The Admirable: We all known that teen pregnancy happens all over the United States and the world. One young mother though knew what to do in this situation. The 17-year-old girl woke up at 5:30 to shower and get ready for school when she felt herself getting contractions. She had kept the pregnancy secret from her parents so that she could continue to go to school, and she did not want to disturb her neighbors, so she did not call 911. Instead this brave girl delivered her child on the floor of the shower. She then wrapped the baby up and dressed herself before walking four blocks to the nearest hospital.

The girl didn’t want to face the rest of infection from cutting the umbilical cord herself, so she walked with both the umbilical cord and placenta attached. When she arrived at the hospital in Long Beach, California, nurses were stunned. The baby was healthy, but Xochitl Parra had risked bleeding by not calling for immediate help. Both mother and infant were taken care of in the hospital and are safe and sound. The baby, over eight pounds, is eating well, and his mother will return to school in a few weeks.

The Heartbreaking: A mother of 30 in Indiana never thought that her life could be changed so drastically in a few short minutes. Katherin Shuffield, a first time mom pregnant with twins, thought her life was turning around. She had a decent new job, as a teller in a bank in Indianapolis, and she was five months pregnant, past the physical difficulties and miscarriage worries of the first trimester. Unfortunately for Katherin, a split second decision would change her life forever. On April 22, and man charged into the bank where Shuffield worked and shot her. The man than preceded to rob the bank, completely ignoring the pleas of Shuffield and her coworkers. The ordeal caused Shuffield to lose her twin daughters, one stillborn and the other live born, and left her with a horrible infection from the bullet wound.

Shuffield and her husband recently spoke at a press conference and told others about the story, brining up two issues in the minds of police and lawmakers. The branch where Shuffield worked had be robbed three times since March 2007, showing that security in banks must be increased if there is any hope of one day stopping tragedies like this from happening. The second issue is that of murder. Indiana law says that since the fetuses were only five months old, the perpetrator cannot be charged with murder, only feticide, a charge with only an eight year maximum sentence. The gunman has yet to be found.

Good Fun: With associations for everything from motion pictures to rock-paper-scissors, it is not surprising to hear some of the odd tournaments there are in the world. One such tournament is a Pen spinning tournament in Tokyo, Japan. The tournament is sponsored by—who else—the Pen Spinning Association Japan. Contest organizers viewed 276 videos of spinners before choosing 16 finalists. These finalists didn’t just pass a pen around; each incorporated their own barrage of tricks into their 30 second routine. A winner soon emerged, 16-year-old Ryuki Omura, a high school student. Omura and his fellow competitors used pens from Tomy Corporation, who manufactures pens just for this purpose. Interested in spinning? See the video at the end of this post.

Scary Fun: Hillary Duff has been playing around in a new film. Duff stars as young pop star in the political satire War Inc. Hillary blows away her past role as Lizzy McGuire on the Disney Channel, and is now a foreign bombshell. Hillary’s scary fun? As part of her role, Duff takes a live scorpion and puts it down the front of her pants. That’s right, a LIVE scorpion. During filming, Duff wore slightly large pants and dropped the animal down them five times before the perfect shot was achieved. While the acts that follow, her grinding with the scorpion in her pants, was preformed without a live scorpion, the act of putting the stinging animal in her clothing alone is enough for me to deem this scary.

Note to devoted readers: This just goes to confirm my theory that Disney pollutes young stars.

The Good: A horrible twister hit Greensburg, Kansas last year, destroying nearly the entire city. The tornado left the town in ruins, and decimated the John Deere dealership, the largest business in the city. When the town had to think about rebuilding, the mayor decided that they needed to do something to make an impact. Rebuilding the small city wouldn’t be enough to satisfy this battered and bruised community, so their ideas got bigger and greener.

The mayor and nonprofit worker Daniel Wallach pitched an idea to the residents of the city: a completely green community. The conservative city was reluctant to make the change at first, but with some guidance became impassioned with the idea. A wind turbine popped up at the John Deere dealership, reclaimed wood was being brought in to build houses, and the residents pitched in to help. Now, a year later, the town is well on its way to becoming GreenTown Greensburg, a move that residents hope will attract new green businesses to employ and retain the local teens that would normally leave for jobs out of the city.

The Bad: A month ago college student Brittany Zimmermann was found slain in her apartment. The girl was found by her fiancé after what was believed to be a robbery gone wrong. The University of Wisconsin-Madison mourned Brittany’s death as a horrible tragedy, but their sadness turns to anger with some new information that has come to light. Madison Police Chief Nobel Wray announced that there had been a phone call from Brittany’s phone to 911 prior to her death. They have yet to release the call’s content, but police have said it indicated that there was a serious problem with Ms. Zimmermann.

But Ms. Zimmermann was not found by the police responding to her call; instead she was found by her fiancé. The reason police were not at the scene? The 911 operator hung up. According to police, the 911 dispatcher asked many times if there was an emergency and got no answer. The dispatcher than hung up and did not follow the normal procedure of calling back. No help was sent. It is times like these that really show how adamant you have to be at your place of employment. A decision that takes you a split second to make can affect society more than you could ever imagine. Please do your best at your job and help prevent this from happening again.