US-Sandy-School-Student

The sky is still dark when 13-year-old Ryan Panetta wakes in his temporary apartment beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. The one-bedroom loaner has just a queen-sized bed, a couch and a folding table; he shares it all with his parents and three siblings.

US-Sandy-Scholars-Academy (with art)

Brian O'Connell remembers the plays in the big auditorium at Scholars' Academy, the workout room outfitted by parents, the rows of computers, the winning teams, the honor society. "We had pretty much 100% of the kids going to college last year," said O'Connell, the tall, fresh-faced principal of the school. "We had teams playing competitively around the city, an orchestra, plays on a top-notch stage." The night Superstorm Sandy pelted New York, it took 15 minutes to lose it all.

Alaska-Serial-Killer (with art)

Confessed serial killer Israel Keyes was a murder addict who found great enjoyment in taking people's lives, police say.

INTERNATIONAL

Uganda-Chess-Teen

She grew up in one of the poorest spots on earth. She couldn't read or write. As a child, she scrounged for food each day for herself, her mother, and her brother. But a chance encounter with a chess coach turned her into a rising international chess star, the subject of a book -- and the protagonist in a future Disney movie.

Gullah-Geechee-Africa-Slavery-America

Along the lush sea-islands and the Atlantic coastal plains of the southern East coast of America, a distinctive group of tidewater communities has stuck together throughout the centuries, preserving its African cultural heritage and carving out a lifestyle that is uniquely its own.

POLITICAL

POL-Fiscal-Cliff-Daschle-Lott

Secret conversations on the balcony. A special phone line for instant and direct communication. These are some of the tools former Democratic leader Tom Daschle and former Republican leader Trent Lott used to forge bipartisan consensus and compromise when they ran the Senate a little more than a decade ago. In a joint interview in the shadow of the Capitol, Daschle and Lott reminisced about bridging partisan differences to get things done -- instructive for today's leaders talking past each other as the fiscal cliff approaches.

POL-Fiscal-Cliff-Autistic-Son

For many families, the nation's lurch toward the so-called fiscal cliff evokes either mind-numbing confusion, measured optimism or downright fear. But for Lisa Slifer, a single mother of three, the consequences of failing to come to a deal are all too real.

FINANCIAL

MONEY-Last-Name-Auction

Call it crazy or call it ingenious, but 30-year-old entrepreneur Jason Sadler has cooked up another weird way to make money.

MEDICAL

MED-School-Shooting-Trauma

School shootings such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, may have long-lasting consequences, but with proper support, many children are able to move on, experts say.

MED-Kentucky-Overdose

An inordinate number of children in Kentucky are living without parents, left-behind victims of the prescription drug overdose epidemic. It's so widespread, one school has changed "Parents' Day" to "Guardians' Day.

MED-Nurse-UK-Suicide