All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.
Transplant Taken Away
Tiffany Tate was told by the state of Arizona that Medicaid will no longer cover her double lung transplant.
/ CBSThis was one of the most difficult interviews I have done in a long time.
When a 27-year-old looks you in the eye and says she is going to die, there is not much you can say. You have to carry on with the interview while your heart is breaking for her. However, no matter how hard it was for me to talk to her about it, Tiffany Tate's struggle is exponentially tougher and what really matters.
Continue »"Harvest of Shame" Still Matters 50 Years Later
CBS News correspondent Edward R. Murrow in 1960's "Harvest of Shame."
/ CBSThis week marks the 50th anniversary of Edward R. Murrow's award-winning documentary "Harvest of Shame."
The hour-long special aired in 1960, on the day after Thanksgiving. It was a shocking look at the deplorable living and working conditions for America's two to three million migrant farm workers. "The best fed people in the world," as Murrow put it, gathered around the television set and watched (in black and white film) the lives of the people who picked the fruits and vegetables that fed the country.
CBS REPORTS "Harvest of Shame"
Continue »Rockwell and Ruby
If you haven't heard of Norman Rockwell, surely you've seen his work.
"Artist Facing Blank Canvas" by Norman Rockwell, 1938.
/ Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN ,Norman Rockwell Art Collection TrustBy the same token, if the name Ruby Bridges doesn't ring a bell, maybe her portrait looks familiar.
"The Problem We All Live With" by Norman Rockwell, 1963.
/ Norman Rockwell Museum CollectionBefore I moved to New Orleans, you could count me in the category of "doesn't ring a bell." That is until a colleague of mine, the now famous Hoda Kotb, told me her story. She herself had just met her and was amazed by her steely reserve: a woman, who as a young girl, lived through a sea of hatred and seemed to escape unscathed.
Norman Rockwell painted Ruby in 1964, four years after the six-year-old integrated New Orleans public schools. His picture shows a sprite, neatly dressed little girl, flanked by federal Marshalls as she faced hostile crowds outside of Frantz School.
"I didn't know what all the fuss was about," Bridges told me last week. "I was going to a new school and I was so excited."
Bridges was among the first to integrate an all-white elementary school in the South. There were three other girls who broke the barrier at McDonough 19, a few miles away.
"But they were together, they had each other," Ruby said. "I was all alone."Perhaps for that reason, the famous painter felt compelled to illustrate Ruby's experience.
In 1963, Rockwell left the Saturday Evening Post, home to his cover portraits of idyllic American scenes, to explore some of the problems afflicting American society. He began working for Look magazine, a publication that gave him the opportunity to express his social concerns.
His first painting, Ruby's portrait, was "The Problem We All Live With". It led to some of Rockwell's most graphic and emotional work of the decade. Then came "Southern Justice," a haunting illustration of the murder of three civil rights workers for their efforts to register African-American voters.
Continue »100 Things or Less: Exceptions to the Rule
by CBS News national correspondent Jeff Glor
Think about it.
If you had to live with 100 things or less, could you do it?
If so, what, exactly, would they be?
We're talking laptop computers, coffee machines, couches, cars, jackets, iPods - all of it. Every item counts. You have to get down to 100 items or less. Not easy, right?
Continue »Meeting a Panda in China
Steve Hartman meets a panda at the Chengdu Panda Base in China.
/ CBS/Bob CaccamiseCHENDU, China - Day 14
Before heading off to Indonesia - the final destination in this installment of "Everybody in the World Has a Story" - Steve Hartman and Bob Caccamise decided to visit the Chengdu Panda Base.
Read Steve Hartman's Travel Blogs:
Police Keep Watchful Eye in China
Camel Bites Steve Hartman in Australia
Meeting Shy Aboriginals in Australia's Outback
Headed Down a Dirt Road, With No Road Maps
Halfway Around the World in Four Days
Looking for a Story in Cordoba, Argentina
Everybody in the World Has a Story, Round 2
Hartman said there are 89 pandas to see at the Panda Breeding Center. They started with just 6 pandas 23 years ago.
For a donation, you can hold a panda. Check out the video below of Steve Hartman doing just that.
Continue »Bee Mystery Solved?
CBS
I have been following the mysterious bee die-off since it first hit big time in February 2007. It was in California's central valley where beekeepers from across the country truck in their hives to pollinate the almond orchards. But that year there was a sudden worry that there wouldn't be enough bees to do the job as beekeepers found many of their hives empty. The bees had just disappeared. Some beekeepers reported losing almost all their bees.
There were plenty of theories about what could be the cause from global warming to cell phone signals. That February in the almond orchards I met bee researcher Jerry Bromenshenk from the University of Montana. He was collecting samples of bees from dead and dying hives.
More of John Blackstone's Reporting on the Bee Mystery:
What's Killing the Honey Bees?
The Case of the Vanishing Bees
Almost four years later those bees may have helped solve the mystery. Bromenshenk led a huge collaborative project involving 18 scientists at universities, private research companies and even a U.S. Army lab. Together they screened hundreds of bees for 30,000 different protein fragments and analyzed the results to discover the combination of a unique virus and a parasite that they suspect causes Colony Collapse Disorder.
Being scientists, they can't say they have absolutely discovered the cause until their findings are verified and duplicated by others. But for beekeepers it is probably the most promising news in four years. With a possible cause identified they can start using a fungicide to fight the parasite that is part of the one-two punch that may be killing the bees.
In four years of reporting this story I have been impressed by the hard work of scientists trying to find a cause and by the determination of beekeepers who have been struggling constantly to rebuild their hives. More than anything I have been impressed by the work done by bees. They are such a crucial link in much of our food supply and yet we are more likely to swat at them than appreciate what they do for us. But perhaps I feel that way because in all my visits to bee yards I have yet to be stung!
Diego Receives the Gift of Hearing
Diego Neumaier Ortiz.
/ CBSCBS Evening News: Born Deaf, Diego Receives the Miracle of Sound
Tonight, on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, we tell the remarkable story of how two California doctors, using a cutting-edge procedure they'd developed, were able to give Diego the gift of hearing. They also gave him a new ear. For the first time in his life he hears his mother's voice and likes the way he looks. He's planning to come back in December to get a new left ear as well.Diego calls the operation a miracle. The doctors, John Reinisch, a pioneer in ear reconstruction, and Joseph Roberson, an ear, nose & throat specialist, Diego calls angels. They waived their usual $60,000 fee for performing the life-changing procedure. But the full cost for both ears is almost $130,000, including flights from Mexico, lodging, food and hospital expenses. Diego's family doesn't have medical insurance.
So here is where other angels stepped in. Grateful former patients, who themselves had gotten ears and hearing restored by the doctors, contributed to a fund to pay Diego's expenses. The non-profit Small Wonders Foundation, raised money for the first operation and continue seeking funds for the second. Other patients opened their homes to Diego and his mother so they'd have a place to stay their weeks in the U.S.
Diego is a bit of a miracle himself. Despite his lack of hearing, despite the many people who said he couldn't, Diego was able defy the odds and become the Junior Gymnastics Champion of Mexico. Since he had no money to give doctors Reinisch and Roberson, he gave them his most valuable possession: his championship medals. With two ears and full hearing, he plans to qualify for the Olympics.
Police Keep Watchful Eye in Chengdu, China
The police in Chengdu, China wanted to know why cameraman Bob Caccamise was taking pictures in a public place.
/ CBS/Steve HartmanCHENDU, China - Day 12
At first blush, it's hard to see the communism in communist China.
Continue »What's Your Religious IQ?
A new Pew Research Survey out today says that America is the most religious country among industrialized nations, yet we know little about religion: our own and even less about other religions.
(Scroll down to watch the video from Byron Pitts.)
The survey asked questions like, what is the first book in the Bible? What day does the Jewish Sabbath begin? What is the Dalai Lama's religion? Most Americans got it wrong.
Take the Religious Knowledge Quiz
Stephen Prothero, professor of Religion at Boston University, says "we're a nation of religious illiterates."
It's clear that religion matters to most Americans. It's an important part of my life. Yet many people know very little about the history, traditions and the written word of their faiths.
Some of the experts we talked to said it is a dangerous trend for our nation, especially in the current climate internationally. We talked to a minister who said one of the great challenges her church faces is "teaching" people the word and getting followers to grow beyond the "feel good" parts of their religion.
Interesting enough, atheists knew the most about religion. It seems a person's education has a tremendous amount to do with how much they know about religion.
How much do you know? Could you, should you, know more?
Camel Bites Steve Hartman in Australia
Day 9: DOCKER RIVER, Australia
We had hoped to pick a subject and start shooting our story today. Instead, we spent most of the day trying to find someone, anyone, willing to cooperate with us.
As of now, the only really outgoing character I've found in Docker River is a camel named Lazarus. He was orphaned a few years ago and raised by one of the locals. He has no fear of humans. Until we arrived, he'd even been considered "friendly." Indeed, residents of Docker River swear he definitely never tried to eat anybody before - at least, not until I came to town.
Continue »
