Hills Shire Times highly commended in PANPA Advertising Awards

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The Hills Shire Times earned high praise from the judges of the prestigious 2010 Advertising Awards announced by the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association earlier this week.

The awards are a coveted acquisition as we are required to compete against newspapers from all over Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific, Asia and the Far East.

In such a competitive field, we are especially proud to have been highly commended for our entry in the category Power of Newspapers - Best Tactical Use of Newspapers with our winter sports registration initiative.

Our sports registration campaign over several weeks culminated

Baulkham Hills SES to the rescue in WA

Evelyn Lester is thanked Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett.

Baulkham Hills State Emergency Service volunteers don’t just help Hills residents with flood and storm emergencies.

In recent weeks, volunteers have traveled around the country, helping after spates of declared natural disasters like the devastating hailstorms in Victoria and Western Australia, and the prolonged flooding in outback NSW.

Baulkham Hills local controller Evelyn Lester flew across to Perth to help the local emergency services with the extreme hail damage which battered the state in April.

“The WA people were very grateful for the Eastern states’ assistance as this was the

Missing Carlingford woman found this morning

An elderly woman who went missing from her Carlingford home yesterday has been found safe and well this morning.

Lucille Hartshorne, 70, was last seen at her home in Farnell Ave at 10am on Monday.

When she failed to return home, her husband became worried and contacted police.

She was found about 6am today in school grounds at Carlingford.

Police said she was safe and well but had been taken to hospital for a check-up.

Source: whereilive

Canterbury-Bankstown pays tribute to Anzac Day

THOUSANDS of people kept the Anzac spirit alive on Sunday when they gathered at Canterbury-Bankstown RSL clubs to pay their respects to our Diggers.

At Bass Hill RSL Club, a record number of more than 1000 people gathered at the club for a street march before returning for the dawn stand-to services.

Three generations of the Hilton family made an appearance to honour their father grandfather and great-grandfather Christopher who served in the 2nd Tunnellers unit in France during World War I.

“I always attend the service because I think back to my dad. I used to march with

Dural’s Joanne Ong says let ‘em eat cake

Joanne Ong designs delicious treats. Picture: JOE MURPHY

JOANNE Ong’s cake creations look too amazing to eat but are too delicious to resist.

The Dural resident has been running her home-based cake business for the past two years, turning simple sponges into works of art.

Ms Ong’s talents have won her second prize at the Royal Easter Show for her two entries in most creative cake and most creative miniature cake in the novice class.

“I had no idea what the standard was and when I saw some of the other entries I thought I had no chance,” she

Labor picks Canberra and Fraser preselection candidates

Communications consultant Gai Brodtmann and economist Andrew Leigh will represent Labor at the federal election in the seats of Canberra and Fraser.

Ms Brodtmann, who is married to ABC political journalist Chris Uhlmann, beat four other candidates in the preselection battle for Canberra, including lawyer John O'Keefe, the son of rocker Johnny O'Keefe.

Canberra, a safe Labor seat, has been up for grabs after sitting MP Annette Ellis announced her retirement.

Professor Leigh, an economist at the Australian National University, emerged victorious in preselection for Fraser, which Labor holds by a 15.1 per cent margin.

Professor Leigh's opponents included fellow

Parents of a teenager fatally stabbed in Campsie urge teenagers not to carry knives

THE grieving parents of a teenager fatally stabbed on a train stopped at Campsie station have urged young people not to carry knives, after seeing their son’s killer jailed for at least three years.

As tears rolled down his face, Eti Motuliki also addressed his son.

“If you can hear us, we love you, son, and we always love you forever and forever,” he said.

His son Andrew, 17, was stabbed by a 16-year-old youth during a confrontation between two groups on a train stopped at Campsie railway station in the early evening of December 21, 2008.

In the NSW

NRL strips cheating Storm of titles

The Melbourne Storm have been stripped of their 2007 and 2009 NRL Premierships, the minor premierships of 2006-8 and of their 2010 competition points after yesterday admitting to a salary cap scandal.

The breaches amount to at least $1.7 million over five years.

The club will lose all competition points earned to date in 2010 and will accrue no more points this season, irrespective of how many games they win.

These measures are effective immediately.

The club has also been fined $500,000 and will be forced to return $1.1 million in prize money earned from their premiership wins.

The funding

Friendship linked two women of destiny

They were two erudite women - one Australian and one American - whose ideas and writings had a lasting impact on Australian society.

Stella ''Miles'' Franklin was a writer and feminist best known for her autobiographical novel My Brilliant Career, published in 1901.

Marion Mahony Griffin was an artist and architect, whose watercolour perspectives of her husband Walter's designs led to his plan winning the international design competition for what would become Canberra.

The two women were also friends, a little known fact that will be explored in a talk at the National Library tonight by Emeritus Professor Jill

Grammar hangs up on mobiles in class

An elite Canberra girls' school has slapped a ban on its students from using mobile phones during school hours in a bid to beat the cyber-bullies.

Canberra Girls' Grammar in Deakin joined Dickson's Daramalan College in its hardline stance introduced at the beginning of the year.

Under the ''use it and lose it'' rule for phone handsets, any girl at the $16,000-a-year Anglican school found using a phone during teaching hours will have the device confiscated and not returned without a letter from her parents.

Girls at the school's boarding house face even tougher restrictions with phones collected at

Workers exposed to toxic gas at Laverton North factory

TWO workers were taken to hospital, one in a serious condition, after being exposed to harmful chemicals at Omega Chemicals in Laverton North last night.

A 45-year-old employee was trying to neutralise waste product with hydrochloric acid about 11.30pm.

The mix gave off chlorine gas, which overcame the man.

Another employee, a 28-year-old, came to his colleague’s aid but was also overcome by the fumes.

They only just made it to a safe area before collapsing.

Advanced life support paramedic Cameron Joyce said both men suffered breathing problems..

“They had tightness in the chest and the younger man also had

Men recruited to champion cause for female executives

THE FEDERAL Sex Discrimination Commissioner has selected a group of top male chief executives to champion gender equality in Australia's biggest companies.

Elizabeth Broderick, halfway through her five-year term, had a secret breakfast meeting with nine executives last week in which she set the agenda to increase the number of women in the top echelons of Australian business and reach near parity by 2015.

Ms Broderick said she had decided to approach men only for the group because they still held the greatest influence in corporate decision making.

''Women are in heated agreement about this already,'' she

Takeover Target expected to boost crowd

Takeover Target's return to the course where his record-breaking career began has Queanbeyan Racing Club officials expecting a bumper crowd today.

The champion sprinter, who Joe Janiak trained to 21 wins and $6,019,400 in prizemoney, will be the focal point this afternoon when he and his trainer make an appearance at the meeting.

It will be the first time Takeover Target has returned to the Queanbeyan track since Janiak relocated to Coffs Harbour in April 2007.

The retired 10-year-old will trot down the home straight between races four and five today, after which he will parade for fans in the

PM's plan faces NSW setback

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's campaign to reform the health system has suffered another setback, with NSW demanding more money in exchange for its support.

The NSW Government convened a special cabinet meeting to determine whether to accept or reject the offer, which includes $3 billion for emergency departments, elective surgery, diabetes care, aged care and doctor training.

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has emerged from the meeting and announced cabinet supported 90 per cent of the reforms.

She wanted more negotiation on three areas including an estimated $686 million to implement the reforms, extra funding to address rising demand for services