All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Tonight: Strangers Lend a Hand to Job Seekers … Bringing Birthday Parties to Homeless Children. And....When Hope Heals.

No, those aren't really our headlines.They're the headlines on the Good News Network, a Web site devoted to all the good news that's fit to print.

The Washington Post reports that the founder, Geri Weis-Corbley, has seen a 45-percent increase in traffic since last September. The site has more than 1,000 paying customers.

Back in 1940, Eleanor Roosevelt said "this is no ordinary time." The same is true today. It's a very serious time, and our nation is facing some serious challenges.

But still … good things are happening every day. And it's often the worst of times that bring out the best in people. Americans helping a neighbor find work or sending a meal to a family in need.

When the headlines seem bleak, it's nice to know that some really good news is just a mouse click away.

That's a page from my notebook.

America is, of course, a profoundly religious country. But it comes as a surprise to many people that America is about the only nation founded without one dominant kind of faith. The Founders believed that every religion should be practiced without prejudice.

So it’s disappointing today that a new member of the House of Representatives continues to be attacked simply for practicing his faith.

Keith Ellison, an African-American Islamic convert from Minnesota, announced that he would take his oath of office with a Koran rather than a Bible—actually, a Koran that belonged to that famous anti-American Thomas Jefferson, who collected texts from many religions.

Congressman Virgil Goode of Mr. Jefferson’s Virginia (my home state—which, in this case, I’m embarrassed to say) announced that he wouldn’t touch the Koran, wants to prevent Muslims from immigrating to this country, and strongly implied that Muslims can’t represent American values.

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Our story on tonight's CBS Evening News took us, and will take you, into places the news rarely goes: deep into the inner city and-- into prison. But this is no story of despair. It’s a story of hope--at least, so far.

You will meet, as I did, 16- year-old Israel Rosario, a street kid essentially being raised by his grandmother in a crowded north Philadelphia row house. Israel’s father is in prison. His uncle just got out of jail. During our interview, there on the street, with a vacant lot and a car hiked up on cinderblocks in the background, Israel was happily surprised by the arrival of his grandmother’s boyfriend, who was also in jail, released just an hour before. As Israel hugged this man, a man he views as his grandfather, the central truth behind Israel’s life was right there visible in this embrace. Every close male relative he has is in the criminal justice system. Not one is successful in any traditional way.

Prison, quite literally, runs in Israel’s family.

In our research we learned Israel isn’t alone. Academic studies have estimated that 70% of the children with locked-up parents will wind up in jail themselves, mostly because these children are never taught how to behave and survive outside of a life on the criminal edge.

But that’s not the focus of our story.

Our story is mostly about how to reverse this pathway to crime. It’s about mentoring, specifically a national program called Amachi,which arranges mentors for the children of people behind bars...

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"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson, offering a bit of wisdom for a Friday the 13th.

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