April 24, 2009

Website Maintenance This Weekend at FCIC

You've come to rely on this website for everything from handy consumer publications to links to the latest recalls. It will be unavailable for a few days this weekend, but don't despair. The website will only be down for server maintenance from Friday, April 24, 2009 at 6:00 PM ET to Monday, April 27, 2009 at 6:00 AM ET. After that, come on back for all the same great information and publications. Thanks for your patience while we work to keep our family of websites up-to-date and running smoothly.

April 13, 2009

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Our children are precious and deserve to be treated with love and respect. Yet too many children are abused by family members and caretakers. We must stop this epidemic by raising community awarness, creating strong, healthy families, learning how to spot child abuse and what to do about it. To learn more, go to the Child Welfare Information Gateway.

April 8, 2009

Get out your gardening gloves and plant some tulips. Or maybe a maple tree. Gardening is a very popular hobby. You can save on grocery bills by planing some tomatoes, peas, or green beans. Planting a garden is great exercise and very satisfying to the soul. If you would like to create a garden or plant some veggies, but are not sure how to start, then visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Gardening page.

April 6, 2009

Spring is finally here, with warm, sunny days and the flowering of nature. At the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, the beautiful cherry trees will begin to bloom. The Cherry Blossom Festival takes place between March 28-April 12. Did you know that the cherry trees were a gift to us in 1912 from Japan? If you would like to learn more about the history of this lovely festival, go to the National Park Service's Cherry Blossom Festival Page.

March 20, 2009

Spring is here! While it brings showers, flowers, and warm sunshine, it can also bring tornadoes, floods and thunderstorms. And as summer follows spring, floods, drought, and hurricanes occur. If you would like to know how to prepare for severe weather emergencies, go to USA.gov's Prepare for Severe Weather page.