The Greens have announced its candidates for the upcoming Bellingen Shire Council elections and will launch their Local Government Campaign today at the Information Centre Urunga. Read on

Months of hard work are going into a 230 metre mural that is set to be one of the longest in the southern hemisphere. The Aboriginal mural will line the wall between Taree Service Centre and Purfleet. Read on

On August 29, 1916 Jim Whitbourne entered the world at the small country town of Kyabram in the Goulburn Valley. One hundred years later, and in a very different world to the one he took his first breath, Jim reflects on a good life filled with laughter and love. Read more

SUPERMAN, Bat Girl, the Hulk and their superhero friends were having a great time on the dance floor at Nambucca’s Giiguy Gamambi Preschool on Monday and all in support of Muscular Dystrophy. Click here to watch the dance

Port Macquarie Sharks coach Joe Cudmore and his side are fresh and looking forward to Sunday’s major semi-final. They put the feet up last weekend while this weekend’s opponents Port City navigated their way past Wingham in Wingham. Read on

Need a national news snapshot first thing? Well, we have you covered. 

► VICTORIA: Dairy farmers are being advised by researchers to adapt to predicted climate changes. The weather will only get drier, hotter and more variable which will affect dairy production, according to Dairy Australia. WestVic Dairy’s Land, Water and Carbon consultant Graeme Ward said climate change would gradually bring warmer weather, making dairy “less profitable”. Read more.

► ORANGE, NSW: An 80-year-old woman dependent on her walking frame has asked for the thief who stole it from her shed to return it and a host of other valuables after suffering two break-ins in recent weeks. Read more.

► REDLANDS, QLD: The mother of a teenager addicted to ice has spoken about her desperate struggle and called on parents to educate themselves about drugs. The woman, who is not being named for her protection, said she “spied” on her son after she discovered his drug use. “I was shocked at how much ice was in this area,” she said. Read more.

► CASTLEMAINE, VIC: Castlemaine and Chewton residents could be spared the lingering smell of smoke that often accompanies the controlled burn period, after coming up with alternatives to reduce bushfire risk. Read more.

► BATHURST, NSW: A modern-day prospector believes he has found a billion-dollar seam of gold and copper just a few kilometres from the original Gold Rush fields at Hill End, north of Bathurst. Grasmont Exploration and Mining director Ian Morwood has taken out an exploration licences covering around 150 square kilometres of unexplored territory known as the Western Flank near Hill End. Read more.

► LAUNCESTON, TAS: TasWater’s decision to reduce payments to the City of Launceston will cost the council $1 million a year. Northern councils earned $7.9 million from TasWater in 2015. Just over 50 per cent of the revenue was earned by Launceston, who has a 14 per cent share in TasWater with more than $4 million. This was a $548,000 jump on income the year before. Read more.​

► Dumped Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles has left the door open to joining the Turnbull government, while rounding on Liberal predecessor Shane Stone. Mr Stone, who served as chief minister of the NT from 1995 to 1999, on Monday vowed to block any move to install Mr Giles in the federal Parliament following the Country Liberal Party's electoral thumping on Saturday. It is not yet clear if Mr Giles will retain his Alice Springs-based seat, but the CLP has been wiped out in the landslide poll that installed Labor's Michael Gunner as the new chief minister. Read more.

► Australia is building too many poor-quality high-rise apartment towers that are alienating to live in and have low environmental performance, one of the nation's most widely respected residential architects has warned. Read more.

► Senate powerbroker Nick Xenophon has delivered a potentially fatal blow to the Turnbull government's plan to hold a public vote on same-sex marriage. The South Australian independent and his newly elected team announced on Monday the party would not support a plebiscite, days after the Greens said they would vote to block enabling legislation in the Senate. Read more.

National weather radar

International news

► What does New Zealand have in common with Iceland? Both outrank Australia in the latest survey on global innovation. In fact, Australia lags well behind the likes of Japan, Canada and Finland. But all lag well behind the top three - Switzerland, Sweden and the UK - with even Ireland ranked well within the top ten. Read more.

► Czarlette Menzagopian was on her honeymoon in Miami last year when the credit card she shares with her husband was skimmed. The 28-year-old conference-and-events manager doesn't know how it happened, but she knew something was wrong when she could not use her card to pay a hotel bill. Many retailers in the US still take signatures as the US is yet to fully transition to chip technology and PINs. Read more.

August 30, 1972: Happy birthday to this popular actress! Cameron Diaz turns 44 today. She’s known for a range of roles including in Charlie’s Angels, There’s Something About Mary and My Sister’s Keeper. She also voiced the character of Princess Fiona in the Shrek movies! Diaz is also a producr and former fashion model. On top of that, she’s released a book – find out more here: 

Kazz Tokek almost lost her life to Lyme disease and now she is ready to grasp her second chance at life.

The Maitland woman spent six years suffering from a long list of ailments that started in 2006 after a series of tick bites in bush land in Queensland.

The disease wrecked havoc with her immune system and transformed the fit and energetic biologist – who could easily spend three days felling trees, chainsawing and chipping trees – into a frail woman who struggled to get out of bed and could only manage simple computer games and jigsaw puzzles.

Doctors continually dismissed her symptoms as anxiety, twelfth rib syndrome and anemia – or said there was nothing wrong with her – until a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor diagnosed her with the disease and the common co-infection Babesia in 2012. At that point she was frail and very ill.

A chance encounter with a Sydney chronic illness specialist saved her life through three years of intensive treatment.

But it was not cheap.

She was too sick to work for four years and had to sell her home, most of her belongings and use all of her savings to try to save her life. 

She has spent more than $450,000 on a disease that the federal government doesn’t believe exists in Australia. Read more.