Hearing Aid

hearing aid may not look like much, but it could be very expensive. "It's a range usually from around $1500 to maybe $3500 for just one hearing aid," said audiologist Caroline Roberts with Blount Hearing and Speech Services in Maryville. Roberts says the high cost can prevent people who need the devices most from being able to hear.

"Seventy percent of our patient base lives at or below the poverty level," said Hearing and Speech Foundation Executive Director Megan Venable Smith. "They pay nothing for anything. The doctor visits, the hearing aids, the ear molds, the batteries--we cover everything." Some recycled hearing aids can be given to patients on the spot, but others are sent to the manufacturer, who also donates refurbishing services.

Outdated, broken or damaged hearing aids that are donated to the program can be sent back to the original manufacturer to be used for parts. Roberts says the program has put more than 400 hearing aids on area residents in the first year alone. To donate a hearing aid to the Hearing and Speech Foundation, contact Megan Venable Smith at (865) 977-0981 or simply mail or drop off the device at the office, located at 1619 E. Broadway in Maryville, TN, 37804.

Dean Foods

Dean Foods Co.'s (DF) fourth-quarter net income more than doubled despite declining revenue as the nation's largest dairy processor benefitted from retreating raw dairy and energy costs. As a result, Dean Foods projected first-quarter profits above analysts' views. The company now sees per-share earnings of 38 cents, while analysts were expecting 36 cents. For the year, Dean Foods reiterated its November earnings forecast.

Packaged-food companies are feeling the pain of weaker consumer spending amid the U.S. recession as shoppers cut back on even small purchases, trade down to less expensive private label, or store branded, products and delay refilling their pantries. Retailers, including behemoth Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), are also slowing orders as they work down inventory, leading some food companies to cut forecasts. Still, consumer staples companies, including Dean Foods, are expected to hold up better than the makers of more discretionary products.

Dean Foods has been cutting costs, including reducing its work force late last fall, as it improves its supply chain and ramps up its distribution network. Dean has also refined its pricing structure since 2007 when it was affected by some pricing lag issues, making it less susceptible to being caught on the wrong side of shifts in the federal dairy pricing program.

Our Lady of Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes It was on February 11, 1858, that the Blessed Mother first appeared to a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France. It was on February 25 that the young Bernadette was told by the lady to scratch at the ground. The lady then asked her to drink and wash in a spring that came up. In a matter of days, the spring began to be the source of many miraculous occurrences.

It was a week before Ash Wednesday when the mother of Bernadette noticed that they had run out of firewood in the house. Bernadette and her sister Toinette volunteered to go and pick up branches at the riverside. At first, the mother expressed her disapproval because of the bad weather. Jeane Abadie, their neighbor, offered to go with the two children and the mother consented. They decided to go southward to Merlasse.

The water still flows today, and continues to be a source of God’s healing through the Blessed Mother’s intercession for many people. This is why Pope John Paul II pronounced that February 11, the day the Blessed Mother first appeared to Bernadette in 1858, be specially designated as the World Day of the Sick. The apparition was finally approved by the Church in 1862 and a church in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary was dedicated in 1901. The grotto of Lourdes in France is now one of the most visited pilgrim sites in the whole world.