A generation ago, reconstructive procedures were reserved for the aging and the rich and famous.

Now, teenagers are routinely undergoing plastic surgery - roughly 90,000 procedures a year, according to ABC News. Fourteen-year-old Nadia Ilse made headlines recently for having surgery on her ears because her classmates bullied and teased her, calling her "Dumbo." The $40,000 specialty operation was paid for by the charity Little Baby Face Foundation.

"Not every one of the 90,000 surgeries is the result of teasing or bullying, but it's clear more teens are undergoing invasive, sometimes dangerous, procedures simply to feel they fit in," says international social advocate Traci S. Campbell, author of The C.H.A.M.P. Within (www.traciscampbell.com). "Enough is enough! A far healthier alternative is to develop the character and confidence necessary to navigate adolescence with a respect for yourself - and others."

Campbell, whose nonprofit C.H.A.M.P. Community Project supports at-risk teens and single-parent families, discusses tough "personal love" steps teens can take to foster the healthy self-image that will benefit them throughout their lives.

• Forget Hollywood - be your own personal celebrity: Young women are starving themselves to be grossly thin or they idolize celebrities, including the Kim Kardashians of the world. Ironically, the truth of the matter is that many in Hollywood have more personal issues and hang-ups than those of us in the real world. Why not create your own style and make your own mark? Style includes your attitude, and what you do!

• Go in before you go out: While it is great to look like a million bucks, if you feel like two cents, then the fashionable clothes and expensive makeup serve no purpose. Take time to talk to yourself (seriously, out loud!) to find out what you want to do, want to be, and WHY. Write it down and review it often. Then line up your daily activities and associations around your list. Not only will you feel like you are accomplishing something, you will begin to feel good about YOU and to see your own value. Then, take a trip to the mall to get that latest pair of leopard skin boots, or whatever is trendy at the moment. I am sure they will look a whole lot better on you.

• Get old-fashioned: In an age when fast-paced social media rule interactions, old-fashioned values are needed more than ever! Why? Because they benefit us. They protect us from the consequences of impulsive actions and bad decisions; cause us to place higher expectations on ourselves and our associations (especially those involving men); and they foster the strong core values, like honesty and integrity, that never go out of fashion.

• Embrace your higher power ... a LOT!: You can't do it all by yourself! There is a sense of peace and confidence that comes when you take the time to pray/affirm, meditate and visualize your life. The focus and concentration, as well as repetitiveness of these actions, will energize you mentally and emotionally. It will also help you prevent future emotional "chains" by dealing with hurts and not sweeping them under the rug! Practice forgiveness to get rid of that old mental garbage; this is critical. And spend time daily to "exercise" your mind and spirit as well as your physical body to cultivate the image of yourself that you really want.

• Put other people first: To be the best woman you can be starts with being the best friend, parent, student and support for others. Real sexiness and attractiveness comes from the confidence of those who are willing to stand strong for a cause - one that benefits others. Spend time volunteering in your community. Seek opportunities to use your talents (and we ALL have a talent) to help or mentor another person, or a community.

About Traci S. Campbell

Traci S. Campbell has been an IT consultant for more than 15 years, working for high-profile corporate clients such as Sears, IBM and McDonald's Corp. As an international social advocate and life coach, she focuses on helping clients overcome personal obstacles so they can achieve their goals. She is the creator of The C.H.A.M.P. Within program and founder of the national Beauty In/Beauty Out Tour. She provides services through her 501 (c) (3) organization, C.H.A.M.P. Community Project, which supports schools, rehab centers, shelters and other local and international programs for at-risk children and single-parent families. She can also be heard on Inside Out! Live, a radio show available online and on iTunes.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa today urged key fellow senators to help ensure the appropriate spending of tax dollars after housing authority scandals across the country have revealed wasted funding and abuse of the public trust in a vacuum of oversight.

"For more than two years, I've urged Secretary Shaun Donovan and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to perform more oversight of the billions of federal dollars that go to local housing authorities," Grassley said.  "The agency has taken a few positive steps, but progress has been too slow.  The agency seems to get involved in oversight of local housing authorities only after the fact, when the abuse has occurred and local media have documented the problems.   For the public benefit, we need to reverse the timeframe.  HUD and local housing authorities need to prevent malfeasance on the front end, not chase it after the fact when it's too late.  I hope the senators responsible for HUD funding and programs will step in and help me reverse the lax oversight that harms the people who need safe, affordable housing and the taxpayers alike."

Grassley said a positive step he helped to extract from HUD, amid several high salary scandals, was the agency's implementation of a new requirement that the public housing authorities provide HUD with documentation of salaries and other compensation.  Unfortunately, the effect of the positive step was limited because HUD made only aggregate information public, and Grassley is pushing for full disclosure of housing authority salaries and perks.  Grassley also has worked with local media in areas including Philadelphia, Chelsea, Mass., and Harris County, Texas, to spotlight bad actors and questionable activities to help bring about tangible changes in how those housing authorities are run.

"Even with the positive steps, much more work is necessary," Grassley said.  "The country has thousands of local housing authorities spending billions of federal dollars.  Those who are tempted to abuse the system have too much leeway due to a lack of oversight.  This has to change, sooner rather than later.  The senators who control the purse strings and housing policy are in a key position to exact change."

Grassley appealed for help to Sen. Patty Murray, chairman, and Sen. Susan Collins, ranking member, of the Committee on Appropriations' Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, as well as Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman, and Sen. Jim DeMint, ranking member, Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.  Grassley included an article from the Boston Globe that reported on numerous problems plaguing public housing authorities in Massachusetts and said the same problems have been found at housing authorities "large and small across the country."  He also listed his concerns about HUD conference spending, housing authority take-home vehicle abuses, and the need for greater transparency of public housing authority executive director compensation packages.

In one example of housing authority-owned vehicle abuse, the executive director of the Albuquerque, New Mexico, housing authority was documented taking her housing authority vehicle to get her nails done on Friday afternoons.  She was fired after a local television station reported on her outings, according to media reports.

The text of Grassley's letters to the senators with key committee jurisdiction over federal housing are available here and here.

The text of Grassley's letter to HUD on take-home vehicle abuse is available here.

An Albuquerque television station's account of the nail salon scandal is available here.  The Washington Post's coverage is available here.

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Despite slashing government budgets on everything from entitlement to defense programs, NASA is proceeding with its $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission.

Central to the mission's success is Curiosity - a one-ton rover that continues to impress Earthlings with laser blasts for rock samples, mobility via a joystick and plenty of video and pictures. On all accounts, the mission, which may provide answers to questions of life on Mars, has so far been a wild success.

"With this Mars program, NASA has once again captured the imaginations of people throughout the world, instigating conversations about the universe and even the significance of life not only on Earth, but also on other planets," says Sanjay C. Patel, (www.SanjayCPatel.com), author of "God Is Real," a book that explores similarities between modern science and ancient cosmology.

Science and religion do not conflict with each other; they are different languages that ultimately lead to the same truth, he says. As science has done in the past, Patel suspects more data from extraterrestrial locations like Mars will continue to confirm ancient religious theories. He discusses four reasons why the Mars mission is well worth the expense.

• 2012 meets 1492 - an argument for resources: It's not just science-fiction anymore; prominent scientists like Steven Hawking say Earth's moon, Mars and Titan, a moon of Saturn, have resources people will need sooner rather than later. The main reason - the world's explosive growth in human population and the exponential consumption of land and other necessities. What we might find, Patel says, is a scenario very much like that which early Europeans experienced in the New World: new foods, reams of building supplies, new fuels, land and other resources. We may discover things that will become essential to future human beings.

• A spiritual-scientific connection: Science has confirmed what religion posited more than a millennium ago, Patel says. For example, scientific findings have confirmed what ancient Yogis said: That volcanic fire scorched India about 120 million years ago. Related volcanoes in the ocean south of India submerged about 117 million years ago. "The submarine Fire exists in the ocean," he says, quoting ancient Yogis. "It drinks the seawater and removes its saltiness. It then expels the desalinated water from another opening. ... That perfectly describes the undersea volcanoes and hydrothermal vents near India."

• If we're not moving forward ... Predictions as to where we'd be with space exploration in 2012 were quite ambitious during the race to the moon in the 1960s. But we haven't accomplished a lot since then. Celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently argued that we're still reaping the benefits of the research and development that went into the space race decades ago, and to negate space exploration is to turn off one of humanity's most important dimensions - our ambition to innovate.

• Alien life may not be so alien: As the European discovery of the New World revealed, the meeting of foreign civilizations can have disastrous consequences. However, the discovery of life elsewhere, whether or not it is intelligent or self-aware, can further enlighten us as to our origins, our reason for being, and our role in the universe, Patel says.

About Sanjay C. Patel

Sanjay C. Patel studied theology, Sanskrit, ancient cosmology, advanced yoga and meditation techniques, among many other subjects, earning a degree in Divinity at the BAPS Swaminarayan Ashram in India. He continued studies of modern science and ancient spiritual texts for 30 years. His discoveries regarding the convergence of science and ancient texts were published in mainstream science journals and presented at the 22nd International Congress of History of Science in Beijing.

Help America's Farmers Grow Communities Support Local Firefighters during Fire Prevention Month

Monsanto Fund-sponsored program gives back to Iowa fire departments

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Oct. 7, 2012) - Rural communities have a fire death rate twice the national average, according to the U.S. Fire Administration and National Fire Protection Association.  Firefighters in these communities are also often less likely to have the necessary firefighting equipment and training. To help combat these challenges, the Monsanto Fund is investing in rural fire departments and helping to keep farming communities safer through America's Farmers Grow Communities^SM.

Grow Communities gives eligible farmers the chance to win a $2,500 donation for their favorite local nonprofit organization. Last year, the largest percentage of Grow Communities funding was directed to local fire departments. The Monsanto Fund invested a total of $612,500 in 245 rural fire departments across the country.

Mark Schoening, Oak Township fire chief in Mills County, Iowa, knows firsthand how impactful being selected as the winning recipient for Grow Communities for the county can be.

"This donation allowed us to buy six air tanks, which gives us triple the amount of time we can be fighting fires indoors," Schoening said.

For the third consecutive year, Grow Communities is gearing up to distribute $2,500 donations in 1,271 eligible counties across the country. Now through Nov. 30, 2012, farmers can apply online at www.growcommunities.com or call 1-877-267-3332 to apply by phone. To date, more than $7 million has been invested in rural America through Grow Communities.

"Supporting rural America is our priority," said Deborah Patterson, Monsanto Fund president. "We understand that the safety of these rural communities depends so much on the strength of its local fire department. We are proud and honored to give back to firefighters, and I am delighted to see so many farmers directing donations this way."

New this year, community members can suggest a fire department or other nonprofit organization that is in need of funding on the Grow Communities website. Farmers can review "planted ideas" and consider them in their application. To submit a nonprofit project idea that needs funding in your community, visit www.growcommunities.com by Nov. 30.

As a result of the worst drought in 50 years, more than 700 of the 1,271 Grow Communities counties have been declared natural disaster areas by the USDA. Winning farmers from these counties will have the opportunity to direct an additional $2,500 donation to a second nonprofit of their choosing to assist with community needs that have surfaced due to the drought. The Monsanto Fund will select one winner at random from each of the eligible counties and announce winning farmers and recipient nonprofits in January 2013.

America's Farmers Grow Communities highlights the important contributions farmers make every day to our society and helps them positively impact their communities. This program is part of the Monsanto Fund's overall effort to support rural America.
For more information about this program and to view the official rules, visit www.growcommunities.com.

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SIDEBAR

26 Iowa fire departments received  a total of $65,000 from America's Farmers Grow Communities in 2012, including:

·         Griswold (Cass County)

·         Tipton (Cedar County)

·         Quimby (Cherokee County)

·         Woodburn (Clarke County)

·         Webb (Clay County)

·         Welton (Clinton County)

·         Weldon (Decatur County)

·         Terrill (Dickinson County)

·         Worthington (Dubuque County)

·         Rockford (Floyd County)

·         Stratford (Hamilton County)

·         Holstein (Ida County)

·         Packwood (Jefferson County)

·         Olin (Jones County)

·         Des Moines Township (Lee County)

·         Martelle (Linn County)

·         Melbourne (Marshall County)

·         St. Ansgar Rescue (Mitchell County)

·         Sanborn (O'Brien County)

·         May City (Osceola County)

·         Deep River (Poweshiek County)

·         Eldridge (Scott County)

·         Panama (Shelby County)

·         Cambridge (Story County)

·         Gladbrook (Tama County)

·         Sharpsburg (Taylor County)

About the Monsanto Fund

The Monsanto Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Monsanto Company, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the farm communities where farmers and Monsanto Company employees live and work. Visit the Monsanto Fund at www.monsantofund.org