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Many Staten Island residents are still not back in their homes since Sandy washed ashore. Local volunteers have opened a toy store where FEMA-registered families with children can pick up donated toys, holiday decorations and stocking stuffers. Thus far, the shop has given away more than 2,000 toys.

Business leaders are watching the fiscal cliff negotiations with keen interest. They worry that failure to reach a deal will have painful consequences for their companies and the economy. But they also know there is still time.

A week later, states across the U.S. remembered the victims of the shootings in Newtown, Conn., on Friday morning. Many church and government buildings also tolled bells in their honor. Melissa Block and Robert Siegel have more.

On Thursday night, a vote on the Republican plan for avoiding the "fiscal cliff" was canceled in the House of Representatives. Apparently Speaker John Boehner didn't have enough GOP votes to pass his so-called "Plan B". Melissa Block talks with Republican Congressman Steve LaTourette of Ohio. He would have supported plan and is disappointed it failed.

Many say Dec. 21, 2012, is the day ancient Mayans prophesized the world would end, but scholars say that is not what the calendar said. The day is the end of a cycle in Mayan life, but not the end of the world.

After a 1996 mass shooting, the country changed its gun laws and the government bought back roughly 20 percent of all guns. Since then, gun violence has been down, and there have not been any mass killings.

There is a strong consensus in favor of colon cancer screening. Educational efforts have fallen short when it comes to meeting public health goals. Why don't more people get tested?

Yesterday came and went, but I never finished Ulysses. I never took up skydiving. Come to think of it, I didn't even really finish cleaning up my closet before the "Mayan Apocalypse." Yet even a failed apocalypse still has value, in reminding us that life is fleeting, fragile and unpredictable.

Each Dec. 23, they descend upon Oaxaca's main plaza: giant root vegetables carved into human figures and other vivid forms. The Night of the Radishes is a major tourist draw these days, but it all started with Spanish missionaries in the 1500s. When a new religion and imported crops met indigenous woodcarvers, a novel art form was born.

Barbra Streisand plays a well-meaning if overbearing Jewish mom in The Guilt Trip. The star says her own mother both encouraged her talents and was jealous of them. In his new book, guitarist, singer and songwriter John Pizzarelli shares stories from life growing up in a musical household.