Puff of good news (Daily Press)

Puff of good news (Daily Press)
The region is close to federal standards, but still emits millions of pounds of pollutants. Hampton Roads posted its first unhealthy air day of 2006 last week - only the second day of high ozone levels measured at any of three monitoring stations since 2004.

Garlic festival tidbits (The Gilroy Dispatch)
- The day after the 28th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, online bidding started as low as .99 cents (plus $6.50 shipping) at eBay.com for a Herbie Bobblehead doll - the most popular festival souvenir for five years running.

LOCAL EVENTS (San Jose Mercury News)
SOUTH BAY Sunnyvale centennial business expo. Prizes, business and farmers market booths and live music. 5-8:30 p.m. Aug. 2. Washington Avenue in downtown Sunnyvale. Free. (408) 736-4971.

Anna Mae Chesnes (News-Herald)
Funeral services for Anna Mae Chesnes, 91, of Willowick, will be 10 a.m. Saturday at McMahon-Coyne-Vitantonio Funeral Home, 6330 Center St., (Route 615, north of Route 2), in Mentor.

Garden District Grows in Its 4th Year at the Oregon State Fair (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
Budding gardeners and plant lovers from all over are invited to explore the newly expanded Garden District at the 2006 Oregon State Fair. More than 10,000 plants from Hart's Nursery will cover 2 lush acres on the state fairgrounds.

Welcome to the garden club (Newsday)
Like plants, Long Island s gardening groups survive by adapting Elliot Turkiew expects to take his karate black-belt test this summer. But he also took quite a different exam at the Melville Marriott on a recent afternoon: a test that would qualify him to judge daylilies in flower shows.