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►Cyclists from all over Australia and around the world are set to descend on The Southern Highlands on and 22.
Registrations have opened for the 2017 Bowral Classic, following the inaugural event in 2016.
►The Highlands’ enthusiastic young AFL players will start their season with a home-ground match.
The Southern Highlands Hawks will start the season on Sunday, April 2.
►It’s that time of year again – Daylight Saving Time will wind up on Sunday, April 2.
Clocks will need to turn back time at 3am, meaning an extra hour’s sleep for many Highlanders.
►Apply to take a share of $1.5 million to improve mental health services and outcomes.
Round 2 of the Mental Health Innovation Fund has opened, and organisations have been urged to apply for a share of the funds.
Goulburn MP Pru Goward said the fund offered the best minds in business, the community sector and government an opportunity to develop and deliver new ways to help people living with mental illness.
►Special guests brought along their favourite bedtime buddy to an Avoca Public School event.
More than 30 preschool-aged children were invited to the school to take part in their Teddy Bears Picnic.
►Highlands residents will demand answers about the Bowral Hospital redevelopment at an upcoming Question and Answer session.
South Western Sydney Local Health District and Health Infrastructure have announced a public meeting which will be held on April 3.
Public Health First members will attend the meeting and press Local Health District and Health Infrastructure representatives for details of what has been planned, the Clinical Services Plan, the master plan for the redeveloped hospital and the status of the privatisation.
►Take the time to return to tradition at the Highlands’ oldest heritage-listed church.
The traditional Harvest Service will be held April 2, with homegrown decorations, refreshments and a chance to walk the historic cemetery.
►Learn more about disability services in the Highlands at a fun-filled afternoon.
ASDESI (autism spectrum disorder education support and information) representatives are holding an informative play day in Moss Vale for interested community members.
ASDESI marketing manager Jospeh Lyons said the day offered the chance for people to access more information.
►A community-run garden has been the target of vandals.
Banners hanging at the Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens were torn off the fence and ripped sometime between March 22 and March 23.
SHBG board member Chris Webb said he believed the banners had been torn down and used to get an unknown car out of the mud.
TRAFFIC: All roads are clear in the Southern Highlands today. Drive safely and enjoy the journey.
TRAINS: Commuters can expect a good service on the Southern Highlands today.
WEATHER: A cloudy day with a very high (95%) chance of rain, becoming less likely later tonight, rain possibly heavy at times, the chance of a thunderstorm this morning, winds S 15 to 20 km/h increasing to 25 to 35 km/h in the middle of the day and a temperature of 20 can be expected in the Highlands today.
Here's a look at what the local weather is doing right now:
7.00AM: Good morning and welcome to the Southern Highlands Rise and Shine. Over the next few hours we will be bringing you as much information as possible from across the Southern Highlands and nationally.
Weather, road conditions, breaking news, we will have it all - and we'd love to have your help! If there's anything happening in your part of the world, drop us a line! Email jackie.meyers@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Need a national news snapshot first thing - well, we have you covered.
Regional news
►LAUNCESTON: If you’re looking to expand your family, a happy cow might be just what you were looking for.
A curious ad appeared on the online buy-and-sell site Gumtree on Tuesday evening advertising an Ashgrove Farm ‘happy cow’ was going free to a good home. Read more.
►BALLARAT: The thunder of hooves and the crash of timber on armour will fill the grounds of Kryal Castle this weekend as our Australian jousters take on their New Zealand counterparts in the Tasman Shield International Jousting Tournament.
Ballarat veteran Phillip Leitch is joining compatriots Cliff Marisma and Andrew McKinnon to combat the NZ team of Jezz Smith, Vikki Subritzy and Simon Neilsen. Read more.
►MANDURAH: In the wake of recent statistics showing a significant increase in the number of people taking methamphetamines and seeking help for drug addiction, the Palmerston Association is set to roll out a comprehensive community response to meth for families and individuals in the Peel region.
A recent secret test of wastewater undertaken by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission has shown a significant rise in the amount of people addicted to methamphetamines. Read more.
►NEWCASTLE: THE RSPCA will not prosecute a Fullerton Cove boarding kennel for animal cruelty, after autopsy results ruled out heat stress as the cause of death for a popular Fern Bay greyhound.
The death of Baron the greyhound on December 28 sparked outrage among animal lovers, after Fern Bay man Nathan Wilson publicly criticised Jane’s Pet Resort following the death of his beloved pet, believing the dog died of dehydration and heatstroke while in the boarding kennel’s care. Read more.
►WOLLONGONG: Kevin Condon's is not the face you usually see splashed across a news story about vaccination. It's usually a chubbier, more youthful visage. About seven decades more youthful.
The babies and preschoolers of parents opposed to vaccinations are the unrivalled targets of government and media focus surrounding immunisation rates. But the children of anti-vaxxers and vaccine-hesitant people form a tiny subset of Australia's under-vaccinated population. Read more.
►GRIFFITH: A convicted killer who's been on the run since skipping a Melbourne court date seven years ago has reportedly been seen in NSW.
Police say Graham Gene Potter was spotted in Griffith twice in July 2016 - once in a shop and another at a gym.
There were reports of possible sightings in August last year, but Victoria Police have released more information about the fugitive and his movements. Read more.
►TASMANIA: Alisha Powell and her mum Cherie Mackean were heartbroken when they discovered two kittens fighting for their lives at Cataract Gorge.
The pair were about to begin their morning run when Ms Powell heard screeching from the bushes.
“We thought it was a bird,” she said. Read more.
►MURRAY BRIDGE: There are more than 2,300 little corella sites across South Australia, according to a study released this month by Discovery Circle, an initiative of the University of South Australia.
The statewide report aimed to identify steps, based on research and consultation with the public, to help reduce issues with little corellas. Read more.
National news
► Bronwyn Bishop has avoided a planned review of her use of entitlements over the last 10 years by cutting short her participation in the investigation, which had already led to the former Speaker repaying taxpayers $6700 for costs related to her attending her colleague's weddings and Kerry Packer's funeral. Read more.
►A convicted murderer who attempted to sue the NSW prisons boss over his incarceration in Goulburn's Supermax prison has been shot in Sydney's west.
Emad Sleiman was shot in the chest and leg inside an Auburn apartment block at 9.20pm on Wednesday. Read more.
►A man has died and another man is seriously injured in hospital after their car crashed following a police pursuit in the NSW central west.
Both men were ejected from the car in the single vehicle crash in South Bathurst, near the intersection of Lloyds Road and Vale Road, police said
The car was being pursued by police moments before the driver lost control just after 1pm on Wednesday. Read more.
►There is more to income inequality than the famed 1 per cent versus the 99 per cent or standing chief executive officers next to average workers.
Inequality in wages, new research has found, is increasingly defined by where you work not what your job title is. Read more.
National weather radar
World news
► BANGKOK: Cambodian authorities have permanently banned the sale and export of human breast milk after suspending exports from a US company that has been collecting it from impoverished mothers for more than two years.
The ban has put the spotlight on a global trade in breast milk to other mothers, bodybuilders, cancer patients and breast-milk fetishists. Read more.
► PERU: A Boeing jet operated by Peruvian Airlines caught fire on Tuesday while landing at an airport near the Andean town of Jauja in central Peru after it swerved on the runway, but there were no serious injuries, a government minister said.
Peruvian Airlines said in a statement that the Boeing 737-300 jet drove off the runway for unspecified reasons during the scheduled landing, after swerving to the right. It said that all 141 people on board the flight, which originated in Lima, were evacuated safely. Read more.
► LONDON: London: In the day of terror that besieged Westminster just seven days ago, one particular eyewitness account stood out as especially horrific.
"I saw a body fall into the water," a horrified worker who had been sitting on Parliament's balcony told Fairfax Media.
An hour earlier he had seen the horror Khalid Masood was able to unleash in just 82 seconds, beginning at 2.40pm. Read more.
On this day
1461 – The armies of two kings, Henry VI and Edward IV, collide at Towton.
1827 – Composer Ludwig van Beethoven is buried in Vienna amidst a crowd of over 10,000 mourners.
1867 – The United States purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars.
1886 – Coca-Cola goes on sale for the first time at a drugstore in Atlanta. Its inventor, Dr. John Pemberton, claims it can cure anything from hysteria to the common cold.
1903 – A regular news service begins between New York and London on Marconi's wireless.
1936 – Italy firebombs the Ethiopian city of Harar.
1941 – The British sink five Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean.
1951 – The Chinese reject Gen. Douglas MacArthur's offer for a truce in Korea.
1962 – Cuba opens the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders.
1967 – France launches its first nuclear submarine.
1973 – The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Vietnam.
1976 – Eight Ohio National Guardsmen are indicted for shooting four Kent State students during an anti-war protest on May 4, 1970.
1986 – A court in Rome acquits six men in a plot to kill the Pope.
Faces of Australia
Ryker Harris –
Ryker Harris pushes and barters with his parents just like any other three-year-old but unlike his peers he battles every day with a genetic disorder called Meier-Gorlin Syndrome.
His mother Lana Stewart said Ryker was diagnosed within four hours of birth as one of about 53 individuals worldwide with this syndrome.
“To have this syndrome you need three things, small ears, no kneecaps and short stature,” she said. Read more.