The Mayor's Challenge is a contest run by Bloomberg Philanthropies to find the best ideas bubbling out of our cities--from data mining to turning foreclosed houses into urban farms. New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg is funding the best ideas of local governments using the competition that will result in the winner taking home $5 million and four runners-up getting $1 million each.
You can still see more than 10,000 coin-operated phones around New York City today. What seems a relic of the past in this age of mobile technology, became a vital link in an emergency for those who had no power to charge their devices during Hurricane Sandy. Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a design contest to reinvent the lowly payphone and bring it into the 21st Century.
Officials in Paris this week looking for a greener way to keep its lawns mowed, replaced the fleet of noisy gas-guzzling lawnmowers with a small flock of sheep that are grazing the city's open spaces. The scheme also cuts down on the need for chemical herbicides.
The US Senate defeated an attempt by big banks to derail financial reform scheduled to take effect next month that will bring some overdue common sense to the debit card fees banks are allowed to charge merchants.
Very poor women in Peru are improving the lives of their families, thanks to business smarts, determination and a small business micro loan from Finca Peru, the family-run social enterprise that helps educate its 16,000 local micro-borrowers in savvy business growth.
The World Bank on Wednesday said its private sector arm issued about $165 million in 'women's bonds' in the first such sale by the development lender specifically aimed at raising money for businesses owned or run by women in emerging markets. Bonds tied to social or environmental targets are part of a new trend in social finance and follows a green sale of bonds to help cut greenhouse gases in developing countries.
A 23-year-old shopper who forgot to take his money from the ATM slot was shocked when he returned an hour later to find a kind stranger waiting to hand it back.
Aidan Milligan's home will be alive with the sound of music once again. The Philadelphia Orchestra has stepped in to offer a replacement trombone to a 9-year-old with Down syndrome, whose instrument was taken from the curb outside his house Thursday morning.
France is celebrating the life of Raymond Aubrac, one of its last great heroes of the resistance, whose bravery and exploits with his wife Lucie against the Gestapo became the stuff of legend and film. Aubrac died at age 97 in a military hospital in Paris on Tuesday.
Egyptians relished their first free leadership vote on Wednesday, with Islamists pitted against secular figures in a contest unthinkable before a popular revolt swept President Hosni Mubarak from power 15 months ago. No one knows who will win the presidency, but Egyptians are enjoying the historic uncertainty.
A guy from South Carolina who wanted to keep the Washington monuments clean during the DC government shutdown was seen mowing the lawn around the Lincoln Memorial yesterday. Reporters later interviewed the South Carolina man named Chris Cox, who bought an old lawn mower at a thrift store and hit the National Mall carrying a large flag and trash bags to empty the overflowing bins.
The Rector and congregation of St John's Episcopal Church in Aberdeen have offered the hand of Christian fellowship - and part of their church building - to the hundreds of Muslims attending a neighboring and overcrowded mosque. The Aberdeen mosque is so busy at times that members of the Muslim community were having to pray outside in the wind and rain.