In today’s Good News, performers in Los Angeles are lining up to show off their talents at a tiny theater disguised as an electrical box, proving anything can be a stage. And in Turkmenistan, conservation efforts are slowly paying off, with more endangered — and elusive — Persian leopards appearing on camera traps.

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

Japan has become the first country to approve a stem-cell treatment for Parkinson’s disease, and it could be available to patients as early as this summer. The therapy, Amchepry, is made by Sumitomo Pharma and involves transplanting reprogrammed iPS cells into both sides of the brain to help improve motor symptoms like shaking and difficulty moving. During a small trial, millions of cells were implanted in the brains of participants. After two years, no major side effects were reported and four patients showed symptom improvements.

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A special spray-on coating allows people to paint messages on sidewalks that appear only when it rains, a welcome surprise during dreary weather. Peregrine Church developed Rainworks as a way to make street art in Seattle, and the water-activated, eco-friendly spray is now a tool in awareness campaigns around the world. At Lake Washington, artists used Rainworks to educate visitors about pollution prevention, drawing wildlife and messages to remind people that “animals live and play here too — protect their home.”

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Artist S.C. Mero built the Electrical Box Theater on a downtown Los Angeles street so all creatively minded people can have a place to perform. It is 6 feet tall and 3 feet deep, with a red velvet door. From the outside, it looks like a typical electrical box, which appeals to people who are “intimidated to get up on a stage,” Mero told the Los Angeles Times. Experimental musicians, poets and clowns have already put on impromptu performances at the box.

Endangered Persian leopards are mounting a comeback in Turkmenistan. A system of camera traps set up in the western part of the country recently captured footage of three breeding females in the Uly-Balkan mountain range, a “promising sign” that the leopards are “recolonizing ecosystems” where conservation efforts and increased habitat protections are in place, said Good News Network. Researchers believe that 60 to 80 Persian leopards live across Turkmenistan’s nature reserves, up from previous years.

The IRS is still offering its Free File program, which is one of several ways you may be able to file your taxes for free this year

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