Popcorn with a purpose? How this N.J. nonprofit is impacting the community.

Good News Notes: “Popcorn is positively changing the lives of people in New Jersey — and not just by being a salty treat at the movie theater. It’s thanks to an organization known as Popcorn for the People, a Piscataway-based nonprofit that employs people with autism and developmental disabilities to produce its line of gourmet treats….

New invention looks to help first responders save lives

Good News Notes: “A tragedy became motivation for a pair of paramedics from Middle Tennessee. The best friends saw a need and developed a light system that helps guide first responders to hard-to-find locations. It all started several years ago, when Johnathan Harrison was called to help a toddler who couldn’t breathe. “A two-year old…

Rediscovered in a basement, his prewar opera heads to Germany

Good News Notes: “Later this month, Jan Agee will leave her Davis home, get on a plane, and fly 6,000 miles to Germany just to attend an opera. And she isn’t even an opera fan. But she is a fan of this one. “Grete Minde” is a three-act opera composed by her grandfather, Eugen Engel,…

The urine revolution: how recycling pee could help to save the world

Good News Notes: “On Gotland, the largest island in Sweden, fresh water is scarce. At the same time, residents are battling dangerous amounts of pollution from agriculture and sewer systems that causes harmful algal blooms in the surrounding Baltic Sea. These can kill fish and make people ill. To help solve this set of environmental…

Coca-Cola, criticized for plastic pollution, pledges 25% reusable packaging

Good News Notes: “The Coca-Cola Company (KO.N) on Thursday said it will aim for 25% of its packaging globally to be reusable by 2030, a move hailed by environmental groups who have called out the soft-drink maker for worldwide plastic pollution. Coca-Cola is a top target for consumer, investor and environmental groups concerned about petroleum-based plastic single-use…

Santa Rosa youth grow career and life skills in neglected garden

Good News Notes: “When Curtis Short and his wife Patricia Seddon first saw the space where they were asked to help young adults with special needs and disabilities create a garden, they were dismayed. The small fenced area was a tangle of weeds, with only a rose bush and several small fruit trees — plum,…

These are the world’s first wind turbine blade bridges

Good News Notes: “On a former train track bed connecting the towns of Midleton and Youghal in County Cork, Ireland, workers recently excavated the rusted remains of an old railway bridge and installed a pedestrian one in its place. The bridge would have been an unremarkable milestone in the development of a new pedestrian greenway…