Teacher reveals the secret of his success

Anthony Yom, 35, has taught at Lincoln High in Lincoln Heights, NY, for 11 years. When he started, he disliked the job because so many students, 80% Latino, were unmotivated and hostile. "I really hated it," he remembers. He looks so young that some students refer to him as a big brother, so he turned this into in asset. He befriended his pupils; called them at home in the evening to help with homework, and tutored free on weekends and vacations. When asked to teach calculus five years ago, he urged more Latino students to join the school's Asian intellectual elite, and many, like Carlos Navarett, enrolled in calculus. Carlos' mother cleans houses and his Dad works in a factory, but thanks to Yom's faith in his ability, he now hopes to push his B up to an A and be a teacher or work for NASA.

                                                                                                                      trbimg.com
Like most inspiring teachers, Yom worked in obscurity until one of his students, Cedrick Argueta, was among only 12 in the entire world to earn a perfect score on the AP Calculus exam. Cedrick was invited to meet President Obama in the White House, and Yom was not surprised. This was the third year in a row that Yom's ENTIRE CLASS passed the AP Calculus exam. So what turned his students into scholars? "This may sound a little corny," said Yom, "but you really have to love them. You build this trust, and at that point, whatever you ask them to do, they'll go the extra mile. The recipe is love."

A Senate run by women?

Remember the blizzard that shut down Washington D.C. on January 26? We heard "the government is closed," but that didn't mean all Senators got a snow day. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), is shown below completing the formalities needed to delay Senate business until her fellow lawmakers could shovel their way to the street, while Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) wielded the Senate gavel.

                                                                                                                      Facebook
In this photo, Murkowski is saying, "As we convene this morning, the presiding officer is female. All of our parliamentarians are female. All of our pages are female. Something is genuinely different, and something is genuinely fabulous!" Possibly alluding to the blizzard of hostility that gridlocks the chamber on most days, she added, "Perhaps it speaks to the hardiness of women that put on your boots and your hat and get out and slog through the mess that's out there." Later, Sen. Collins tweeted, "Thanks to Lisa Murkowski for joining me this morning to open the Senate. How fitting for Maine and Alaska to be here after the blizzard!"

"We all need each other," says nurse

January's blizzard brought New York City to a standstill, but it didn't stop Chantelle Diabate. She's a nurse at the Hebrew Home in the Bronx, and she hiked two miles through snow and slush to arrive at work on time. Why? "I just felt that I knew nobody was really going to come in, so I tried to do my best to get there," she told ABC News.

                                                                                                        Photo courtesy of Chantelle Diabate
According to nursing home director David Pomeranz, Chantelle was the only nurse who reported for work that day, and ended up working a double shift. "My job is really humbling," she said, "because you realize you could be a patient. I treat my patients well because I treat them like family."

I bet you'd have done the same thing...

Lt. Col. Robert Risdon stopped at a Taco Bell in Greenville, Alabama, recently with his friend Jason Gibson. As they ate, two brothers came in out of the rain and asked if he'd like to buy homemade sweets they were selling to raise money for their church. The Army Ranger had no cash, but noticed the boys looked wet and hungry, so he asked if they'd eaten yet. When they said "no," he treated them each to five tacos and a drink. "They ate their first taco in under a minute," said Gibson. "Everything was 'yes sir' and 'no sir.' Whoever is raising them is doing a great job."

                                                                                                                     Jason Gibson on Facebook
The boys put Risdon on the phone with their grandfather to prove he paid for their food and they did not use money they were raising for their church. The youngest brother, B.J. shown here in the foreground, is nine. He recognized Risdon's uniform and said he wants to be just like him when he grows up. He kept saluting. "My kids were running through my mind the whole time," said Risdon. "It made me want to help these boys out."

Remember the Bookmobile?

Remember the Bookmobile, and how it cruised into all kinds of neighborhoods, bringing knowledge to folks who needed it most? Remember Meals on Wheels, bringing food to folks who can't cook for themselves? Sure, but have you ever heard of a truck called Sudsy, equipped with two clothes washers and two dryers, bringing free laundry service to the homeless? Well, here it is.

                                                                                                                       Photo by Kristian Silva
Two 21-year-olds from Brisbane, Australia, converted Sudsy in 2014 and named their free service Orange Sky Laundry. Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett hoped to improve the hygiene standards of the homeless, who cannot afford a laundromat. Since then, 270 volunteers have spread Orange Sky Laundry to 36 locations where it washes 350 loads each week. Marchei and Patchett have been recognized with the title "Young Australians of the Year." They don't just wash clothes. They also chat with the homeless. Marchesi said he recently chatted with a man named Grant while washing his clothes for the first time. "As I passed Grant's clean clothes back to him, he told me, 'Nic, I haven't been able to have a conversation with anyone for over three days.'" Orange Sky is about more than clean clothes. It's about treating others the way we'd like to be treated.

How important are mothers to daughters?

Lena Pierce (shown below) is 96 years old. She hadn't seen her daughter for more than 80 years until last month. Why not? In 1933, when she was only 14, Lena gave birth to a baby girl in an Utica, NY, hospital. Teenage Lena named her baby Eva May. She bathed her, changed her diapers and came to love her deeply. But after six months, the State of New York declared Lena unfit to be a mother at such a young age. Eva May was taken away. She was adopted. Her name was changed to Betty Morrell, and she grew up on Long Island as an only child.

                                                                                                                    CBS Affiliate WBNG

"A lot of times I worried about her and wondered where she was," Lena remembers. "She was growing up and I was growing old." Eventually, after searching for 50 years, Eva May (now Betty) found her birth mother and they reunited last month at an airport in Binghamton, NY. They embraced and held on tight. "Hi, mom," Eva May whispered. "I'm not alone anymore," she said later. "I have a mother, and I have sisters and brothers. It's so wonderful to be together again after all this time."

Motorists pull trucker back from the brink

Matt Collins has been driving trucks for 20 years, but his career almost ended when snow blanketed the Pennsylvania Turnpike near the Breezewood exit on Friday, January 29. The pavement was icy and two cars in front of his big rig spun out of control, so he hit the brakes. His load, 37 thousand pounds of chocolate, slid off the side the the highway, taking out 30 feet of guardrail. Then it stopped, with the cab hanging dangerously over a steep hillside. A tree branch blocked the door, and he could smell leaking diesel fuel when suddenly someone outside removed the branch, opened his door and pulled him to safety.

Another trucker, Arlyn Satanek, snapped this picture of fellow motorists who saw Collins' plight and quickly formed a human chain for traction so no one else would slip into danger as he was pulled from the cab. Santanek told WTAE News, "It was like everyone knew in that moment, we have to reach him. Let's lock into this and get this guy up." Afterward, everyone headed back to their vehicles before Collins could even thank them for their "proper road etiquette."