Nothing but kudos this week (apologies to readers who like to read at least one bad thing... maybe next week.)

* Kudos to the helping spirit in high schools today. In the old days, venturing into high school as a freshman was definitely scary, and the older kids loved taunting you. Somewhere along the line, you’d run a gauntlet of upperclassmen ... and you were likely to get scuffed up a bit. The trick was to exhibit some displeasure -- just to let them know you were feeling it, but not to be a sissy about it. Mostly it wasn’t too terrible for most of us. But there was always some older kid who just got into it a little too much; and some younger kid who hadn’t had the benefit of an older brother beating him up now and then to toughen up with. Better now is the movement initiated at many schools, including Marysville High. We had a story earlier in the week about the “Link Crew.” That is a leadership team on campus that wore special blue shirts to school on opening day and went around hunting for freshmen who needed help. That’s the sort of thing that helps make a big school smaller and more manageable. It’s nervewracking coming into a new school. It’s great that now days kids are volunteering to help other kids. Steve Miller is Editor of the Appealdemocrat

* Kudos to today’s big event: The Yuba-sutter-colusa United Way Community Resource Fair is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Gauche Park in Yuba City. There will be nearly 80 organizations represented there -- offering free and low-cost resources and services to local residents. You never know what you’ll find out about; what good deal you’ll come across; what helpful benefit you didn’t know you qualified for. “If you think that you know what services and programs are available in the community that may assist your family, you may be mistaken,” said Bob Harlan, director of the United Way. Might as well show up and find out ... it’s all free.

* Kudos to Adventist Health/ Rideout personnel for founding the street nursing program. They’re operating a clinic a couple times a week to treat homeless people. Since they started, they’ve treated close to 400 individuals and had 650 visits. They’re arranging for funding to purchase a mobile van so they can increase services and the number of days they spend in the field. Once they have that mobile clinic up and running, they foresee the program evolving into a full-time program that at various locations. They presently operate out of the Hands of Hope building and the Life Building Center. We’re hearing more, lately, about “compassion fatigue” and we understand it. Especially if you live in one of the neighborhoods where the homeless are more prone to frequent, it can be hard to keep caring about the people. But no matter what, providing care to people means fewer problems in the long run. “The (program) has been doing an awesome job,” said Rick Millhollin, executive director of Hands of Hope. “The work they do helps cut down on the people having to go to the ER with something severe because the nurses are able to catch things early... it’s one of the best things we’ve got going on right now in terms of the types of services we have available to people experiencing homelessness.”

* Ugh: Two from my old friend Eddie: 1. There was a man who wanted a divorce. He told his lawyer, “I can’t take it anymore. Every night she’s out until after midnight going from bar to bar.” “Sorry to hear that,” says the lawyer. “What’s she doing when she’s out all night?” “She’s looking for me.”

* A policeman came to my house and asked me what I was doing from 5 to 6. He seemed irritated when I said “kindergarten.”