erbil Resident Offices of the U.S....

Attention MSTies! The original cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is back together again to produce new shows where they riff on bad movies just like they did on the Satellite of Love! Joel Hodgson has the site up and running but they have yet to produce any episodes. Click here for the website. At the website, you can sign up for a newsletter that will keep you informed of their progress! Sounds exciting guys!

The organization was supposed to make him a better man. Instead, his parents say, it made him a dead one. The ManKind Project offers trainings which support men in developing lives of integrity, accountability and connection to feeling." — From The ManKind Project Web site "They had three naked men bring out two chickens that they hit with a ­hammer." — Michael Scinto in a letter to a ­Madison County sheriff's deputy. Michael Scinto was literally scared to death. On an isolated 11-acre compound down a winding, country dirt road 110 miles north of Houston, Scinto watched as the leader...

BASRAH — The construction site of the Basrah Children’s Hospital is a hotbed of activity these days, with an average of 750 workers on the job each day, according to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chad Lorenzana. The number of workers is likely to hit 1,000 or more a day as the project enters new phases, said Lorenzana, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Gulf Region South District resident engineer. Recently, Lorenzana guided a group of visitors around the high-profile project, whose list of patrons is headed by First Lady Laura Bush. Among the visitors were Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko, who will...

Airfield Recycling Project Creates Jobs for Afghans An Afghan company trying to create jobs and clean up the environment is working on a new recycling project at Bagram Airfield. By Combined Joint Task Force-82 Combined Press Information Center BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Sept. 26, 2007 — Recycling may not be the first thing that comes to mind when considering Afghanistan, but one company here sees recycling as a way to create jobs and help an environment ravaged by 30 years of war. The company, Kuhan Dazh, and the U.S. military marked the first day of a new business relationship, Sept....

Lt. Col. Mark Burnett, task force surgeon, 1st “Red Lion” Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment, who hails from Aiea, Hawaii, counts donated medical books on Camp Taji. Burnett has received thousands of books as part of a project designed to give the most recently published and up to date medical books and professional journals to Iraqi doctors. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs. BAGHDAD — As he reflected on his 15 months in theater and prepared to leave, Lt Col. Mark Burnett, task force surgeon for the 1st “Red Lion� Battalion,...

The Nasiriyah Water Treatment Plant got 10 clarifiers. The project also included three booster pump stations, five elevated storage tanks and a pipeline of more than 100 kilometers. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo Engineers Complete $266-Million Project Water treatment plant to deliver clean water to 500,000 residents. By Mohammed Aliwi U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South AN NASIRIYAH, Iraq, Sept. 6, 2007 — The Gulf Region South district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed one of the largest water projects in Iraq - a $266-million facility in Al Shatra to provide thousands of...

Immigration Dispute Roils Conservative Radio Matt Purple Correspondent- President Bush's immigration bill has created a rift between right-wing talk radio and Republican politicians that threatens to rupture the conservative coalition, according to a nationally syndicated radio host. "If [the bill] is jammed through before, ironically, Independence Day, I think we will have been witnesses ... to the end of the old conservative coalition," Laura Ingraham said on Monday. "I truly believe that it is over if this happens, and it's time to rebuild and restart." Conservative radio has been dominated by outrage over the immigration issue. The Project for Excellence...

WASHINGTON, June 15, 2007 – In the shadow of the Washington Monument, with its 50 American flags snapping in the breeze, the “President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band helped kick off the grand finale of the National Anthem Project here yesterday. The “President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band plays patriotic songs during the National Association for Music Education’s National Anthem Project’s grand finale at the Washington Monument on Flag Day, June 14, 2007. The project is a multiyear effort to re-teach Americans “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A. Burgess, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

FORT BELVOIR, Va., May 15, 2007 – Two local woodworking groups followed a Civil War custom today by presenting a ceremonial cane to a soldier who lost his leg in Iraq. Retired Army Lt. Col. Dennis Walburn, who lost a leg while deployed to Iraq and now serves as deputy chief of operations for the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force, accepts an eagle cane from the Northern Virginia Carvers and Capital Area Woodturners, Inc., during a ceremony at Fort Belvoir, Va. Photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The groups seek to extend the ritual to all...

Malaysia will build a 7 billion US dollar pipeline to transport Middle East oil across the north of its peninsula to East Asian countries. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters today that he had agreed to the project. Mr Abdullah, who is also the finance minister, says the project is one of the government's major initiatives to develop Malaysia's northern region. The News Straits Times says Trans-Peninsula Petroleum, the company that will construct the 312-kilometre pipeline, will invest as much as seven billion US dollars in the ambitious project over eight years. The pipeline will run from northwestern Kedah...

LSA ADDER — The U.S. military continued progress in a program to provide generators at pump stations along the Euphrates River to irrigate water to local farmlands in southern Iraq Tuesday. The 134th Brigade Support Battalion along with local contractors dredged existing irrigation canals to local farms up to 15 kilometers away from the Euphrates River. The generators will greatly improve agriculture in the area, said Sheikh Mohammed Tayeh, a representative of the council of Batha, Iraq. “It was really barren,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Todd M. Engebreston , a vehicle commander of the134th BSB. “When we first got here,...

Must see video

Reviving a dam project in the Sierra foothills that was halted three decades ago would cost up to $10 billion, more than 10 times the original price tag, according to a federal report released Tuesday. Skyrocketing land values and increased environmental restrictions will complicate any efforts to restart construction on the dam, which drew strenuous objections from environmentalists when it was proposed in a scenic canyon of the American River about 40 miles northeast of Sacramento. The report by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation provides a mixed assessment of the Auburn Dam. It underscored increased benefits for flood control, cheap...

When it comes to planning a $2 billion, once-a-century bridge, armchair quarterbacks are a dime a dozen. So don't be surprised by the gaggle of "experts" who are promoting bridge "solutions" that have been rejected by the legitimate experts at the Columbia River Crossing project. Grassroots gurus are plentiful, but let's respect the side that relies on expertise, hard work and due diligence. On the third floor of the downtown Vancouvercenter, about 60 full-time engineers, planners and other specialists are creating a better river crossing. They're working with many other part-time consultants, even some of national stature, who regularly visit...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2006 -- An America Supports You corporate team member is coordinating creation of what it calls the world’s largest scrapbook as a way for the nation’s students to show their support for America’s servicemembers. Students in Marion Fegley's fifth-grade classroom at White Oaks Elementary School in Burke, Va., work on scrapbook pages Dec. 4. The pages will be included in the "World's Largest, Now Greatest, Scrapbook." Connect and Join, an organization that works to keep families connected via electronic communication, is compiling the book, which will officially be presented to the military during the Armed Forces...

Harvard University is launching a broad initiative to discover how life began, joining an ambitious scientific assault on age-old questions that are central to the debate over the theory of evolution. The Harvard project, which is likely to start with about $1 million annually from the university, will bring together scientists from fields as disparate as astronomy and biology, to understand how life emerged from the chemical soup of early Earth, and how this might have happened on distant planets. Known as the ''Origins of Life in the Universe Initiative," the project is still in its early stages, and fund-raising...

JACKSON'S GAP, Ala. — Army Pfc. Joshua Stein grew up in the water, swimming, diving and spearfishing at his native island of Saipan in the Pacific Ocean. Now, however, Stein is learning to water-ski without his legs, which were blown off when a roadside bomb hit the Bradley fighting vehicle he was driving. With help, Stein straps his scarred body into a cradle fitted on a single, wide ski. Then, he grasps the tow rope with a right arm covered with skin grafts and rises out of the water, grinning and giving a thumbs-up with his mangled left arm, as...

America Supports You: ‘Project Ark’ Sets Sail in HawaiiBy Monique ReubenAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2006 -- As Cheryl Janus reflected on Project Ark, a program for military teens she helped organize this summer, she realized the “ark” did in fact float. Project Ark participants and chaperones take time for a group photo on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri. Project Ark brought teenage children of deployed servicemembers to Hawaii in July to interact and develop skills for coping with their parents’ deployment. Courtesy photo   '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The “ark” in Project...

FORT HUACHUCA — This year’s gala fund-raiser dinner for the Mountain View Colored Officers’ Club Rehabilitation Project is expected to lead into a major effort to obtain donations to restore the World War II facility. Just recently, the association received an artist’s rendering of what the building looked like when it was constructed in 1952. The fort was the major Army post training colored soldiers, as black soldiers were called in that era, for combat during the war. Two divisions, the 92nd and 93rd trained on the post, with one being sent to fight in Europe and the other in...

8/17/2006 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- A project team working on Iraqi Air Force Comp Air 7SLX aircraft have completed their mission in record time -- doing a complete overhaul of four aircraft in 41 days instead of the planned 130. The aircraft, designed to be unarmed, is used to patrol oil pipelines and other infrastructure targeted by insurgents. Several of the aircraft were presented to the Iraqi Air Force by the United Arab Emirates in 2004. A crash in May 2005 which killed one Iraqi and four Airmen prompted the Iraqi government to ask for help in...

U.S. Army Maj. Jeremy Beauchamp, battalion surgeon, 1st Battalion 68th Civil Affairs Regiment, holds up an x-ray of an Iraqi boy's head that shows a bullet lodged in his brain during a Medical Civil Action Project in Tahrir, Iraq, Aug. 16, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Paul J. Harris Winning Hearts, Minds With a Medical Project U.S. and Iraqi soldiers conduct a Medical Civil Action Project in the town of Tahrir, Iraq. By U.S. Army Pfc. Paul J. Harris TAHRIR, Iraq, Aug. 17, 2006 -- With tears welling up, a little Iraqi girl reacts to receiving a shot...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A federal judge halted a $320 million irrigation project Thursday for fear it could disturb the habitat of a woodpecker that may or may not be extinct. The dispute involves the ivory-billed woodpecker. The last confirmed sighting of the bird in North America was in 1944, and scientists had thought the species was extinct until 2004, when a kayaker claimed to have spotted one in the area. But scientists have been unable to confirm the sighting. Still, U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson said that for purposes of the lawsuit brought by environmental groups, he had...

Project Coordination Cell Opens in Multaka New office speeds up processing of project requests in Hawija district. By U.S. Army Spc. Cassandra Groce 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment HAWIJA, Iraq, July 11, 2006 -- A Project Coordination Cell, an outlying branch of the Kirkuk Regional Government’s engineer board, recently opened in Multaka, Iraq. It will handle all project concerns for the citizens living in the Hawija region. “It’s a substantial step for the Sunni Arabs in this country,” said Maj. Kelly Kendrick, the operations manager for 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. Prior...

Did residents of this idyllic wine country town illegally plant an endangered flower to sabotage a proposed housing development? That's the question at the heart of a quarrel folks here have dubbed "Foamgate." Bob Evans, a 72-year-old retired elementary school principal, says he was walking with his dog last year when he came upon the tiny white flowers of Sebastopol meadowfoam poking from shallow pools of water in a grassy field. The former bean farm happens to be the chosen site of the 20-acre Laguna Vista housing development. Evans and other opponents seized on the discovery of the federally protected...

WASHINGTON, July 7, 2006 – The first shovels have cut into the land that eventually will hold Marine Sgt. Jared Luce's new home -- one specially adapted to accommodate his disabilities. Members of the area Home Builders Association, Marine Sgt. Jared and Melanie Luce (fourth and fifth from left), and Kirt Rebello (far right) and John Gonsalves (back) of America Supports You organization Homes for Our Troops, break ground July 6 on the Luce's future home in Coventry, Conn. The home will be built to accommodate Luce's disabilities resulting from being wounded in Iraq. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

Dueling protests reflect immigration divideBy SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press Writer May 12. 2006 10:41PM Reflecting the American divide over immigration, protesters on both sides stood a few feet from each other near the Capitol shouting chants and exchanging accusations of racism. The protesters were kept apart Friday by helmeted police officers who stood inside a ring of yellow police tape. A Minuteman Project rally marked the end of a cross-country caravan by the anti-immigration group, whose members patrol the U.S.-Mexican border in search of illegal border crossers. The caravan began in Los Angeles. Minuteman demonstrators, who numbered less than 100,...

When Michael Ward of Troop 406 in Phoenix, Ariz., learned that Hurricane Katrina had destroyed all 9,612 books in the Anniston Elementary School library in Gulfport, Miss., he resolved to dedicate his Eagle Scout project to collecting enough books to restock the library. After getting approval from his local school board, Michael sent fliers about the book drive to the 32 schools in his district. Students were eager to help, collecting books and donating school supplies, while the school district agreed to deliver the books to a central location. When Michael invited local businesses to participate, a bookstore chain set...