Words with silent letters  See silent vowels, consonants, digraphs and  examples of base words with silent letters that sound those same letters when other word forms are created at:  http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/AS/810.htm 

digraph  Two successive letters that represent a single sound (or phoneme).

Common vowel digraphs in English include ai (as in rain), ay (day),ea (teach), ea (bread), ea (break), ee (free), ei (eight), ey (key), ie(piece), oa (road), oo (book), oo (room), ow (slow), and ue (true).
Common consonant digraphs in English include ch (as in church), ch (school), ng (king), ph(phone), sh (shoe), th (then), th (think), and wh (wheel).
http://grammar.about.com/od/d/g/digraphterm.htm

Le Puy green lentils are produced specifically in the Le Puy du Velay area in the mountains of Central France under the stringent conditions of the A.O.P. (Appellation d’ Origine Protégée/ Protected Designation of Origin) certification which ensures their traceability, specificity and quality.  Le Puy green lentils are grown by traditional methods, without the use of fertilisers, on volcanic soil in the Velay area with its micro-climate and exceptional sunshine during the ripening period.  They have excellent nutritional value (sometimes thought of as a vegetable steak), providing a valuable source of energy for growing children and a good healthy food for adults, including minerals such as potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron and zinc - all indispensable for a healthy diet.  They are very easy to use since they do not need to be sorted or soaked.  Their cooking time is less than half the time need for ordinary lentils, and they remain firm after cooking without losing their flavour.  http://www.ifeproductsearch.com/?Action=showProduct&id=1400559

French Green Lentil Salad Recipe  http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2006/11/cheap-caviar-1/

Pennsylvania landmark  In 1700, a Quaker family named Peirce purchased the land that is now Longwood Gardens and established it as a working farm and homestead.  Prior to the Peirce family’s acquisition of the land, the Lenni Lenape tribe had inhabited the territory.  According to the Longwood Gardens website, the Native Americans “hunted, fished, and farmed the productive wilderness.”  However, in 1798 Joshua and Samuel Peirce began planting an arboretum with an impressive collection of evergreen trees, which was recognized as one of the finest in the nation by 1850.  They also began acquiring native and exotic plants through exchanges with other collectors, and over time the collection increased and was opened to the public.  The grounds were known as “Peirce’s Park” and many social events were hosted there over the years.  After the death of George Peirce, who had maintained the property, the collection of trees was under contract to be cut down for lumber in 1906.  Fortunately, Pierre du Pont (grandson of the founder of the DuPont Chemical Company, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont) was an industrialist, farmer, designer, collector, and conservationist who contacted the parties involved.  He purchased not only the lumber contract, but also the entire Peirce property.  The conservationist wrote to a friend that his reason for purchasing the contract and land was “to save the collection of old trees…many of them of extraordinary growth and arresting appearance.”  Preserving the land and its plant life was du Pont’s top priority, prompting him to write a 174-page instruction manual for his workers to follow when caring for the grounds.  Du Pont’s first addition to the property was the Flower Garden Walk, a 600-foot-long brick path through a variety of floral gardens, added in 1907.  He described the Flower Garden Walk as “the old-fashioned plan of straight walks and box borders at the edge of the flower beds.”  Additions to the gardens came quickly after the Flower Garden Walk, and the incredible mix of styles and designs found throughout Longwood Gardens is a result of du Pont’s vast array of influences.  What’s more, rather than following a coordinated and predetermined plan, he built each element making up the gardens today piece by piece.  Furthermore, Du Pont’s fascination with fountains is evidenced all throughout Longwood. He noted, “As a child I was always delighted to behold flowing water and confess to still feel a thrill at the sight of clear water running freely from a faucet.”  Drawing inspiration from Chicago’s 1893 World Colombian Exposition, du Pont began work on the five-acre Main Fountain Garden in 1929.  This fountain garden can be seen from the Conservatory’s deck, and visitors are invited to walk along the paths and through the grass surrounding the fountains.  The water is sprayed up to 130 feet into the air, with 10,000 gallons of water circulating through the pumps each minute.  The Main Fountain Garden is the site of Longwood’s yearly Festival of the Fountains, an elaborate display of the fountains illuminated with red, blue, green, yellow and white lights, set to music.   More about Longwood Gardens, its schedule, and its plants can be found at its website  http://www.longwoodgardens.org/ .  See images and sources at:  http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/Longwood.html

A while is a noun meaning “a length of time”  “I slept for a while.”
Awhile is an adverb, meaning “for a time,” or literally, “for a while”.

“I slept awhile before dinner.”
As you can see, the words can be used almost interchangeably in some cases – but a while needs to be accompanied by a preposition, such as “for” (“I slept for a while”) or “ago” (“I left work a while ago”).  Awhile always means “for a while”.  http://www.dailywritingtips.com/a-while-vs-awhile/

The Urbana (IL) Free Library is facing scrutiny after the director, Deb Lissak "made a unilateral decision to weed books in the print collection by date alone," ignoring established criteria and without the knowledge of the Adult Services Director, Anne Phillips.  Anecdotal reports indicate that the adult non-fiction collection has been weeded 50-75% and that the titles have been shipped to Better World Books.  According to Mary Ellen Farrell, Board of Trustees President, a “conscious effort” was made “to find the most efficient way to get [the library] up to par as far as RFID tagging and … for the most usable [and] efficient things that … our library needs to have here as a core collection, and to identify things that are easily accessed, either from other libraries … or online.”  At least three staff members reported to Phillips that they were instructed to "[weed] as quickly as possible, even at the level of going through a range in 30 minutes of 2,000 titles.”  That’s less than one second per book.   LISNews  June 14, 2013

Response from the Urbana Free Library  http://urbanafreelibrary.org/article/2013/06/14/changes-urbana-free-librarythe-faq 

As feral swine continue to pop up in parts of Ohio where they don’t belong, wildlife experts are increasingly convinced that residents are illegally transporting the invasive species from southern states.   “For decades, they were only in a handful of states,” said Dave Pauli, senior director of wildlife innovation and response at the U.S. Humane Society.  “People are definitely moving them around.”  He said reality-television shows such as A&E’s Lady Hoggers and American Hoggers have inspired people to import the pigs, which have huge populations in states including Florida, Georgia and Texas.  Craig Hicks, a wildlife disease biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, hunts down feral swine in Ohio.  He said feral pigs can ruin crops and soil, outcompete native wildlife and carry disease.  The USDA estimates feral swine cost taxpayers more than $1 billion each year in damage and control efforts.  For years, feral pigs were contained mostly in southeastern Ohio. But now they have been found as far north as Ashtabula County near Lake Erie and as far west as Butler County along the Indiana border.  Hicks, who described his statewide pig-hunting operation as a “one-man show,” euthanizes feral swine that he catches.  Dave Kohler, executive administrator for wildlife management and research at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said it is illegal to transfer a number of wild animals, including skunks, possums and raccoons.  Doing so could be punishable by fine, restitution, imprisonment or seizure of the animal, according to the Ohio Revised Code.  Joshua Jamerson  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/06/15/hogs-invade-ohio-with-illegal-help.html

June 14, 2013  Facebook Releases Data, Including All National Security Requests  by Ted Ullyot, Facebook General Counsel  Over the last week, in press statements as well as Mark Zuckerberg's post https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10100828955847631 June 7 about PRISM, we’ve repeatedly called for governments worldwide to be willing to provide more details about programs aimed at keeping the public safe.  We’ve also urged them to allow companies to divulge appropriate information about government orders and requests that we receive, in a manner that does not compromise legitimate security concerns.  Requests from law enforcement entities investigating national security-related cases are by their nature classified and highly sensitive, and the law traditionally has placed significant constraints on the ability of companies like Facebook to even confirm or acknowledge receipt of these requests – let alone provide details of our responses.  We’ve reiterated in recent days that we scrutinize every government data request that we receive – whether from state, local, federal, or foreign governments.  We’ve also made clear that we aggressively protect our users’ data when confronted with such requests:  we frequently reject such requests outright, or require the government to substantially scale down its requests, or simply give the government much less data than it has requested.  And we respond only as required by law.   Read more at:  http://newsroom.fb.com/News/636/Facebook-Releases-Data-Including-All-National-Security-Requests