At her Web site, darynkagan.com, former CNN reporter/anchor Daryn Kagan invites readers to “Show the world what’s possible.” Every page of the site invites readers to “tell me your story,” and shares others’ inspirational stories from around the globe.

Kagan, best known for her coverage of major world events such as the wars in Kuwait and Iraq, and her live coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks, has worked to retain a positive outlook during her more than 20 year tenure as a reporter. She’s done it by living the adage, “Create what you seek.” Because she was seeking inspiration, she created a home on the Web “where those stories could live,” she states on her site.

One consistent and common complaint of college journalism students is the lack of positive news stories. The journalism professors who teach their courses often admit they started out with the same complaints, then became desensitized or complacent as they spent time in the business. Newspapers, television news, and Internet news present a daily barrage of disasters, scandal, war, and death. Kagan seems to be in the blessed minority who did not stop searching for the good in the world; rather she has created a home to host and share good news, inspiration, and hope with millions. With class and panache, she’s created a Web site that avoids the cheesiness of the Delilah radio show, or the preachiness of a religious site, while presenting positive news of those who have faced adversity and overcome it.

She’s not limiting herself to the Internet though. Kagan’s first book, "What's Possible! 50 True Stories of People Who Dared To Dream They Could Make a Difference," came out last month. Her 2007 PBS documentary, “Breaking The Curse,” examined an American woman’s community education efforts in India regarding leprosy and the acceptance of patients of the disease in society. Kagan’s working on a second documentary, "Solartown USA," which tells the story of Soldiers Grove, America's first solar town where residents first began incorporating solar energy 30 years ago. Readers won’t find hype and advertisements for her projects on the site though. Instead, there’s only a quick mention on the “About” page because Kagan devotes the site to others and their stories.

Launched in November 2006, the site provides a daily Web cast of stories in the categories of: “Animals,” “Artists,” “Business,” “Celebrities,” “For Charity,” “Heroism,” “Kids,” “Love,” “Over 60,” “Overcoming Obstacles,” “Sports,” and “World Events.” Kagan says it’s not a "happy news" site, but a "hopeful" news site. On every page she encourages viewers to submit their own stories or those of their friends and neighbors.

For instance, ulcerative colitis patients will find hope and inspiration in firefighter Scott Ellis’ story. His UC, diagnosed when he was 11 years old, necessitated the removal of his large intestine in his teens. The surgery requires an external pouch for waste processing, and Ellis worried that the disease and surgery would preclude him from entering the family profession – firefighting. Through hard work and physical training, he did show doctors and the city’s fire department that he could capably fulfill the duties of a firefighter. He’s now a full time firefighter, and active in efforts to educate the public on ulcerative colitis.

Animal lovers will enjoy the story of Izzy, the poodle who keeps pediatric patients company during tough treatments such as dialysis at University of California at San Francisco Children’s Hospital. She’s considered an employee of the hospital, and doctors must write an order to have her consult on a patient’s treatment, but for some, she’s the best medicine. In fact, Izzy’s done such a fine job at the hospital, it’s looking to expand its canine staff and hire Izzy a partner.

And with all the villains of the world receiving daily news coverage, why not give equal time to the heroes? Kagan does. In an uncommon gesture of kindness, Tacoma, Washington barista Sandy Sanderson gave her customer, Anna Marie Ostis, a kidney with her morning cup of coffee. When Ostis, one of Sanderson’s regular customers, talked about how her kidneys were failing and none of her family had tested positive as a donor match, Sanderson had herself tested. She’s a match, and offered Ostis one of her kidneys. Sanderson’s generous gift will allow Ostis a “long life” without weekly dialysis and the ability to watch her infant grandchild grow up.

When one needs to be reminded there’s still good in the world, there’s now a place to go to hear a constant feed of inspiring true stories. Put down that newspaper and surf over to darynkagan.com because, really, who couldn’t use a little more hope in their life?

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Carlie Lawson is our guest-writer on this post...

If you have been wondering what happened to the beloved clumsy kid (Michael Conner Humphreys) who played the young Forest Gump, wonder no more! Instead of continuing his craft in the fairy tale world of showbiz and entertainment, the now older "Gump" is "locking" horns" with deadly terrorists in Iraq.

What's my fascination with the story?

Forest Gump is one of my favorite movies of all time and the line "Life was like a box of chocolates...You never know what you're gonna get..." rings like a bell.

In joining the army and going off to Iraq, I am sure Forest knows what he could get but the bravery of the kid who starred in one of the biggest movies ever apparently knows no bounds

Take a look!

Talk about "The Second Coming", Fergie is back and certainly living the life. In this post Connie Wilson, our guest writer, walks through the life of a sensational entertainer who has seemingly done it all.

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On May 7^th, 2008, Stacey Ann Ferguson (AKA “Fergie”) was serenading George Clooney on the occasion of his 47^th birthday. Both Fergie and John Mayer performed at a private party held at Bungalow 8 after a Post-Met Costume gala. On April 15^th, 2008, Fergie appeared in Nelly’s new video, in anticipation of their new album entitled “Brass Knuckles” that the two are collaborating on and will release on June 24^th, 2008. Fergie appeared on “American Idol’s “ Idol Gives Back program, performing with Ann Wilson of “Heart.” Also quite recently, the news of Fergie’s engagement to heartthrob Josh Duhamel of the television show “Las Vegas” was announced; the two have bought a house together.

With hits like “London Bridge,” “Fergalicious” (which rose to #2 on “Billboard’s Hot 100”), “Glamorous” (as high as #4 on the United World Chart), “Big Girls Don’t Cry”---which broke big as #2 on the United World Chart, “Clumsy,” and “Finally,” Fergie is riding high. She’ll also be contributing the theme song to the soon-to-be-released long-awaited movie version of “Sex & the City,” a song which Director Michael Patrick King described this way, “It’s an entirely new song with lyrics, but it has the ‘Sex & the City’ theme as the DNA---on steroids.”

It wasn’t steroids that brought Fergie down. It was hard drugs, most notably crystal meth. She was brought up in a strict Roman Catholic home in Hacienda Heights, California and, after graduating from Glen A. Wilson High School, she scored an agent who got her voice-over work as Sally Brown and Lucy in two Peanuts cartoon movies: “It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown” (1984) and “Snoopy’s Getting Married, Charlie Brown” (1985). She also appeared on television’s “Kids Incorporated”, was co-host of “The Great Pretenders” on televison, and was a member of a trio of female singers known as “Wild Orchid,” a group composed of Fergie, Stefanie Redel and Renee Sandstrom.

“Wild Orchid” made two albums, but the third album was not a hit, and it wasn’t until Fergie was invited to replace Kim Hill in the Black Eyed Peas by Interscope Chairman Jimmy Iovene that things really took off for her, in a partnership with that group and Will i. Am.

Fergie played lounge singer Gloria in the IMAX version of Wolfgang Peterson’s remake of “The Poseidon Adventure” and was slated to reprise Adrienne Barbeau’s role as Stevie Wayne in John Carpenter’s “The Fog” in March of 2005. She had also been announced as being cast in a role as an undercover cop on “The Sopranos,” a cop who worked as a stripper in Tony’s Bada Bing nightclub, but the last two projects didn’t come to fruition.

Some of the reasons for that might have to do with Fergie’s now well-known drug problems, which she represented to her girl group (“Wild Orchid”) as bulimia to explain her dramatic weight loss. She told Elena Gorgan (“Softpedia, July 18, 2006), “I put up a whole front. I even took them to Overeaters Anonymous with me. I’ve never been a bulimic in my life, but when you’re a drug addict, you lie.”

Complications continued when the young singer rebelled against her childhood strict upbringing in the home of Patrick and Terri Jackson Ferguson, a family of mixed Irish, Scottish and Mexican heritage. “It was my way of getting away from everything. I was totally wrapped up in it and I was going crazy.” She says drugs left her an emotional, physical and financial wreck and that she was on unemployment when she joined the Black Eyed Peas. Fergie could have been the poster girl for “Girls Gone Wild” or rehab at that point.

“When I was going through my out-of-control phase, I could have got into very dangerous situations.” (Mirror.co.UK, 2/04/07). She has been quoted as saying of herself at age 18, “I have had lesbian relationships in the past. I won’t say how many men I have had sex with, but I am a very sexual person.” Maxim magazine agreed, naming her Number Ten on its list of the Hot 100 Women of 2007 and, in 2006, naming her Number 36.

Fergie’s addiction to drugs led her to tell “Time” magazine, “It was the hardest boyfriend I ever had to break up with. It’s the drug that’s addicting. But it’s why you start doing it in the first place that’s interesting. A lot of it was being a child actor. I learned how to suppress feelings.”

Said the pop star in “US” magazine (9/18/06, ‘Fergie Discusses Kicking Meth, Thinking Outside the Bun’), “In my experience, ecstasy led to crystal methamphetamine and I just think that people don’t know how addictive that drug is. It’s so cunning, because it’s such a fun drug at first. You lose weight and look great for a while, but I don’t care if it takes six months or five years. It will creep up on you. Don’t be fooled and think you’re special.”

Fergie even tells a harrowing story of a drug deal gone bad this way: “I had a gun put to my head during a drug deal that went wrong. Luckily, I got out of it.” (Mirror.co.UK, 2.04/07).

Then there was the episode when, as Fergie told it to Scotland’s Daily Record (December 7, 2005) “I had a few drinks before we went onstage and I didn’t think to go to the bathroom before we went onstage. We were jumping around and it was all very rock and roll and my bladder just started….you know.”

Embarrassing as that may have been, her song “Big Girls Don’t Cry” notes, “It’s time to be a big girl, now.” Fergie has matured, kicked drugs, and grown into her fame. She’s moving forward with the Nelly project, getting married, and, as her 6’ 3” fiancée, Josh Duhamel told Stephen M. Silverman in a June 19, 2007 People magazine article (“Josh Duhamel Reveals His Pick-Up Line on Fergie,”) describing how he spoke to his 5’4” future wife [after she had made a guest appearance on “Las Vegas” on November 1st, 2004, in an episode entitled “Montecito Lancers,”]: “She’s (Fergie’s) a real total star. I’m more subdued than that. I’d rather sneak up on people. But that’s what makes us work. We have similar fundamental values. We both grew in similar families. She’s just got a great soul.”

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This post guest-blogged by Connie Wilson... 

If there is one thing positive that has come out of the 2008 US Presidential elections, it's the amazing parodies of the main characters in the contest. Here Hillary Clinton reinforces why Barack can't win in November. Take a look!

Just this week one of our guest-writers submitted the piece - Some Beloved Fallen Stars...2008 May Just Be The Year. Here Glenda K. Fralin, another of our guest-writers gives her perspective (with a few overlaps) on celebrities hot on the comeback trail.

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1. Meg Ryan’s return in 2008 with mature rolls, shedding the All American girl comic typecast that followed her prior to the breakup with ex-husband Dennis Quaid. It’s time the public forgives and forgets the overly sensationalized past. Her return with other Hollywood heavyweights will speak well for boosting Meg’s career. The 2008 credits will include The Deal, a comedy with William H. Macy, My Mom’s New Boyfriend with co-star Antonio Banderas, and The Women, with a host of female stars including Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Carrie Fisher, just to name a few from this all female cast.

2. Owen Wilson will be returning in 2008 after his problems with depression and a suicide attempt placed him on a secluded and much needed break in 2007. In 2008, we will see him in Drillbit Taylor, about a budget bodyguard hired by two high school boys to protect them from the school bully. Next, Outsourced, still under discussion, is a movie about two men heading to Mexico to regain their jobs after their company relocates there. Finally, Marley & Me is a comedy based on the premise of a family learning life’s lessons from their dog.

3. Mel Gibson has not starred in a movie since 2006, but he isn’t done yet. He stayed behind the camera producing and directing the controversial hits The Passion of the Christ (2004), and Apocalypto (2006). Gibson will be starring in Under and Alone, an action and crime drama, and later in Sam and George, about two friends reuniting after one is released from prison.

4. Noah Wyle, who has been on hiatus since 2006, will reappear this year with three movie credits. He is returning as Carson Flynn in the action comedy The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice. Next, he will take on a dramatic role as Mike Stafford in Boy of Pigs, about a 13-year old Catholic school boy coming into his teens in 1963. Finally, Noah will be appearing in Nothing but the Truth, set to open in September. This movie promises to be an interesting political drama about a reporter who exposes a CIA agent but refuses to give up her source. Kate Beckinsale has the starring role in the movie.

5. David Duchovny has not been out of the industry, but has struggled with roles against type cast. His Showtime series, Californication, is no longer filming, at least for now. He had some good movie roles in 2007 when he was cast opposite Halley Berry and Benicio Del Toro in Things We Lost in the Fire. This year Duchovny will return for reappearance as Fox Mulder in a sequel to the X-files. This is where the public seems most comfortable with Duchovny. It worked for the original cast of Star Trek in the run of Star Trek movies. Who knows what may happen here? He will again be opposite Gillian Anderson and it will be interesting to see where this takes these two actors.

6. Gillian Anderson seems to be coming back big in the United Kingdom since the success of The Last King of Scotland. She also starred in a 2007 thriller, Straightheads. With four movies in 2008, I look for Gillian to make a major return to the limelight.

Anderson’s year will begin with Boogie Woogie, with Amanda Seyfried, Heather Graham, Christopher Lee, and Stellan Skarsgard. Then she will follow in a comedy How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, with Megan Fox, Kirsten Dunst, Simon Pegg, and Jeff Bridges. Returning to the X-Files in X-Files 2, she will reclaim her role as Scully with David Duchovny. She is to finish up 2008 with a leading role in No One Gets Off in This Town, a comedy with co-star William Hurt. She has plans to set off 2009 with The Smell of Apples. I hope all of these will make their way to the United States.

7. Shannen Doherty is finally making it back into movies after a troubled career and several failed television series. After leaving her successful role on Charmed, she made a short stint on Scare Tactics and then produced her own show Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty. Other roles tended to elude her or failed. She returned in 2007 with a TV movie Christmas Caper. Now for 2008, she has two movie roles in Kiss Me Deadly and Defunct. I hope, for Shannen’s sake, she makes a good showing this year. With a long and successful career beginning with her debut role in Father Murphy at the age of 10, she is one of few child actors to have successfully transformed into an adult career.

8. Sheryl Crow, after defeating cancer and becoming a mother, has taken stock of what is important in her life. She is coming back with a renewed power in her music and herself. She is focused and ready to work. Sheryl has never been completely out of the picture, and her name alone can get the presses running and fans talking. With a new zest for life, Crow is ready to take on a revitalized career. This is one strong lady who won’t let anyone, or anything, keep her down very long.

9. Mary-Kate Olsen will continue to build her career this year. She can be seen in one movie, The Wackness. In 2007, she appeared in several episodes of Weeds. The speculation about her eating disorder has not kept her from continuing her career separate from Ashley. It is unfortunate that negative publicity seems to stimulate more interest in celebrities. Now, with the rumored connection to the late Heath Ledger, the press is on her heals. I predict Mary-Kate will be appearing in the public eye this year, which is not likely to hurt her acting career.

10. Goran Visnjic, who all but disappeared from ER in 2007, will be seen this year starring with Ashley Judd in Helen, about a professor coming to terms with her own depression.