Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s office has announced his Special Assistant for Education, Linda Fandel, and Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass, will hold two town hall meetings this month on the governor and lieutenant governor’s blueprint for education transformation, “Unshakable Vision.” Additional town hall meetings are planned as well, with the dates and locations to be announced later.

The first meeting takes place in Council Bluufs, in the Woodrow Wilson Middle School Auditorium, beginning 3:30-p.m., on Saturday, October 21st.  The second meeting will be in Iowa City, on October 16th. Both events are open to the public. For more information, visit www.governor.iowa.gov.

Iowans are being asked to wear orange one day next week as a way to show support for an effort to stop bullying in schools. Julie Hertzog, director of the Minneapolis-based National Bullying Prevention Center, says Wednesday is what’s being called Unity Day and students in dozens of schools across Iowa are signing on. “It’s a day to unite against bullying,” Hertzog says. “It has a simple call to action of, ‘Make It Orange and Make It End.’ Students around the country and around the world are going to be wearing orange in support of the issue. They can also just write the word ‘unity’ on their hand or on their arm or their notebook.”

She says it’s startling how many young people are impacted by this problem. “One-hundred-sixty-thousand students each day stay home from school for fear of being bullied because they don’t want to go to school, they don’t want to face the situation,” Hertzog says. “When they do that, they’re missing out on the opportunity to learn.” Several high-profile cases involving student suicides in recent years displayed how bullying can take an extreme mental toll on the victim.

“We also hear about students who are exhibiting behavior like cutting, self-injury, of students who become anorexic or bulimic,” Hertzog says. “It’s all done as a result to just being in a lot of pain about being bullied.” One survey found that more than one-million children nationwide were cyber-bullied last year on Facebook alone, an example of how online bullying has grown. Hertzog says cyber-bullying is the modern version of writing on the bathroom wall.

“When we were growing up, bullying was limited to the school or maybe your neighborhood,” she says. “Now, with technology, kids have instant access to spread gossip and rumors and slander and send mean texts. On social media, they can reach an audience in an instant of hundreds, even thousands.” Learn more about the anti-bullying effort at: http://www.pacer.org/bullying/nbpm/ 

(Radio Iowa)

A store which will offer goods created in 38 countries without the use of child labor, opens tomorrow (Saturday), in Atlantic. Five churches in the community have teamed-up for the Atlantic Fair Trade Market, which will operate from October 8^th through the 22^nd, at 408 Chestnut Street. The hours of operation are from 10-a.m. to 5-p.m., Monday through Saturday.

On-hand at the Fair Trade Market will be items created from artisans from more than three-dozen countries, obtained through Ten Thousand Villages, one of the largest fair trade organizations in the world. Products made by the various artisans are in good working condition, and are made without the use of child labor. Prices are set by the artisans themselves, and are used to help those persons in third-world countries make a living.

The event was organized by Myra Kail, of Atlantic. A member of the 1^st United Methodist Church, Kail said she was aware of a fair trade movement that’s been around for a while, and was interested in creating a similar market in Atlantic. Over the past six-months, Kail and fellow organizer Michelle Jones planned the event and formed an all-volunteer committee among five churches in the community to handle the details.

Kail said depending on demand, another Fair Trade Market might be held in the Spring of 2012. And, if there’s enough demand, a permanent shop could be established. For more information, call Myra Kail at 712-243-4265.

Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green said this (Friday) morning, that the Atlantic High School was searched today, for any evidence of explosives, and none was found. Green reminds students they will not be allowed to bring book bags, large purses or duffel bags into the building this morning.

The searches, which began Wednesday evening, were in response to a threat written on a bathroom stall at the high school, which warned a bomb would go off today. No arrests have been made in connection with the threat, which was discovered by a student, and reported to the authorities.