For Those Having a Bad Day

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Jeni Stepien waited ten years for this day. On the eve of her wedding day, she finally met the man who’s now living with her father’s heart.

It was a meeting filled with emotion for Jeni and the entire Stepien family. Jeni’s father, Michael Stepien, was murdered in Swissvale back in 2006.

“Just hugging him made me feel like I was close to my dad again which on this day was perfect. It was what I needed,” said Michelle Stepien, the sister of the bride.

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We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by negative news from every angle. If you turn on CNN (what I call the Crisis News Network), you'll predominantly hear about death, terrorism, airplane crashes, bombings, financial crisis and political scandal.

I think of the news as a drug pusher, and negative news as their drug.

NOTE: This is not to say that there aren't major issues we still face, like climate crisis, religious radicalism, terrorism, and so on. It's just that we forget and romanticize the world in centuries past — and life back then was short and brutal.

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Thanks to a loyal setter and a group of volunteers, two dogs were found safe after a week lost in the woods in Washington state.

Tillie, the setter, stayed with her doggie friend Phoebe for a week. She left each day to go find help. Phoebe a basset hound, was trapped in a concrete cistern in a ravine where Tillie stood guard.

The nonprofit animal rescue organization Vashon Island Pet Protectors had posted photos of the dogs on their Facebook page, hoping someone would spot them. On Sept. 14, they received a call saying that while they were out on their property, a "reddish" dog had come up to them a few times, before promptly heading back into a ravine.

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Just spent 2 hrs with a elderly man at Kroger. It started with me just smiling at him , making eye contact .... As I walked past him he looked like he needed something . I went back and asked him if I could help him. Tears welled up in his eyes and he said , " I have colon cancer and I have had a really bad accident , if I get up out of this cart everyone will know ... What should I do? ". The look of his dignity lost left me with a lump in my throat.

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A black family living in Tenino, Washington was on vacation when their neighbor Heidi Russell woke up one morning to find their house and vehicles covered in racial slurs.

Resolving to clean up the vandalism before the Phillips family returned, Heidi got the whole town to join her in painting over the graffiti.

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The video shows the moment of the crash on Route 17. Then, one of the cars involved burst into flames. Bystanders jumped into action, helping to extinguish the flames and rescue the driver.

“In a time of crisis, these brave individuals navigated through flames and broken glass to save a stranger’s life,” Binghamton Mayor Rich David wrote.

According to the mayor, no one was killed in the 10-vehicle crash, and the woman in the burning car only suffered minor cuts and bruises.

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Ollie Jones decided to make his own cards ahead of his birthday, prompting his mother Karen to make a poignant plea on Facebook asking for strangers to send her son cards.

After turning 15, the teenager was left stunned when he received an estimated 20,000 cards from all over the world – more than the 17,000 the Queen receives on average for her birthday.

The teenager also received hundreds of gifts, including an X-box that was sent from Saudi Arabia, while they have also been offered a weekend away.

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Ronald Read always lived frugally – which is why his family was astonished to discover that the former JC Penny janitor and gas station attendant had saved an $8 million fortune.

Read had owned 95 stocks before he passed away, including big names such as Dow Chemical, General Electric, JP Morgan Chase, and CVS Health. Favoring paper and ink rather than modern phone apps, Read had kept stacks of his investment certificates locked in a safe deposit box for decades.

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NEEDHAM, Mass. (WLS) --
A big party was held Monday to honor a longtime McDonald's employee for her three decades of service.

Freia David, who has Down syndrome, has worked as the fry girl at the McDonald's in Needham, Mass., for the last 32 years.

The restaurant invited the whole town to celebrate Freia's retirement, and even gave away free orders of French fries in her honor.

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Steve Harvey's life is a rags-to-riches tale – but there's no fairy godmother or anonymous benefactor, just integrity, ingenuity and success.

Harvey tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story that while he's now amassed an empire estimated to be worth $100 million, he was once homeless and living out of his Ford Tempo.

"It kills me when I hear very successful people say, 'I always knew I would get here,' " he says. "I didn't. I always hoped I would get somewhere, but this is above and beyond. My imagination didn't even go this big."

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Carma Greathouse had never used the escalator by herself and was terrified to take the first step. That's when 19 year-old Alujwyon Lowery came to the rescue.
"He says take hold of my hand, and I says I sure will, and he says now take a step when I take a step. So I did and I got on and he held my hand all the way down the elevator. He was a very nice man," said Greathouse.

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Ross Kelly wasn’t looking for rewards or recognition when he learned sign language – he just wanted to communicate with Isam Gurung and conform to his deafness.

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After years of conservation work on behalf of the iconic species, the giant panda has just been downgraded from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Vulnerable’ on the global list of species at risk of extinction,

The surprising piece of good news demonstrates how an integrated approach between governments and environmental groups can save our planet’s endangered species.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature announced the upgrade to the giant panda’s status, pointing to a 17 percent rise in the population in the decade up to 2014.

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On a warm night at Jerusalem's upscale Train Station restaurant complex, alcohol, cigarettes and watermelon have been laid out so people can knuckle down for some serious backgammon — or shesh besh as it's called locally. Jews play Muslims, men play women, while the children who don't want to learn the rules run around. Everyone dresses how they please.

It's the brainchild of peace group Kulna Yerushalayim, which means "We are all Jerusalem," a name that has one word in Arabic and one in Hebrew.

"We are offering a human solution, where people realize there is a human being facing them," says Israeli organizer Idai Goldschmitt.

Palestinian activist Mohammed Al Rifei says his motto has always been: "Let's just put people together without having to talk about anything political. Let's see if they can hold together for an hour, two hours, even half an hour without getting on each other's nerves."

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After word spread of a Bryan restaurant owner who had his business burglarized five times in three months, community members quickly came together to help keep Ray Arrington's business afloat. The burglaries caught the attention of people in the area, many of whom know the struggles of a small restaurant owner in a town full of big competitors. Arrington soon had people visiting his restaurant -- Ms. Helen's Cafe -- offering to donate food, money, and one local company even offered to donate and install a complete security system.

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Better known for his supercars, engineer Gordon Murray has designed the world's first flat-pack truck in order to bring much-needed aid to remote parts of the world.

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Thanks to the kindness of students and staff members at a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, day school for children with intellectual disabilities, 10-year-old Abby Novotny didn't have to miss her first day of class to attend a formal court adoption.

Abby had been living with her foster mother, Anne Novotny, for three years and the family had an appointment to finalize the adoption on August 29 – the first day of school. Instead of having to miss one of these two special days, Abby was accompanied by all 24 of her St. Coletta Day School classmates, who showed up to the courthouse with her.

"It was incredible," Anne told ABC News. "The kids were so well-behaved but their faces, right when they saw Abby, gave her the homemade cards and gifts…it was so thrilling for all of them. Everywhere Abby looked there were kids, teachers, siblings, aunts and uncles. She could hardly stop smiling."

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