Tuesday's Daily Brief: 5,000 Points of Light: Honoring Our Impulse to Give; 'Nuclear' Threat Eases In Senate Showdown

Tuesday, July 16, 2013 5,000 Points of Light: Honoring Our Impulse to Give Arianna Huffington: Today, Points of Light, an organization that encourages Americans to volunteer, announced the 5,000th Daily Point of Light Award. While serving on the board of Points of Light back in the '90s, I began working with an offshoot called Family Matters, a program that encouraged families to discover the benefits of volunteering together. I had seen those benefits in a very real way in my own family. There are so many forces that divide us from one another. And with the increasing presence of technology, families can easily drift apart, even while in the same room. Volunteering is a force that can bridge those divides and strengthen families at the same time. The idea is to make volunteering a first-level option for families when they're deciding what to do -- right in the mix with movies, going out to eat, playdates, soccer, and Little League. In other words, a normal part of American family life. POLITICS 'Nuclear' Threat Eases In Senate Showdown POLITICS Russian Lawyer Says Snowden Applied For Temporary Asylum BLACK VOICES Juror 'Sure' Voice On 911 Tape Was Zimmerman WORLD Pro-Assad Militia Kills Syrian Reconciliation Team COMEDY 'THE WORST STATE' BLOG POSTS Jim Wallis: Lament From a White Father Death is horrible enough. But systematic injustice -- one that allows white boys to assume success, yet leads black boys to cower from the very institutions created to protect our own wellbeing -- is a travesty. Kirk Douglas: Love Lasts Sex may fade, but love... love lasts. They don't realize that the most important element of love will be waiting for them. Romance. Beautiful romance. Questlove: 'That Doesn't Mean It Doesn't Sting Any Less' I do have desires to go to certain places and do certain things and enjoy the perks and benefits of a person who works his arse off as much as I do. So I got over my hangups of not wanting to be the odd guy in the room some time around 2007. Mixed results at best. Nataly Kogan: 3 Things I Learned About How to be Happier My father is a scientist, so I turned to science on happiness and had a "holy crap" moment: I was doing it all wrong. While chasing some unachievable state of the BIG HAPPY I had ignored so many of the small happy moments that were part of my everyday. Robin D.G. Kelley: The U.S. v. Trayvon Martin: How the System Worked Where was the NRA on Trayvon Martin's right to stand his ground? What happened to their principled position? Let's be clear: the Trayvon Martin's of the world never had that right because the "ground" was never considered theirs to stand on.

MOST POPULAR ON HUFFINGTONPOST.COM Kirstie Alley 'Livid' With Leah Remini After Scientology Split Wendy's Had No Idea About The Hidden Message In Their Logo How Big Is The Average Penis? ON TWITTER Matthew Morrison Offers Touching Performance To The Late Cory Monteith Stevie Wonder Boycotts Florida After Zimmerman Verdict Sofia Vergara Rocks Sultry Swimsuit In Greece ON FACEBOOK 5 Things Parents Need to Stop Saying to Non-Parents The 6 Decisions That Could Have Saved Trayvon Martin's Life How Big Is The Average Penis?

Huffington Post, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 Unsubscribe here.