SUMMARY: Bionic limbs, long the stuff of science fiction fantasy, are becoming reality. An extremely rare vascular disease caused New Hampshire’s Morgan Stickney, a pre-med student and elite swimmer, to have both legs amputated. But she underwent an experimental amputation [Ewing amputation] surgery that reconnects muscles and nerves, enabling them to more effectively control prosthetic limbs. WGBH’s Cristina Quinn reports.
SUMMARY: Detroit is known for the rhythms of Motown and the hum of automobile manufacturing plants. Now, one nonprofit is adding a new sound to this urban landscape: the buzzing of bees. Special correspondent Mary Ellen Geist reports on the efforts of Detroit Hives to reclaim some of the city’s vacant spaces -- while also leveraging the nutritional benefits of honey.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, go inside a cafeteria at Harvard University where student volunteers package 1,200 pounds of leftover food into microwaveable meals for those in need. Special correspondent Cristina Quinn of WGBH reports.
Judy Woodruff (NewsHour): Believe it or not, Americans altogether throw away about 150,000 tons of food every day. That is about one pound of food per person. It is a staggering figure, considering nearly 13 percent of this country's population experiences food insecurity.
As Cristina Quinn from PBS station WGBH reports, Boston-area college students are trying to help close the food insecurity gap.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, an unusual phenomenon has appeared in a river in Westbrook, Maine: A giant ice disk that spans about 100 yards across and spins counter-clockwise. The disk is a natural although uncommon occurrence documented in other parts of North America as well as in Scandinavia. Julia Griffin, in collaboration with Maine Public Television, has the story.
SUMMARY: How should efforts to implement criminal justice reform handle minor offenses committed by juveniles? Officials in Newark, New Jersey, are trying a new approach; municipal courts, public schools and police have aligned to develop an alternative sentencing program for teenagers: Newark Youth Court. This NewsHour Shares is provided by 12-year-old Yasmeena Sharif for our Student Reporting Labs.
SUMMARY: Despite the advantages they offer in terms of leveraging renewable resources, solar farms also bring with them special challenges. Among these is controlling vegetation growth around the panels--essential for ensuring a consistent, stable power source, but a laborious and time-consuming task. While some facilities use traditional or automated lawn mowers, others are taking a four-legged approach.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares video of the day, this high-flying technology offers brand new insights into humpback whales and ocean science.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, a Minnesota high school championship baseball game ended when a pitcher struck out his childhood friend. Watch what happened next.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, a Virginia environmental conservation organization is teaching local school children strategies to live with rising waters. From the NewsHour's Student Reporting Labs, Ariyail Banks and a team from Grandby High School report.
SUMMARY: For the 3 million women who have served in the U.S. military, there's a growing effort to highlight and register their place in history. Going back to the American Revolution, they have held a variety of roles, and are now the fastest-growing group of veterans. Judy Woodruff reports on the Women in Military Service for America Memorial's work to gather and commemorate their names, photos and stories.
SUMMARY: If you’re watching this today, perhaps you’re taking a break from a family barbeque, or maybe you’ve just returned from shopping for some much needed item that this weekend’s sales have allowed you to purchase. I hope the extra time with your loved ones is rewarding, and the long weekend a satisfying break from the challenges of work, or school, or parenting. I’ll be hoping for the same for myself and my loved ones.
I still believed that we might all make it home together. But that’s not how war goes.
But I humbly ask you to consider the following. Fourteen years ago, I spent Memorial Day looking for I.E.D.s in AND around the city of Mosul, Iraq. I had only been in country for a couple of months, and the brave men and women of the 101st Airborne Division had worked and fought and bled throughout the previous year to clear the way for what we all hoped would be a relatively peaceful transfer of power.
My unit had not yet suffered its first casualty, and as summer began the purple fingers of Iraqi citizens casting their votes felt like a cause worth facing that danger for. But soon enough, something shifted. Attacks increased in both intensity and frequency over the summer, and by the time autumn came around several members of my company had been wounded, some seriously, and some terrifyingly so, especially when you knew you had to go back outside the wire again the next day. I’ll admit, I was scared pretty much all of the time, but I did my job to the best of my ability, and I still believed that we might all make it home together.
But that’s not how war goes. Close to Christmas, as 2004 was coming to a close, our unit lost two young men, Sergeants Nicholas Mason and David Ruhren. They were both 20 years old. I grieved for them and their families then, and I grieve for them today. And I would ask you to consider the fact that on so many of the days between that one and this one, there have been others to grieve for. Less than a month ago, a young man from Colorado was killed in Afghanistan. When I came home from Iraq in 2005, he was 9 years old.
So today, I’d ask you to take a moment to ask yourself, “How many more names might be added to the long list of those we are asked to remember next year?” And to also remember the thousands of veterans, actively serving men and women, and grieving families of their fallen brothers and sisters, for whom Memorial Day doesn’t just fall on the last Monday in May, but on every single day of the rest of their lives.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, a temporary memorial, now on the National Mall, honors the hundreds of thousands of U.S. military members who lost their lives since the turn of the 20th century with 645,000 poppies.
SUMMARY: In "The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels," Jon Meacham tries to offer historical context and a sense of proportion for our current times. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is best known for his Presidential biographies of Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and George H.W. Bush. Meacham joins Judy Woodruff for a conversation.
SUMMARY: It's the auditory debate taking the internet by storm. The PBS NewsHour's Nsikan Akpan and Julia Griffin explain how one sound can create two different experiences.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, as the city of Alexandria, Virginia, develops new construction projects, a team of archaeologists is on hand to help preserve a particularly remarkable discovery - three ships from the 1700s hidden in the soil.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, a nationwide computer science immersion program sets up shop at a couple Virginia elementary schools. The NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs has the story.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, this self-taught paleontologist has been looking for dinosaurs in creek beds and rivers for more than 30 years, and has become something of a legend in the field. Then, outside a NASA building, he hit the jackpot, over 100 tracks belonging to numerous mammals, dinosaurs and flying reptiles.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, a man [Christopher Schafer] who has made a living crafting high-end suits has found a way to use his talents to give back to the community, by giving donated suits to men recently out of prison or rehab and looking for work.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, Swedish photographer Henrik Trygg captured the eerie, beautiful sounds of bending ice when he filmed his friend Mårten Ajne skating on a freshly frozen lake.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, a team of veterinarians went into overdrive when they discovered a beluga whale calf separated from its mother on a rocky, Alaska beach. Special correspondent Valerie Kern of Alaska Public Media shares a profile of the woman who led the rare rescue.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, we get a glimpse into the intelligent group hunting patterns of killer whales -- and the escape of one very lucky seal.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, a group of citizen scientists use a dolphin graveyard to uncover how the majestic mammals live. The NewsHour's Teresa Carey reports.
SUMMARY: In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, Patrice Banks used to get uncomfortable taking her car to the mechanic. But following a successful career as an engineer, she decided to revolutionize the industry with her own take on the classic car shop by catering to the market’s number one customer, women.
