All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Brent Green is one of those guys who makes me realize I don't do nearly enough for my community.

He had an idea so simple, it’s transformational.

When he turned 30 he decided he wanted to give something back to his hometown of Los Angeles. So, this landscaper planted 30 trees.

Every year since then, Brent has planted his age in trees. This year that’s 42 trees.

His efforts have done more than add shade to the streets. His neighbors have taken Brent’s advice on how to spruce up their front yards, started a block watch group, and convinced the city to paint the dilapidated fire hydrants in their area.

Now, crime is down 30 percent as police officers say criminals tend to avoid areas where neighbors take care of their properties. Better looking neighborhoods often means more watchful neighbors. All this began with a shovel, a tree, and a simple act of gratitude.

Be sure to catch Brent Green's story tonight on the CBS Evening News.

Have you ever felt like David when going up against the Goliath that is most major banks?

Well, some customers fed up with high banking fees and interest rate hikes are taking to the internet to rail against their banks.

Ann Minch of California posted this YouTube video after Bank of American raised the interest rate on her credit card from 13 percent to 30 percent.

She vowed not to pay them one more cent until they changed her rate back.

More than 250,000 people viewed her video and many posted their own complaints against their banks.

Bank of America called her and changed her rate back.

How’s that for results? Watch the CBS Evening News tonight and we will show you how consumers are being heard and how two major banks are lowering fees because of it.

For the past 7 days now, I have done nothing but cover the death of Michael Jackson and sleep (at least 4 hours each night). While I was always a fan of his music, especially the amazing hits from the 80's, I never closely followed the surreal saga that was his life off stage. However, I find the drama that has played out over the past week to be incredibly compelling. Some of it is tabloid for sure, but it is also a great human drama and tragedy. The other thing that has amazed me is how much of the "news" about Jackson is being driven by the celebrity web site TMZ. They generally traffic in all things celebrity and it’s far from what many would consider reputable journalism. However, TMZ broke the news of Jackson’s death and has basically been one step ahead of EVERY news organization since. Some are calling Jackson’s death the event that will "legitimize" TMZ. That remains to be seen, but right now they are out front.

Some thoughts on Diana Ross and Debbie Rowe:

When Michael Jackson's will was released today, there were two bombshells. First, he asked that his mother be given custody of his children. However, if she wasn't able to care for them, he wanted them to go to Diana Ross. Jackson's biographer, Randy Taraborelli, says the two were extremely close. In fact, when a young Michael Jackson first lived in Los Angeles, he lived with Ross at her mansion and she became a surrogate mother. He was able to see how she raised her kids and apparently decided she did a pretty good job. The two also memorably starred in the 1978 musical "The Wiz." However, Jackson’s biographer says the two have not been in contact in recent years. That Jackson distanced himself from almost everyone after his molestation trial in 2005. Taraborelli does say that he thinks Ross will be delighted that Jackson thought of her in this way.

As for Debbie Rowe, Jackson's former wife who gave both to two of his children, she was specifically cut out of the will. When Jackson signed his will in 2002, he and Rowe had split and were at odds over custody and visitation rights for the children. In 2005, Rowe was called as a prosecution witness in Jackson's molestation trial. However, many believe her testimony is what led to Michael Jackson's acquittal. Shortly thereafter, the two reached an agreement whereby she gave up her parental rights for a reported multi-million dollar settlement.

Ben Tracy is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

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If you don’t believe the housing market is as bad as the media makes it out to be, just head to Las Vegas. It’s ground zero in the mortgage mess. In fact, one in every 35 household in the metro area received a foreclosure notice this year. That’s amazing when you think about it! Vegas is our backdrop for tonight’s “Where They Stand” piece that will explain the presidential candidate’s positions on the housing crisis – and how they propose to fix it.

As you know, when it comes to any home improvement, there is no easy fix. One of the people we met in Las Vegas was Adriana Camejo. She’s a young mother who bought her house in a Las Vegas suburb two years ago. She had a great job and even better credit. Unfortunately, she signed on for a risky adjustable-rate mortgage. She says her lender told her that her interest rate was 6 percent, but after signing her loan documents she realized it was 11 percent. When her husband lost his job, she fell behind on her payments, and is now facing foreclosure. Her credit is ruined.

So, would the housing plans of Sens. McCain and Obama help her stay in her home? I was pretty surprised by what the candidate’s agree on and how their political philosophies inform their plans. Tune in tonight at 6:30 p.m. EST and see which ideas you find most compelling. And you can click here to see our past installments of "Where They Stand."

Ben Tracy is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

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A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail from a producer in New York who said, “We’d like you to do a story on trickle-down economics.” I was kind of perplexed as to why we would be revisiting Ronald Reagan and the 1980’s.

I was quickly corrected. The story idea was actually about the effect someone at the top of the economic food chain (well-off person) cutting back their spending has on those of us further down (middle class and below).

It’s actually reverse trickle down economics.

So, we set out to find some people affected by someone else’s cutbacks. Believe me, it wasn’t hard.

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Ben Tracy is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

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Having spent most of my life in Minnesota, I have to admit that stories about illegal immigration and the border always seemed very far away. They were. My recent trip to Arizona for our “Immigration Nation” piece was an eye-opener. Protestors hurling insults at Mexican day-laborers and calling the people who hire them “traitors.”

Arizona has become a real fault line in the debate over illegal immigration. The state has adopted one of the toughest immigration laws in the country. Instead of simply being fined for hiring illegal workers, businesses can now be shut down. By almost all estimates the law is working. Bus loads of illegal and legal workers are streaming out of the state.

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Ben Tracy is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

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Experts say a family of four uses nearly 1,500 plastic bags each year. Less than 1 percent of those are recycled.

So some communities and stores are taking action by simply not giving them out — or making it illegal to do so. While each store or city seems to have a slightly different policy, check out this list (courtesy of the environmental non-profit group Heal the Bay) of areas that either have or are considering a plastic bag ban.

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