"We were a normal red-blooded American family," recalls Rudy Aguilar. "And ... it took [one day] to wipe us out."
As other cars zipped by at 70 mph or more, Mike Papin and his wife, Joann, kept rolling along just below the 65 mph limit as they made their way from their winter home in Florida to a summer place in Vermont.
As the room echoes with R&B music, students from Clark Atlanta, Morehouse and Spelman colleges laugh, talk and work on brightly colored pieces of cloth on long tables.
After 22 years in private practice and seeing people "kicked around by the system," Dr. Lorna Stuart found herself frustrated with the number of insurance companies and the rules and restrictions that came with them.
Lots of kids are into dinosaurs. Tyler Lyson says he just never grew out of it. He grew up in rural North Dakota and says fossils were more widespread there than in other places in the U.S.
It started with a generous gesture by David Beckham, who handed over his game-used soccer jersey to two young boys after a game at Aloha Stadium.
El Paso native Maria Ruiz knows firsthand how different life can be a mere 30-minute drive south of her Texas home.
Noel Bosse and Ken Davis watch as the numbers keep spinning at the gas pump -- 70 bucks, 80 bucks. Gulp, guzzle, then it stops: $101 for about 25 gallons.
"We were a normal red-blooded American family," recalls Rudy Aguilar. "And ... it took [one day] to wipe us out."
As other cars zipped by at 70 mph or more, Mike Papin and his wife, Joann, kept rolling along just below the 65 mph limit as they made their way from their winter home in Florida to a summer place in Vermont.
As the room echoes with R&B music, students from Clark Atlanta, Morehouse and Spelman colleges laugh, talk and work on brightly colored pieces of cloth on long tables.
After 22 years in private practice and seeing people "kicked around by the system," Dr. Lorna Stuart found herself frustrated with the number of insurance companies and the rules and restrictions that came with them.
Lots of kids are into dinosaurs. Tyler Lyson says he just never grew out of it. He grew up in rural North Dakota and says fossils were more widespread there than in other places in the U.S.
It started with a generous gesture by David Beckham, who handed over his game-used soccer jersey to two young boys after a game at Aloha Stadium.
El Paso native Maria Ruiz knows firsthand how different life can be a mere 30-minute drive south of her Texas home.
Noel Bosse and Ken Davis watch as the numbers keep spinning at the gas pump -- 70 bucks, 80 bucks. Gulp, guzzle, then it stops: $101 for about 25 gallons.
Ordinary Americans aren't the only ones being punished by tough economic times. Charities say they need help, too.
Julia Abrantes spent hours cleaning her house and primping in front of a mirror before heading to John F. Kennedy airport in New York. She was there to pick up the love of her life, whom she had met on the Internet.
In "Small Business Success," small business owners share how they grew their businesses and some key decisions that made them successful. Watch "Small Business Success" on "Morning Express with Robin Meade" on Headline News.
During Rachel Rosenfeld's junior year in high school, the unexpected happened.
Two years ago, Stephanie Kaster of Manhattan set out to plan the birthday party of a lifetime for her daughter. Granted, little Sophie didn't have many parties under her belt with which to compare it: She was not yet 3.
After the sudden death of her 26-year-old daughter left five grandchildren in her care, Viola Vaughn searched for peace.
Nicki Amouri hands her camera to a friend, throws her arm over another and smiles wide as she leans in for a shot with the monument her class came to visit.
It's Autism Awareness Month, but for people who have autism or live with someone who does, they are aware every day.
At 5 a.m. on any given day, Anne Mahlum could be found running the dark streets of Philadelphia -- with homeless men cheering her on as she passed their shelter. But one morning last spring, she stopped in her tracks.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the second time in about a week in January amid rumblings about a recession. While Wall Street may celebrate the lower rates, what will it mean for the average consumer? CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis breaks it down.
Tax filing day is just around the corner, but some Americans may not be ready to submit their returns by April 15. Others may not have the cash to pay the tax they owe.
If you've been in the hospital or had a family member or friend there, you know how lonely and scary it can be. Once visiting hours are over, the levity and the hugs stop. But, if it were up to Taylor Crabtree, the hugs would last all night.
At the stroke of midnight, American beer drinkers were no longer breaking the law when they broke open a beer.
Twenty-three years ago, Scott Silverman found himself at an open, 44th-story window, on the brink of suicide. Two decades of escalating substance abuse, blackouts and depression had brought him to this moment.
Bake sales and recycling are common fundraising tactics in middle school. But Tara Suri wasn't baking cupcakes for just any common cause. Her cause was hope, literally.
The odds of any individual taxpayer being audited are low, but who wants to go through explaining to the Internal Revenue Service why you took this particular deduction or you didn't report that particular bit of income?
When Gary Mikus learned that an incurable nerve disease was starting to paralyze the hind legs of his German shepherd, he immediately dismissed the idea of putting the dog to sleep.
So maybe it's not the sexiest issue on the campaign trail. But if it's up to the founders of Students for Saving Social Security, it will be.
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack. And some more. And more.
After being laid off from her job as an events planner at an upscale resort, Jo Ann Bauer struggled financially. She worked at several lower-paying jobs, relocated to a new city and even declared bankruptcy.
It wasn't Tibet's subzero temperatures that nurse practitioner Arlene Samen found so chilling on a 1997 medical trip, but the haunting stories she was told about mothers and newborns on the brink of death after childbirth.
What happens when people turn off the TV for three weeks? They turn to their spouses, newspapers and religion.
Like a lot of kids, Aaron Sohacki's dad took him to watch airplanes take off and land at the airport.
Genevieve Thiers was the oldest of seven kids, which meant she started baby-sitting almost as soon as she was born. But all the diapers, Friday nights in and lousy tips eventually paid off with millions.
Yes, he set fire to the dinner table with contact lens solution. Yes, he stayed in on the weekends because he had no friends. Yes, he had to clean the urinals as punishment for acting out in class.
Fear of an audit is only one factor behind most people's belief that they should pay their fair share of taxes, according to a survey by the IRS Oversight Board.
Youssif happily pulls off his plastic face mask and pats his cheeks, which were once covered by horrific burns.
Not too many kids tell their parents who to vote for when they're 5 years old or ask their fourth-grade teacher to watch the presidential inauguration. But what would you expect from a 21-year-old superdelegate?
Thomas Mahoney came out of a seizure last December surrounded by paramedics ready to take him to the hospital by ambulance. Mindful of the cost, he asked his mom and girlfriend to drive him instead, slipping in and out of consciousness along the way.
Consumer advocates Wednesday hailed the settlement of a class-action lawsuit over Sears stoves in which the retailer agreed to install safety brackets for free to prevent the appliances from tipping over or provide other reimbursements.
In real life, her first car was a Volkswagen bug when she was 16. In her racing life, Stephanie Mockler was driving Quarter Midgets, open-wheel race cars that children can drive, at the age of 6. Now at 20, she's a record-setting driver.
Sonya Rinker was looking for a guy: someone who was kind, respectful and had a special place in his heart ... for tractors.
Ah, Valentine's Day! That time of the year when the pressure's on to show you really, really care.
Uno the beagle turned Madison Square Garden into his own big, green backyard.
This year, 44 million Americans ages 18 to 29 will be eligible to vote. The youth vote will account for about a quarter of the entire electorate, which means the candidates are focused on getting young people to the polls. So is the founder of Scoop08, Alexander Heffner, but in a different way.
The owner had just the right touch, trying to soothe her French bulldog's trembling paws.
She's been dressed up, dressed down, relocated and updated.
A group of 55 greyhounds rescued after a life of racing are helping to save more canine lives with the donation of their blood.
After solemnly reading their wills, seven perfectly healthy university students climb into caskets in a dimly lit hall.
Bank of America said Friday it would purchase embattled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. for $4 billion in an all-stock transaction.
Mike Flynt, the 59-year-old grandfather formerly of Franklin, Tennessee, who just finished his long-delayed senior season of college football, is the newest client of LeBron James' athlete management company.
Americans really like the idea of working from the comfort of home... a lot. If you search the phrase "work from home" on Google, 1.8 billion search results appear and there are countless studies, books, chat rooms, message boards and blogs devoted to the subject. And why wouldn't anyone want a 30-second commute?
What's the worst part of your workday? Is it your job or all the work you do just getting to and from the office? Consider how much time you spend on packing your lunch, sitting in rush hour twice a day, deciding which grocery store is easiest to get to on the way home not to mention the money you spend on dry cleaning your clothes.
It's unfortunate, but true: many people who work from home find that their work is trivialized by others simply because of the atmosphere in which they work. Because you are at home, friends and family seem to assume that you must always have time to talk to them or that they can drop by anytime when, in fact, the opposite is most often the case.
Richard Desrosiers never made it to Heinz Field to watch his beloved Steelers play football, but his widow helped him fulfill his dream in death.
The last time Amy Zuckerman, 53, entered a workplace as a full-time employee was February 1992. Once a journalist, she is now an author, freelance writer, consultant and owner of her own content and marketing business.
An Ecuadoran lawyer leading a landmark environmental lawsuit, a U.S. expatriate who encourages attendance at rural African schools and a Ugandan missionary who runs a boarding school for girls abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army were given special recognition at "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" Thursday night.
Marine Cpl. Dustin Jerome Lee and his German shepherd, Lex, scoured Iraq for roadside bombs together, slept next to each other and even posed in Santa hats for a holiday photo.
Deck the Parkway? Someone is hanging Christmas ornaments with care, not by the chimney but on trees along one of New Jersey's busiest highways.
An Ecuadoran lawyer leading an environmental lawsuit, an Afghan refugee working to empower women in her homeland and an American helping fellow veterans navigate the benefits system have been named CNN Heroes finalists for their work "Fighting for Justice."
Here is a selection of comments e-mailed to CNN following the global telecast of "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute."
Three teens have been named CNN Heroes finalists in the "Young Wonder" category for their work in the areas of autism, self-defense and race relations.
A orphan from Kenya, a health care activist in Las Vegas and a quadriplegic in India have been named CNN Heroes finalists for their work as "Medical Marvels."
A Mexican woman who invented a water purification bucket, a Cuban woman who turned a toxic dump into a resource and a Florida man who keeps coastal waterways clean have been named CNN Heroes finalists for their work "Defending the Planet."
An American soldier in Afghanistan, a missionary in Uganda and a deaf activist from California have been named CNN Heroes finalists for their work as "Community Crusaders."
A doctor helping Ethiopians, a man with Tourette's syndrome who started a camp for fellow sufferers and a former software manager who feeds the hungry in Kenya have been named CNN Heroes finalists for their work "Championing Children."
CNN has announced the names of 18 finalists to be honored at "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," the culmination of a five-month audience nomination process to recognize ordinary people for their extraordinary accomplishments.
Celebrities and world luminaries are descending on the American Museum of Natural History in New York tonight to honor more than a dozen ordinary people for their extraordinary accomplishments.
Musician LL Cool J has seen southeast Queens, the New York City, New York, neighborhood of his childhood, transformed. What was once an area rife with drugs and urban decay has become a thriving middle-class community with some homes valued at more than $500,000. Education is strong. Even a new cathedral has been built.
Jon Bon Jovi's heroes are two women who live and work by a simple motto: "None of us are home until all of us are home."
With a wedding planned for August and a new mortgage to pay, Laura Capp and her fiance don't have a lot of money to spend on Christmas this year.
While many Americans sleep off the effects of oversize turkey dinners, Glenn Murphy will mingle with holiday hordes at an outlet mall.
Diana Blasingame has lately found herself having to go to a free food pantry once a month to feed herself and her teenage daughter.
Lead on toys was bad enough, but last week's recall of a toy tainted with a date rape drug threatens to turn into a lump of coal for toy retailers just as the key holiday selling season gets started.
For all the critters in the rainforests, oceans and jungles of the world, finding a mate isn't as simple as spending hours in the gym developing rock-hard abs or adding a $10,000 stereo system to your 1984 Camaro. Nope.
