It's being called a "landmark decision." A federal judge ruled November 18 in favor of New Orleans residents and one business, the plaintiffs, and against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a Hurricane Katrina flooding lawsuit. U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr, decided that the Corps failed to maintain the levees that breached during Katrina, flooding St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The case involved six plaintiffs, two of which are in the same household, and the court awarded $720,000 in compensation to the remaining four.

What if a white male single dad had a 10 month-old, adorable baby boy. Say his wife had died tragically and he had no extended family….The dad was in the army, and he was deployed to Afghanistan. The dad had nowhere for his baby to go while he was deployed… what would happen? I bet that baby would not go to foster care.

Not long after I graduated from college, I worked at a government agency. One of my co-workers was in the middle of a bitter divorce. Prior to the divorce, he stayed home caring for his two young sons. Once his wife left him, however, she filed for custody of the children. At the time, he did not contest the filing, as he did not want to upset his kids any more than they already were. However, he was clearly heartbroken and missed nurturing his children.

It's your last chance to vote for your favorite 2009 CNN Hero!A "Blue Ribbon Panel" selected the 2009 Top Ten CNN Heroes out of 9,000 nominations, and now you can choose the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year from their Top Ten. Voting ends Thursday, November 19 at 6 AM ET.

Fake plastic wishbones? Around Thanksgiving time last year, I read a post by blogger Rejin from Urban Botany blasting People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for promoting plastic Lucky Break Wishbones. She wrote: Hasn't PETA ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? They claim these wishbones and their packages are recyclable, but let's face it: 99.99% of them are going to end up in a landfill, or in the ocean, where they will probably be swallowed by sea turtles [And I would add baby albatross chicks] who will choke and die.... Animals, PETA, animals! Do you hear me? Apparently PETA did not because the organization promoted the wishbones again this year. Products like these are what blogger Linda Anderson from Citizen Green would call "stupid plastic crap."

At the same time that leading journalists and scholars are calling on college journalism programs to help fill the void left by the decline of newspapers, a court case in Illinois is raising questions about the legal status of student journalists that could have a chilling effect on the risks that journalism professors will ask their students to take.

Count me underwhelmed by Sarah Palin, or, to be specific, the person Sarah Palin has become. Or, to be even more specific, the person Sarah Palin became to be interviewed on Oprah about her book yesterday morning.

I have new faith in pop culture as a vector of enlightenment now that the TV show Glee has given us Wheels, a thoroughly contemporary After School Special about people with disabilities.

Somewhere, this holiday season, a face will light up because of a cookie. But not just any cookie—it will be the 10,000th cookie decorated and donated as part of the Drop In & Decorate effort.

When I  received this assignment, I thought it would be easy to take a clear position on the issue of whether I believed the Stupak Amendment to the House health care bill was worthwhile or even necessary. As I thought further, it became less clear to me, as someone who believes in the foundations of small government and individual liberty upon which this country was built, and given the reality of the time in which we live, it became more difficult for me to make a definitive statement.

First they called her "that girl". Then, "madam". Eventually, they referred to her as "sir."

Last week I wrote about looking for silver linings and finding gratitude even when we are feeling less than thankful. But is positive thinking always the right approach? Author Barbara Ehrenreich says no.