
Shirley Raines, who brings beauty and hope to Skid Row, is CNN's Hero of the Year
CNN
Shirley Raines was presented with the CNN Hero of the Year award Sunday night by hosts Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa. Online voters selected her from among this year's Top 10 CNN Heroes finalists.
As she received her award Sunday, Raines thanked her children including her late son, who inspired her work.
"This surely hasn't been easy. I stand before you a very broken woman," an emotional Raines said. "I am a mother without a son and there are a lot of people in the streets without a mother -- and I feel like it's a fair exchange."

The alleged drug traffickers killed by the US military in a strike on September 2 were heading to link up with another, larger vessel that was bound for Suriname — a small South American country east of Venezuela – the admiral who oversaw the operation told lawmakers on Thursday according to two sources with direct knowledge of his remarks.

The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications devices, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his congressional briefings.











