This weekend an army of volunteers will hit the streets across the country collecting for the annual Red Shield Appeal.

To coincide with this year’s appeal the Salvation Army has released its Financial Distress Review which found 40 percent increase in the number of people accessing its financial counselling services in the past five years.

Salvos Spokesperson Major Bruce Harmer tells Mark that what is really worrying is that increasingly it is women in serious financial trouble.

The magazine shelves at the local newsagent have thinned in recent years as title after title has either reinvented itself online or disappeared completely.

Publishers are in an increasingly difficult fight for a smaller readership, the costs are still significant and advertisers have a myriad of other options.

Australian Geographic is one magazine that has managed to stave off extinction and longterm Editor-in-Chief Chrissie Goldrick tells Mark it’s now reached a major milestone with its 150th Anniversary Edition.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she has received the message from the Federal Election and is “fed up” with the time being taken to make a final decision.

The Premier has organised a meeting for tomorrow between the state Coordinator General and the company to put the approvals process on the fast track, despite previously saying the process must be followed.

Adani Australia CEO Lucas Dow tells Mark it is a welcome development and not before time.

More than 700,000 Queenslanders selflessly give of themselves as volunteers each year working sporting clubs, community and religious groups.

According to the ABS all that unpaid work is worth more than $11 billion a year to the state’s economy.

It’s National Volunteers Week and Mara Basanovic from Volunteering Queensland tells Mark that worryingly volunteer numbers have been in decline for several years.

Labor heavyweights are now beginning to perform the autopsy on the party’s failed federal election campaign.

Nowhere is the coroner’s report more vital than in Queensland with the Palaszczuk Labor government set to face the judgement of voters next year.

Former Labor MP and speaker of the Queensland Parliament John Mickel tells Mark that if the ALP is to have any hope at all it must convince voters in regional areas that it is not anti-mining.

New figures show an increasing number of Queensland paramedics are ending up as patients simply by virtue of doing their jobs.

Attacks on paramedics are up 40 per cent statewide and more than half of all attacks are happening in the southeast Queensland region.

Torrin Nelson is a paramedic and a United Voice delegate and he tells Mark that he and his colleagues would like to see tougher penalties handed out to those who attack officers.

No-one likes being stung by a bee but without them life would be almost impossible to sustain.

That’s because we rely on bees to pollinate not just flowers but the crops of fruit and grains on which we all depend.

Worringly bees are under increasing pressure and numbers globally are in decline, although more research is needed to understand the full extent of the problem.

Today is the second World Bee Day and native bee researcher Dr Toby Smith explains to Mark we can all do something to help.

What's On with Olympia Kwitowski.

Since their formation in 1995 the Ten Tenors have become one of Australia’s most successful musical exports.

They have headlined more than 2000 concerts around the world, sold more than 3.5 million concert tickets and performed with everyone from Andrea Boccelli to Christina Aguilera.

They are about to play a run of dates across southeast Queensland on their Love Is In The Air tour and one of the tenors Keane Fletcher joined Mark in the studio.

It’s sometimes said that baking a great cake is more art than science and that is certainly true of the creations on display at the International Cake Show in Brisbane.

The show has attracted half a dozen of the world’s most famous cake artists for a live televised international cake-off.

Renowned Australian cake and sugar artist Zoe Byres tells Mark things have come a long way from grandma’s sponge.