When Emily Mikoski's son was diagnosed with hearing loss, she set out to find a children's book that would help explain what he would be able to hear with hearing aids. After coming up short, she decided to write her own book and at the end of March she self published “Max and His Hearing Aids”.

Emily's son, Max, now four, was diagnosed with hearing loss as a newborn and has been wearing hearing aids since he was around five months old. Having never known a child with hearing aids, Emily says there was some initial uncertainty about what it would be like.

“For me it was very foreign,” says Emily, “It was very scary.”

The first hearing aids came with information pamphlets and booklets as well as book featuring an elephant who wore hearing aids. Emily says the elephant book was not only unrelated, but highly technical and difficult for a small child to understand.

On Saturday, April 27th, police departments across the region will be hosting drug collections as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration's fifth National Drug Take Back Day.

The DEA has collected over 1,000 tons of unused and expired prescription drugs over the last three years. The take back day was started to get the public more involved in the prevention of prescription drug abuse.

Unused prescription drugs in homes are considered a public health and safety concern by the DEA. According to the DEA this is because the drugs are “highly susceptible to accidental ingestion, diversion, misuse and abuse”.

A survey done by the DEA found that the majority of abuses get their prescription drugs through friends and family. Often times it's as simple as raiding the medicine cabinet. Americans currently abuse more prescription drugs than those using cocaine, hallucinogens and heroin combined.

The state of Washington fared better than most in the American Lung Association's State of Tobacco Control 2013 report.

The report measures state and federal efforts to enact regulations and legislation that limit access to tobacco.

Washington received an F in Tobacco Prevention and Control Program funding - 41 states and Washington, D.C., also failed that category.

"A struggling economy and weak revenue forecasts continued in 2012, dashing hopes of re-establishing Washington's once successful tobacco prevention and control program," the report said. "The prgram was victim to regular cuts and was completely eliminated at the end of the 2011 legislative session leaving Washington as one of the only states without quitline services available for residents throughout the state.