Ithaca mayor creates a green car park, and more

Ithaca mayor creates a green car park

When Svante Myrick was elected the youngest-ever mayor of Ithaca, N.Y., in February, one of the mayoral privileges bestowed upon him was a prime parking spot right in front of City Hall. But since the 25-year-old doesn’t own a car, he decided to convert the small space into a tiny public park complete with benches and flowering shrubs. Last week, the mayor held a low-key opening ceremony for his “car park,” saying he hoped it would inspire his constituents to “think they personally can do something that will change the environment around them.”

U.S. ambassador goes aloft for D-Day

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The U.S. ambassador to France paid tribute this week to the brave heroes of D-Day with a daredevil action of his own—a parachute jump from 12,000 feet into coastal Normandy. Charles Rivkin, 50, took the plunge to highlight the role of Allied paratroopers in the June 6, 1944, invasion that launched the liberation of Nazi-occupied France. Rivkin was accompanied by a team of elite paratroopers from the U.S. Army, as well as by parachutists from France and—in a nod to today’s very different alliances—from Germany. Some 25,000 spectators watched from the ground.

A teacher's gift

A teacher in Dallas has given one of her kindergarten students an even more precious gift than education: She has donated one of her kidneys to his father. Marie Bell learned that Marshall Smith was waiting for a kidney transplant after his son Sean, 5, was late for school one day because his father had to be rushed to the hospital for a transplant that later had to be abandoned. Bell stepped up to offer her kidney, she said, because “I wanted Marshall to have a second chance and to see his little boy grow up.” Said the recipient, now recovering from the operation: “I didn’t think that God made people like her anymore.”