Don't Laugh....
...But I've been reading USAToday again. I'm on the road - headed back home (wireless Internet would seem to be in every hotel now - hooray!), so the only paper to pick up 5 hours away from Atlanta was our national fluffy (week-)daily. And guess what? Just like last weekend, there's front-page good news! Is this some kind of USAToday strategy? Or just a coincidental couple of random days?

The news is this: young Americans are volunteering more.

College graduates, shaped by such events as Sept. 11, Hurricane Katrina and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are applying to service organizations such as AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps in record numbers.
...

Many service programs are reaping the benefits:

•Applications to Teach for America, which recruits graduates for underserved urban and rural areas, hit almost 19,000 this year, nearly triple the number in 2000.

•This year, the Peace Corps took 7,810 volunteers — the largest number in 30 years — from more than 11,500 applicants in 2005, up more than 20% over the year 2000.

•AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), which pairs recruits with non-profit organizations, has had a 50% jump in applicants since 2004.

Ok, so there was bad news too. But I had to search for that!