State of the Nation
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REGIONAL NEWS
► PORT LINCOLN, SA: The Port Lincoln Commonwealth Bank dressed up as clowns on Friday as an interactive way to help raise funds and awareness for Clown Doctors. More here.
► MANDURAH, WA: Dwellingup local Alex Ashcroft has won numerous titles for woodchopping, but next Saturday he will set out for a very different kind of record: the most pumpkins smashed in one minute. More here.
► BUNBURY, WA: The annual South West Primary School and South West High School Giant Pumpkin Growing Competition came to a close this week with the weigh in held at Eaton Community College. More here.
► KATHERINE, NT: THERE has been an explosion in the numbers of deadly saltwater crocodiles trapped in the Northern Territory this year. More here.
► QLD: QUEENSLAND and NSW chickpea growers will be able to make more informed decisions on paddock selection in the lead up to the 2017 planting following news the DNA-based soil test PREDICTA B will incorporate a test for Phoma rabiei (Ascochyta blight). More here.
►BEAUDESERT, QLD: The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service says it is working hard to access national parks and State forests to assess the damage from Tropical Cyclone Debbie and restore public access to camping areas and visitor sites. More here.
► MOUNT ISA, QLD: A Mount Isa company has seen the destruction of cyclone Debbie first hand while delivering much needed supplies to Airlie Beach this week. More here.
► ILLAWARRA, NSW: Jonathan Schwenke is a quietly spoken, church-going man who has never been in trouble with the law. Until now. In fact, now he is staring down the barrel of a stint behind bars. More here.
► NEWCASTLE, NSW: IF a dog is man’s best friend, a Guide Dog must be family. Stamford, the four-legged companion of Newcastle singer and songwriter Matt McLaren, has proven he’s still got it, raising more than $4000 for Guide Dogs at his retirement party. More here.
► DUBBO, NSW: Taronga Western Plains Zoo’s three newest additions to the Zoo family made their public debut on Thursday. More here.
► BATHURST, NSW: WHEN I received a call from Army Reserve Warrant Officer Barry Parsons in January, I thought he was calling with a scoop. Little did I know that I was about to be the story. More here.
► WAGGA WAGGA, NSW: A RIVERINA teenager has been arrested after he allegedly stabbed a service station employee to death in Queanbeyan during a potentially Islamic State-inspired rampage. More here.
► ALBURY-WODONGA, NSW/VIC: RESEARCH by a Border specialist aims to make it clear pregnant women should never eat for more than one. John Salmon said all pregnant women put on weight but “it’s very easy to put on too much weight”. More here.
► BENDIGO, VIC: Heads turn when Travis Wilson and his partner, Demie, take their pet, Slinky, for a walk. After all, Slinky isn’t a dog, or even a cat. She’s a ferret. More here.
► BALLARAT, VIC: It’s a disease that receives no government funding and it’s killing Alan Grieg. Two years ago the 57-year-old was diagnosed with amyloidosis, an umbrella term for a group of rare but devastating disorders where protein deposits disrupt the body’s functioning. More here.
► WARRNAMBOOL, VIC: Hannah Rhook’s favourite colour pink was the dominant colour at the heart-wrenching funeral of the bubbly eight-year-old in Hamilton on Friday afternoon. More here.
► LAUNCESTON, TAS: An incident at a work site in Trevallyn on Friday is being investigated by Worksafe Tasmania. It is understood a worker received non-life-threatening injuries when a crane tipped on its side. More here.
NATIONAL NEWS
► In a lethal rampage spanning 14 hours two teens have allegedly killed a man, stabbed another and brutally attacked a third with a tyre iron. More here.
► PORT Fairy fisherman Daniel Hoey would be lost without his trusty red broom. For the second time in six months he has used it to fend off a great white pointer. More here.
► The road to Hollywood begins in unlikely places. Like Wagga’s Gumly Oval, which will launch the Farrer League season in a blaze of excitement on Saturday, when filming begins on a new movie set in Wagga. More here.
► Gladys Berejiklian says she is "bracing" herself for "huge swings" against the Liberal candidates in Saturday's byelections, predicting the contests "will come down to the wire". More here.
WORLD NEWS
► The United States has fired more than 50 missiles at a Syrian airbase following orders from President Donald Trump. The escalation was in response to the chemical weapon attack earlier this week, which killed more than 80 civilians, including at least 30 Syrian children. The attack has been widely blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime. More here.
►The Turnbull government has used the swift US missile strike against the Syrian regime over its deadly gas attack on civilians to ramp up pressure on Russia to stop further war crimes by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. More here.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY …
1941 – Singer J.J. Jackson was born today
1954 – Singer, actor John Schneider was born today
1986 - Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel, CA.
1997 - KISS released the album "Greatest Kiss."
1998 - The widow of Martin Luther King Jr. presented new evidence in an appeal for new federal investigation of the assassination of her husband.
FACES OF AUSTRALIA
Karin Reynolds is a single mum of four living in public housing at Metford. Her walls are lined with graffiti, her rooms are cluttered and she is dying. Now a community group is stepping up to repair her home – but they’re calling for help.
The 43-year-old was diagnosed with breast cancer one year ago. In January she was told it had spread to her liver and bones and she had six months to live. More here.