Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe BILLY GRAHAM TEMPORARILY LOSES HEARING Doctors treating evangelist Billy Graham say that the 83-year-old clergyman has temporarily lost his hearing. They say that a fluid buildup in his ears created the hearing loss. Advertisement A spokesman for the Mayo Clinic -- where Graham is being treated -- released a statement to media saying that the problem in his inner ear has been caused by a chronic condition in Graham's sinuses. At the current time Graham has zero hearing, but doctors feel that the situation can be slowly corrected as the pressures within his ear canals are reduced. AMERICANS NOT LIKING NEW DOLLAR COIN After the fiasco of the Susan B. Anthony "silver dollar," the U.S. Mint waited a while before trying again to convince Americans that coins are better than folding money. But the latest attempt, the beautiful golden Sacagawea Dollar, isn't a big hit either. Advertisement The Susan B. Anthony coin, derisively called the "Susan B. Agony Dollar" by coin collectors, never caught on because it was so easily confused for the quarter. The new golden dollar does not have that problem. But what it does seem to have is a lack of consumer appeal. Because of the lack of interest in the new coin the Mint announced Thursday that it's not going to make any more of them, unless interest is renewed. Government officials had prayed that the new coin would catch on since metal coins last many times longer than paper money and are cheaper to produce in the long run. Canada went to a one-dollar and a two-dollar coin in recent years with great success. MORE DELAYS FOR THE SHUTTLE MISSION NASA says the latest shuttle mission is being delayed ... again. This time another fuel leak, but this one's on the ground at the launch site. The space agency says that a leak of hydrogen forced the scrubbing of the liftoff of the shuttle Atlantis. The mission was aimed at carrying men and materiel to the international space station construction project. The leak was picked up by sensors since no people are at the base of the shuttle during fueling because of the danger of an explosion. Advertisement The leak is thought to be a big one and could take time to fix. TEEN TO ATTEND ANTI-TOBACCO SUMMIT A young man from Minnesota will be going to this year's anti-tobacco summit in Italy to be held by the World Health Organization (WHO), an arm of the United Nations. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says that 17-year-old Simon Stumpf -- from the tiny city of Pierz, in central Minnesota -- was chosen to accompany several other U.S. students in a project to help other young people develop anti-smoking campaigns for their fellow teens. Stumpf, a senior at Healy High School, will travel to Florence, Italy, later this month. He won the honor because of an essay he wrote for a Minnesota anti-smoking group. Stumpf tells the publication that the goal of his group is to "expose (tobacco advertising's) lies." The teen's interest in clearing the air was prompted, in part, by the fact that his younger brother has a breathing disorder.
