Hello and welcome to todays Levy Letter. Its a very chilly day today, one of the coldest so far I think, so wrap up warm and hopefully youll be able to sit on the warm sofa tonight with a cup of tea to watch the programme.
Coming up tonight, as the Post Office makes the first of its decisions about which branches to close, and which to save, well hear from South West Lincolnshire where only one of the 16 threatened offices has been reprieved. Our reporters are with affected communities around the region to get the full reaction. We'll have the latest news from the Home Office on Lincolnshire businessman Peter Moore who's currently being held hostage in Iraq. After almost one year without heating and hot water, we'll meet the Hull resident finally getting her boiler fixed. We'll tell her story and find out how she was failed by a government run scheme. The inquest into the death of Michael Barnett continues in Hull. And today we'll hear testimony from one of the police officers who was there the day he died in the flood waters. And as part of a series of Look North reports about the effect of Christmas on some local businesses, we visit the Fangfoss rocking horse manufacturer hoping for a revival in traditional toys. Of course weve got the weather forecast from Paul, hopefully the temperatures wont drop any more. Thats all coming up at the usual time of half past six on BBC One, I hope you can join me then. Coffee Good news for all you caffeine addicts out there, new research has claimed that drinking coffee can help older women ward off mental decline. I think a lot of people in the Look North office stave off their mental decline throughout the day with coffee as well, but scientists in France found particular benefits in women over 65 who drink more than 3 cups of coffee per day, as opposed to those who drank just one. Those with a higher coffee intake showed less decline in memory tests over a four year period, although its not yet known conclusively if coffee can prevent the onset of dementia. Quite a lot of these health stories report benefits for either women or men, and it seems women are more sensitive to the benefits of caffeine in this case, so I suppose for us males memory decline is inevitable, no jokes please. Alzheimers disease is expected to rise in future years as the population gets older in general, so hopefully research like this will lead to a breakthrough at some point. But until we know for sure, it looks like drinking a few cups of coffee a day might have its benefits, just dont drink too much! Christmas dinner carbon footprint Well almost everybody loves a hearty Christmas dinner, usually with a turkey as the centrepiece and cranberry sauce on the side, but have you ever thought about the environmental cost? This is one of those stories that seems designed to put a downer on your Christmas, but according to researchers in Manchester, the UK will generate the pollution equivalent of 6,000 car journeys around the world by preparing our festive feasts. Well produce 51,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the production, processing, and transport of ingredients, with a dinner for 8 people generating 20kg of carbon dioxide. Now this research sounds a little deceptive, because when you read it in more detail these figures for pollution include everything involved in the process, from the feeding and care of the turkeys as theyre reared, growing the vegetables, to the plane fuel used to import cranberry sauce from North America. So its not just leaving the oven on in the kitchen thats creating all these emissions. But still, it makes you think, doesnt it? Actually, this is making me hungry more than anything, which isnt the desired effect I dont think. So enjoy your Christmas dinner, but maybe we could all try to recycle a little more or cut down on fuel this festive period to offset the extra pollution, and the extra guilt caused by reading this article... Just before I finish for today, if youre looking to get in the mood for Christmas, this Sunday there is the annual Carol service at Lincoln cathedral. Several of the Radio Lincolnshire presenters will be there and I will be as well to do a reading. If you can make it along then I look forward to seeing you there at the Cathedral at 7.30 this Sunday. Its going to be a wonderful event. Well thats if from me for today, dont forget you can catch up on all the days top stories and watch the latest edition of the programme online now at www.bbc.co.uk/looknorthhull. Thats also the address to send any friends to if theyre not subscribed to the Levy Letter, they can click on Levy Letter and sign up. And if youve got anything you want to let me know for the programme then you can reach me on email as always at [EMAIL PROTECTED] I think that covers everything. I hope you have a very good day, dont forget if youre driving it is icy in some places so take care. I hope you can join me tonight for the programme at half past six on BBC One. Bye for now Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
