The week's good news: May 3, 2018

(Image credit: Accent Alaska.com/Alamy Stock Photo)

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1. D.C. bald eagles named Mr. President and The First Lady welcome eaglet
2. Uber driver $140,000 richer after passenger gives him winning scratcher as a tip
3. The world's largest Lego Titanic replica, built by a tween, now on display in the U.S.
4. Grateful former student creates scholarship to honor teacher who changed his life
5. 'A good dog' warns family of fire

published 3 May 2018

1. D.C. bald eagles named Mr. President and The First Lady welcome eaglet

The first family — well, the bald eagle version — welcomed its newest member this week. The National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., is home to a pair of bald eagles named Mr. President and The First Lady. They already have five offspring, and another healthy eaglet hatched live on the American Eagle Foundation's D.C. Eagle Cam on Monday. The tiny eagle, named DC6, is expected to gain about half a pound to a pound every week until it is 10 weeks old, and by the time it's 3 weeks old, its beak will be nearly the size of an adult's, USA Today reports. DC6 won't be the youngest member of the family for long — Mr. President and The First Lady have another egg that is expected to hatch sometime this week.

It was a chain reaction, with one winning scratch-off leading to another until finally a Colorado man was holding a check for $140,000. James P. is an Uber driver, and recently a passenger gave him a $5 Super Special Ultimate Bingo Scratch ticket as a tip, Inside Edition reports. He ended up winning $30 from that ticket and invested the money into six more tickets. James said he continued to win and "just kept rolling it over and over into more tickets," and after six weeks, he purchased a winning scratcher worth $140,000. James plans on using part of the money to fix his car and will also give some to his parents. Since his first win, James has driven the passenger who gave him the ticket twice, and he wants to find him again soon so he can tell him about his latest windfall.

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It's been to Norway, Germany, Sweden, and Iceland, and now the world's largest Titanic replica made entirely of Legos is coming to the United States. The model — 24 feet long and 5 feet tall — was built five years ago by Brynjar Karl Birgisson of Iceland. Birgisson, now 15, has long been fascinated by the Titanic, and when he was 10 decided he wanted to build a replica. He figured out how many Legos he needed, and then raised enough money to purchase them all. It took 700 hours over 11 months, plus 56,000 bricks, to build the model, which will now be on display at the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, through 2020. Birgisson is on the autism spectrum, and has written a book called My Autistic X Factor. He says everyone has an "X Factor," which is a special talent, and he was lucky enough to figure out his when he was 10.

Before he met Linda Brandt, Steven Ma didn't care about school — he regularly skipped class and never got an A. Ma told CBS Sacramento he had been told by one teacher he was "the stupidest student" he had ever seen, leaving him with "no self-esteem." Things changed when he entered Brandt's classroom. She was his 10th grade geometry teacher, and Ma said she pushed him to "see who I was. She made me discover what I could do." Now, the Lodi, California, resident is the CEO of Thinktank Learning, a college prep and tutoring company, and an international education liaison for California's Department of Education. In honor of the teacher who changed his life, Ma is offering two Linda Brandt Scholarships, each worth $15,000, for deserving students at Lodi High School. Ma said he wanted Brandt, now retired, to know he was "forever thankful for her."

A Texas family who rescued a dog from an animal shelter last fall is now thanking the animal for rescuing them. Mom-of-two Laura Smith was fast asleep when her pointer-terrier Chrome woke her up at 1 a.m. Smith first thought that Chrome simply needed to go outside to the bathroom. But when she followed him out of her bedroom, she realized that the house was on fire. Their home was destroyed, but Smith, her kids, and Chrome escaped the blaze unharmed. "He's definitely my hero," says Smith. "He's a good dog."

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