Paul Dingares

Michael Phelps made history when he won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Now hes training hard, driven to make a splash in London this summer. Hes just three medals shy of breaking the record for most Olympic career medals. But the road back to the Olympics hasnt been easy, Anderson Cooper reports. The usually competitive and motivated Phelps went through a slump that made his own coach wonder if the swimmer would make it to the London games for the last lap of his career.

The following script is from Michael Phelps which originally aired on May 6, 2012. Anderson Cooper is the correspondent. Draggan Mihailovich, producer.

In three months, Michael...

Training animals has been a passion of Cathy Cardens for as long as she can remember.

Ive been training animals since I was a little kid, said Carden, who along with husband Brett is part of the 2012 Ringling Bros. and Barnum amp; Bailey Circus coming to Ector County Coliseum Thursday. Every pet under the sun — cats, dogs, hamsters, snakes, birds, rats. I trained rats. They are very smart.

I had all kinds of animals. Drove my mother crazy. My familys act was horseback riding. I was riding before I was walking. My dad bought me a pony when I was 12, Silver. He was the right size, and he was beautiful. And I started training him, and thats where I got my start with horses,...

The Boys amp; Girls Club of St. Lucie County Mac Mascioli Unit received a $30,000 donation from Andrew Hunt at the Roy A. Hunt Foundation to update its weight room. The new Cybex weight equipment was delivered to the Unit on May 16.

The weight room at the Mac Mascioli Unit previously consisted of worn and outdated equipment acquired from private donations and machines donated by the St. Lucie County School Board when hurricanes destroyed the old

Fort Pierce Central High School.

“This adds to the allure of the facility and gives our kids a sense of pride to know that someone cares enough to give them such a wonderful gift,” Lorenzo Lockett, unit director...

Parachute games will be one of many activities for children at the Sports, Nutrition amp; Activity Camp.A $10,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente Fresno will allow nearly 300 children to have an opportunity to learn healthy lifestyle habits over the summer at a new camp that focuses on physical activity and nutrition.

The City of Selma Recreation and Community Services Department said in a news release that it would launch the Sports, Nutrition amp; Activity Camp on June 11. The camp will run daily over four two-week sessions and will be attended by children ages 5 to 12.

“This camp is critical to ensuring our youth in Selma have the resources they need to lead healthy and active...

The American Cancer Society is urging women to get more active to improve their health, as a survey finds women are 10-percent less likely than men to make time for physical activities. Theresa Allen with the societys Iowa chapter says theyve got a program to help called Choose You.

Choose You is really a movement to get women to take care of their own needs. I think as moms and what not we tend to focus on the rest of the family and not enough on ourselves. So its really a movement to get us to put ourselves first, Allen explains. More physical activity is just a part of the program that seeks to help women with overall health.

Allen says it also includes things like eating...

DEARBORN HEIGHTS Each Friday of the nine-week summer camp at Dearborn Heights Montessori Center is known as Splash Day giving kids fun times with water play. Throughout the week, children from 18 months through age 12 take part in a broad range of activities on the schools campus located at 466 N. John Daly in Dearborn Heights.

Our summer camp program actually gives children more than a lsquo;splash, said Heidi Gauger, summer program director. They dive into activities designed for each age group to experience a well-rounded combination of learning, creative arts, and indoor and outdoor play.

Each week campers explore a different theme with related art projects and physical...

A TRIP to Fraser Island would put a smile on anybody#39;s face.

But for 48 young cancer sufferers and their families, it was just what the doctor ordered.

The 100-strong group from across Queensland has been taking part in sports, games and leisure activities in Hervey Bay as part of Camp Quality, before hitting the Fraser Island sands yesterday to continue their feel-good therapy.

Camp Quality is a charity organisation that aims to bring optimism and happiness to the lives of children and families affected by cancer.

The large group, which arrived on the Fraser Coast on Friday and will leave today, has been staying at White Crest Luxury Apartments in Torquay.

Resort...

Killing animals for profit. It smacks of a National Geographic documentary from the 1970s. Elephants gunned down by poachers in a sad story of exploitation. But in 2012, its still happening.

VARANASI: The old dwellers of the holy city were very sensitive towards animals, specially cow and ox. Traces of co-existence of human beings and animals can be found in old parts of the city. The earthen and cemented, traditional water tanks kept at a number of crossroads, tea stalls, temples and other eating joints were prepared by natives of the city exclusively for the stray animals and cattle like cow, ox, monkeys, dogs and birds.

However these traditional tanks, which once quenched the thirst of stray animals, are now either broken or being used as dustbins in Old City areas.

Clowns and balloon animals, coming soon to JC Penney? (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)