In this third Green Living installment of Health & Wellness, the focus is on the air around us. This is fitting, since part one focused on water conservation and part two discussed ways to protect soil. The triple punch of conserving water, protecting soil and purifying air will yield the most effective reduction on your carbon footprint.

Carbon dioxide has earned its bad reputation for being a greenhouse gas that is running rampant. Excess CO2 creates an insulating blanket that prevents heat from the sun from bouncing off the surface of the planet back out into space, causing a cascading accumulation of side effects.

It is true that the composition of our atmosphere fluctuates over time, and in the distant past when there was more CO2 in the air, plants were more abundant and animals were bigger.

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.

Olympics beware, rednecks going for gold

Blake Harris belly flops into the mud pit during the Texas Redneck Games at the Pool Ranch in Athens, Texas, last week. For three days, hordes of legit and wannabe rednecks convene to drink, race their ATVs, and compete in events such as spam eating and mattress throwing. .

Storm's Victims Remembered In Castalian Springs

In Castalian Springs, Sumner County, victims worked to pick up the pieces Friday, four days after a tornado ripped through the area.

Neighbors said at least four homes in an area just off Governor’s Hall Road were completely wiped out.

Ramona Justice’s was one of them. She did not survive the storm.

Her neighbor, Rosemary Chambers, said Justice was a school bus driver for special needs kids in Sumner County. She had four grown children and a granddaughter.

"It’s sad, it’s said," Chambers said. "I wish everyone had gotten out but you just don’t know, don’t know... .