S.F., Oakland gun buyback nets hundreds

Arturo Hurtado of Richmond was still stricken with grief over the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 schoolchildren dead when he awoke Saturday morning.

So he decided to get rid of his gun - "that darn thing," he called it - and purged it from his home.
"I've got kids, man," said Hurtado, who works at Waste Management in Oakland and has children ages 14, 10, 6 and 1. "Kids are curious. Kids don't know any better. I had it locked in a toolbox, so I don't know. ... I just know it had to go."

Hurtado was among hundreds of Bay Area residents who dropped off their firearms at buyback locations in Oakland and San Francisco on Saturday, collecting $200 cash for their weapon, no questions asked.

Read more:

Continue »

Entire School Given Free Bikes for Proving Poverty No Match for a Great Principal

Tom Shadyac, the director of blockbuster comedies like Liar, Liar and Bruce Almighty, became famous for giving up his riches in favor of a more simple lifestyle and filming a documentary about how to be happy.

Now, he is teaching University students to give back. As a reminder to keep playing even as they grow older, the college students he teaches all received new bikes from Shadyac. But the generosity didn't stop there. The students were so grateful, they wanted to pay it forward in a big way.

They surprised hundreds of young scholars thriving in poverty at a Compton, California school. Watch the video from the Ellen show as the Tom and his class of college students give free new bikes to an entire school for being such an inspiration.

Continue »