Cody McCasland, 7 years old, suffers from a gene mutation which caused deformities in his lower spine. He has no knee joints nor tibia. On prosthetics, he's now living a happy and exciting life… giving back and charming everyone from Ellen to Oprah.

Watch the report here.

Here are links to organizations related to Cody:
Help Team Cody Give Back
Jeff Gordon Foundation
Challenged Athletes Foundation

On Thursday's Today show, fourth-hour co-anchor Hoda Kotb is going to discuss the battle with breast cancer that she has endured over the past several months. (THURSDAY UPDATE: WATCH VIDEO HERE.) I sat down with her to talk further about this revelation, and, among other things, her Egyptian heritage, her early career rejections, and her obsession with her iPod. Read on.

Q: A lot of people want to know about the pink ring that you wear on your index finger.

Hoda: I wear this, just to kind of... it's not like I need a physical reminder of my breast cancer, aside from what has happened to me. But it just reminds me. I feel safe with it on. I don't know... I think when you make it through cancer, anyone who's survived it and so many people have, everyone gets a take-away. My take-away, what I got from this whole ordeal, was the headline that "You can't scare me." That's what I took away. It's such an exciting, liberating headline. If you survive it, that's what you get. And it also reminds you that your life has limits. It's to be valued and not wasted. I decided I'm not wasting one more minute. Suddenly your life gets clearer, and it weeds everything out. It just gives you clarity. And I also wear the ring just because I know that I'm in a big club with lots of people.

Q: Why did you decide to come forward now and talk about breast cancer?

Hoda: This is one of those decisions that you struggle with, in terms of what to share and how much to share. So I really spoke for two reasons. Number one, it's breast cancer awareness month and I thought it would be a good time to talk about this. And number two, I recently met a guy on a plane, and he said words that I'll never forget. He told me: "Don't hog your journey." And when he said that, my eyes just opened wide. He told me that I could keep everything for myself, or I could use it to help people. So right then and there I told myself that when it's time, I'm going to do it. And I did.

Q: Let's go to some other topics... Lots of viewers want to know about your name. What kind of name is it, and what does it mean?

Hoda: My parents were both born in Egypt. So my name Hoda is so weird here, but in Egypt it's like Jane. I've walked down the streets in Cairo and someone yelled out "Hoda!" and like 10 girls turned around. I'm literally the Jane Smith of the Nile, but here everyone's like "What's your name? How do you spell it? Rhoda?" I did a whole interview once, no lie, where the guy was calling me Yoda. And he was a name injector and said it over and over again. And you know when it's already gone too far, and then you can't correct him? I just started laughing. Luckily it was a taped interview for Dateline so we could edit it out.

Q: So both your parents were born in Egypt, were you born in Egypt?

Hoda: No I was born in Oklahoma. Grew up some in Morgantown, West Virginia, and mainly in Alexandria Virginia. And we went overseas back and forth. We lived in Egypt for a year, and Nigeria.

Q: Do you still have family in Egypt? Have you been back recently?

Hoda: Yes. I haven't been back in a while. Most of the times I've gone back lately were for work-related stories, and on the side I'd get to see my uncles and aunts and stuff like that. But I haven't been back for a few years. We're trying to plan a family trip back soon.

Q: Egyptian is certainly a more unusual ethnicity here in the U.S. Do you have any specific traditions you celebrate, or unique Egyptian practices?

Hoda: My parents raised us red, white and blue. You know a lot of immigrants from that generation wanted their kids to be only red, white and blue. You're going to play baseball, and here's some apple pie. We were raised in that whole tradition of everyone acclimating. My parents felt that they picked this country, and we were going to be like the people in this country. I don't think we lost our uniqueness though. We still have different stuff that Egyptian people eat or drink or do, and we celebrate those things. And we have a bond... I'll get voicemails sometimes from people I don't know saying "We're so proud of you! We're Egyptian!" And I'm like "OK!"

Q: Tell us about how your got your first job on television.

Hoda: I had just graduated from college and I had my resume tape. I borrowed my mom's car and drove to Richmond to meet with a News Director. He met me, put my tape in the machine, and after 30 seconds said "I'm sorry. You're just not really ready for Richmond." But he said he had a buddy in Roanoke who might hire me. So I drove 4 more hours to meet with him, and I was all excited and planning my life in Roanoke. That guy put my tape in and told me that I was not ready for Roanoke, but he has a friend in Memphis who might hire me. And Tennessee is a long skinny state, and he was at the other end, so I was driving forever to get there. Driving driving driving all night long. I'm a bleary-eyed mess when I meet with the guy there, and he tells me that I'm just not ready for Memphis. After that, I was in the car for 10 days driving all over. Everyone kept referring me to someone else and I kept getting rejected. All of Alabama rejected me. Everyone was "so sorry" and I "just wasn't ready." On the way home, I got lost in Mississippi and stumbled upon a sign for Greenville. I met a News Director there and he was watching my tape, and he kept watching it! He watched past the point where everyone else had stopped. It was unbelievable! My heart was pounding. And I'll never forget it. He said: "I like what I see" and hired me on the spot. And honestly, if I had gone to that job first I might not have taken it, because it was such a small market, you had to shoot your own stuff, and you got paid government cheese money. But after everyone else telling me no no no, it was great.

Q: Before being named host of the 4th hour of the Today Show, what was a previous career highlight for you?

Hoda: Anchoring in New Orleans was a big deal for me because I fell in love with that city. In terms of other job milestones, when you get the knock from NBC News... you've been working in local TV your whole life and then someone calls you and says "Hey, what about the network?" I mean, your whole life you dream of the network! Who doesn't dream of the network? I remember when I first got hired at NBC for Dateline, I was freaking. I kept thinking that someone was going to come into my office and say "OK Hoda, it's time to go back to Greenville. Come on. Giddyup!" I still have pinch me moments.

Q: Some viewers have written in asking what you miss the most about New Orleans.

Hoda: You know what I miss? I miss getting hugged by strangers on the street. They walk right up and hug you. Sometimes they don't even ask. Even better that way. It's like a warm blanket wrapped around your shoulders, that city is to me. I feel a real connection. I can say I miss the food and the music, and I do miss all that. But what I really miss is looking at people who look at you the way a relative would look at you. There's nothing better than a pair of New Orleans arms wrapped around you.

Q: Has there ever been a story where it was really hard for you to separate yourself as a human being from yourself as a professional journalist?

Hoda: Probably in New Orleans [after Hurricane Katrina] because it was personal for me. There's one scene that I won't forget. We saw in the distance a group of people hobbling towards us. They were nurses, their feet were bloody, and they had walked all the way from their hospital. They were sobbing, exhausted, and bleeding. After I interviewed them, I saw an ambulance coming and flagged it down. I told them that they needed to drive the nurses. But they told me they couldn't take them because of regulations. I knew I was stepping out of what I was supposed to be doing, but I couldn't help it. The guy said they can't take anyone to a place other than their final destination. So I said: "You know where their final destination is? Where you're going! They just need to get off that highway." So they threw them in the back and took them. I couldn't just leave someone sitting there. It's a weird feeling when you're in some of these tragic situations and you see suffering, and you're holding a notepad. It's weird. I don't miss my deadlines, I always get my interviews done, and I'm not going to not do my work. But I'm also not a robot.

Q: So how's the 4th hour going?

Hoda: Oh God I love it. I love it.

Q: What do you like most about it?

Hoda: I like walking in in the morning, and seeing the crew. That's the first thing I love. Because no matter what hour it is, you hear "Morning Hoda! How you doing?" You walk into this upbeat, pumped up, fun environment. Imagine if you walked in and everyone was all grumpy and grumbling? It just feels good. And I love the camaraderie of the show. I like that there's an authenticity to it, and it feels real. I love working with Ann, and Natalie, and Tiki and everyone else. When we're all together, it just turns into this zany, fun, smart show. I feel really really lucky.

Q: So where's the dance trophy? [In case you missed it, Hoda won Today's "Shall We Dance" competition. Watch her winning moment HERE.]

Hoda: Ha ha! It was too big! Look, my apartment is only so big. I'd have to take out my coffee table to get that thing in. So I'm letting the people at the Today Show guard it for me and take care of it, as I look for space to rent another apartment.

Q: A viewer wrote in the following, and I quote: "In the looks and age driven industry you compete in, how do you find the courage to be open about your actual weight numbers? This morning you said you weighed 140, and I was thrilled that a celebrity of your status would openly talk actual numbers. So many women lie and put an unfair pressure on others to lie as well. Not all women weigh 110 pounds! Thank you for your support of normal, healthy, shapely women!" What do you think about that?

Hoda: You know, I do weigh 140. And that's on the good days! Somedays the scale goes a little higher than that. But I feel like that's me. Look, I'm 5'9". I've always been a big girl. I've always been the big girl in the back of the picture or on the bottom of the pyramid. I have a lot of hangups I'm sure, but one of them is not my weight. That's just not my issue.

Q: Lots of viewers have written in and asked about your personal life. Are you married?

Hoda: I am separated.

Q: Let's do some getting-to-know-you favorites. Favorite movie?

Hoda: I'm so bad with movies. People ask me this all the time and I never know... You know what movie I love and have watched a thousand times? "Love Actually." I love that movie!

Q: Favorite book?

Hoda: I'm going to go with "The Kite Runner."

Q: Favorite music, or band, or singer, or kind of music?

Hoda: I love all kinds of music. I'm so addicted to my I-Pod it's sick. I have to have it on all the time. I listen to everything from Red Bone which is old but fun... I listen to all kinds of country. Lately I've been listening to Jo Dee Messina -- she's just fun, upbeat. Let me look at my I-Pod hang on... [reaches for I-Pod] I love this new I-Pod! It's so cute. Really, I love everything. I hate to say I like it all because that sounds so boring, but I do. I really love country music, I really love old school, and I like Top 40. I like bubblegum pop. I could listen to that all day.

Q: Favorite color?

Hoda: Blue.

Q: Food?

Hoda: Probably grapeleaves.

Q: Ice cream flavor?

Hoda: Oreo cookie but with big chunks of oreo. Don't give me this skimping on the, oh there's an oreo crumb. I'm talking like chunks of the cookie.

Q: TV show?

Hoda: I watch "Law & Order." And then I watch more "Law & Order." I'm a huge fan. I love that you can turn on any channel and you know what's on? "Law & Order." Like it doesn't even matter -- it could be 3 in the morning, or 6, or when you wake up... I'm addicted. I mean it's the best.

Q: Sports team?

Hoda: I love sports. I love the Saints, and they're killing me this season. And the other team I gotta say... I fell in love with the Yankees living in New York. And I'm so depressed about the whole thing with Joe Torre and everything. That really gives me a pit in my stomach.

This post originally posted at allDay blog. Read more about Kotb's battle with cancer here.

by Lee Kamlet, Dateline producer

Just before Labor Day last summer, I flew to Albuquerque NM, expecting to attend a court hearing which might shed some light on one of the worst crime sprees in the city's history.

Five people had been killed on the same day in August 2005. The first shooting was in the early morning. A state transportation department worker was killed outside of a maintenance garage on the edge of town. Later that afternoon, on the opposite side of the city, two young men were killed at the motorcycle shop where they worked. Then in the late evening, two police officers who were on what police say was a routine assignment, were killed in a gun battle just on the outskirts of downtown.

The killings seemed random. There was no obvious link between the victims, their locations, or the circumstances under which they were killed.  Police were busy all day chasing down plausible suspects.  Then, shortly after the two officers were shot, police say they put together the clues they had been assembling from the various crimes scenes, and discovered that the shootings were linked after all, committed by one man.  His name is John Hyde.

As a young man, Hyde was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and paranoia.  For years, he struggled to cope with the inner demons that haunted him. He tried various medications that seemed to work for a short time.  But more often than not, he said the side effects from the medication were worse that the ailments. About 10 months before the shootings, his behavior changed.  He became convinced that he had been misdiagnosed.  He began wearing black nail polish, stopped grooming himself, and began talking about Satan.  Then on August 18, 2005, police say John Hyde snapped, and killed 5 people.

The haunting question of course is, why?  Why would a man who had no history of violence suddenly kill five people?

Which brings us back to the hearing last summer.  Since his arrest, John Hyde has been ruled incompetent to stand trial, and has been held in the New Mexico State Hospital.  The hearing was called to determine if his condition had changed.   As long as he remains incompetent, he cannot be tried for the murders.  And to state the obvious, if he can't be tried, he can't be punished if he's found guilty.  And there are many people in Albuquerque who want him to get the ultimate punishment--the death penalty.

The district attorney in Albuquerque had planned to use the hearing as a forum to call dozens of witnesses, in order to get their testimony on the record about the events of that awful day.  The prosecution's fear is that the longer John Hyde remains in the hospital, witness will forget what they know, or worse yet, the witnesses themselves will die, and their testimony will be lost.

Just before the hearing was to begin, Hyde's attorneys filed an emergency motion to stop it.  The hearing, they said, was unnecessary.  They conceded the state could prove that Hyde is a danger to himself and to the community.  Beyond that, they say that the competency hearing would have become a media spectacle and damaged John Hyde's chances for a fair trial, if one is ever held.

The question about the need for the hearing is now before the New Mexico Court of Appeals, which has given no sign when it will reach a decision.  And even if the court rules soon, its decision is almost certain to be appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court, and possibly the U.S. Supreme Court.  As long as the question remains in the court system, Hyde himself will remain in the state hospital. 

The situation has left the city divided.  Some people told me they are angry that John Hyde has not had to account for his actions.  Others said that, as horrified as they are about the events of that day,  John Hyde deserves the full protection of the law, like any other citizen. 

Meanwhile, John Hyde remains the only person who really knows for certain why he did what he did that day.

by Joel Grover, KNBC reporter

In my 18 years as an investigative reporter, I've realized there are few issues more important to consumers than the safety and cleanliness of the food they eat. People assume that food in a restaurant or supermarket has been properly handled,  but they never know for sure. It's our job as journalists to find out.

So I knew I might be on the trail of a big story, when I was tipped off about filthy conditions at Los Angeles' huge 7th Street Wholesale Produce Market. This is the place where thousands of restaurants and stores in California and some in  neighboring states buy  produce. The story began when I got a phonecall from a whistleblower who worked inside the market, telling me in great detail about how food there was getting contaminated before it even got to restaurants. Even worse, the source told me that he had repeatedly complained to the Los Angeles County Health Department about this, but inspectors had done little to force the market to correct serious health code violations. To me, this wasn't just a story about food safety. It was a story about government failing to do it's job to protect us. And it was a story that hadn't been told before. With so many food poisoning outbreaks in the news lately, we've seen a lot of stories about dirty conditions in restaurants and in the fields, but no one has taken a close look at wholesale produce markets, which are the midpoint in the "farm to fork" food chain.

It seemed apparent that the best way to get evidence of these dirty problems was with hidden cameras.  So, we wired two members of our investigative team with tiny hidden cameras, and sent them to the market. After their first day there, they came back to the office telling us of disgusting problems: rats munching on produce,  water that smelled like sewage dripping onto boxes of fruit, and workers urinating all around boxes of produce.   We wanted to make sure the conditions we saw weren't just a fluke. So we returned to the market every week for nearly four months. We saw the same filthy problems, and kept discovering new ones.

Doing hidden-camera stories is much trickier than you might realize. For example, getting shots of rats on tape isn't easy. Rats generally avoid the daylight, and they run like lightning.  It took a bit of careful planning to get shots of those fleet-footed rats. Much easier was getting shots of the human folly at the market: nearly every day, we saw workers urinating right out in the open (a major health code violation in a food facility).  But it was toward the end of our investigation that we unexpectedly got the "smoking gun" undercover video, that told the story of health inspectors not doing their job.

We had requested an interview with the Los Angeles County Health Department, telling them we wanted to discuss conditions at the 7th Street Market.  But they seemed to be stalling in getting back to us about doing an interview.  My gut instinct told me they were up to something (I've covered the L.A. County Health Department for years).   Since they obviously didn't realize we'd been undercover at the market for months, I suspected they were quickly trying to clean it up, prior to doing an interview with me.  So I sent our undercover team back to the market one more time, to see if anything was up. Sure enough, they noticed health inspectors walking around, warning produce vendors that NBC was doing an investigation, and that the market had to be cleaned up before we the media showed up.

When the story hit the air in Los Angeles (it originally aired in February),  elected officials were outraged at the filth and contamination at the Market. They were even angrier that the Health Dept had allowed these conditions to exist, and that inspectors had tipped off the market's vendors about our investigation. So they ordered the Health Department  to either clean the place up immediately or shut it down. The Department sent in an army of inspectors,  who wrote citations, shut down vendors with rat infested stalls, and forced the market's owner to clean up. Today the 7th Street Market looks cleaner than it has in years.

Throughout my investigative career, I've often noticed that government bureaucrats don't do their job, until a problem is exposed by the media. This investigation is a prime example of how it took media exposure to prompt health officials to do their job, the way they should have been doing it all along.

For information on this investigation, including expanded video clips and links, here's a link to the KNBC Web site.  

 

by Lee Kamlet, Dateline producer

As a child growing up in Colorado, I could only imagine what it would be like to live in New York. The Empire State Building, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty were all magical places I could only dream about. The hustle and bustle of the city, hailing a cab or riding the subway, seemed like a foreign existence. I never thought it would become part of my everyday life.   But like many people, I was drawn to the city, to its energy and its possibilities. And so it was with another transplant to the city:  Kendra Webdale.

In 1997, Kendra left her hometown in upstate to move to New York City. She worked at a recording studio, and loved to spend time sitting outside, just watching people.  Her warmth comes through in the many pictures and home videos her family shared with us.

Kendra Webdale

Her family said Kendra would never turn away from a stranger. That proved to be true, in the most tragic of ways. On a damp, dreary day in January 1999, Kendra crossed paths with another New Yorker, a stranger named Andrew Goldstein. Kendra had made a last-minute decision to defy the rain, and take the subway to meet some friends. Andrew was going to take the same train home. Witnesses say Andrew stepped up to Kendra and asked the time.  Then, just as the train pulled into the station, he stood behind Kendra, and with what one person called impeccable timing, shoved Kendra in front of the train. She died on the tracks.

The horrific story stunned not only New Yorkers, but the entire nation. What could have prompted someone to push a total stranger in front of the fast-moving train?

To find the answer, Dateline spent 10 months investigating the story.  We learned that Andrew Goldstein had quite a history.  Once a student at one of New York's premier high schools, he developed schizophrenia, an incurable brain disease that can cause hallucinations, paranoia, and, in rare untreated cases, bizarre, and even violent behavior. 

We obtained access to Goldstein's confidential 3,500 page medical record, which is replete with evidence that he had a long history of violence, particularly against women.  It also revealed that the mental health system either could not, or would not give him the help he needed.  His journey through poorly coordinated services and revolving door care would, in the end, lead to that subway platform, and Kendra Webdale.

But this is not only a story about Kendra Webdale and Andrew Goldstein.  It is also about Kendra's remarkable family, particularly her parents,  Pat and Ralph Webdale.  Look up "salt of the earth" in the dictionary.  In my book it says, "See Webdale."  You need only talk to them for a short time to appreciate how much they loved their daughter, and understand why they grieve for her every day. Yet despite some very low points, and moments of extreme pain and doubt, they did not succumb to their misery, but rather followed a path which is quite surprising.

Over the years, the Webdales have not only developed compassion for mentally ill people and their families, but they have worked hard to educate the rest of us about mental illness.

This is not tilting at windmills stuff.  Their efforts have lead directly to changes in the mental health system, not only in New York, but across the nation.  Due in part to the Webdales' work, New York state says it has taken steps to streamline, coordinate, and better monitor mental health services for people with serious mental illness.  It has also made more community services available, giving the highest priority to treating the people who are most in need. And 41 states have passed "Kendra's Law," which would, under certain circumstances, force someone like Goldstein to take medication, compel the state to monitor him, and briefly hospitalize him if he refuses to comply.

Pat Webdale is surely right when she says, "It's not an ego trip to have a law named after your child."  But Kendra's Law stands as the legacy of a young woman's family, and their determination to not let her death be in vain.

Dateline's report on "Deadly Encounter," the life-shattering crime and the seven-year search for justice, airs Jan. 20 Saturday, 8 p.m. on NBC.

by Mary Zdanowicz, executive director of Treatment Advocacy Center, cross-posted from the TAC blog January 3, 2007

Eight years ago, Kendra Webdale, a vibrant, beautiful young woman was pushed to her death from a subway platform in New York City by a man with schizophrenia, who man had a documented history of assaults and failing to follow prescribed medication regimens.

At that time, advocates like DJ Jaffe had been working for at least 10 years in New York toward a statewide assisted oupsytpatient treatment law. The commitment to Kendra's family to prevent the tragedy of untreated mental illness, coupled with then-Attorney General Elliot Spitzer's political will, finally succeeded in achieving the reality of Kendra's Law for assisted outpatient treatment in New York. All those who are being helped by Kendra's Law in New York today are indebted to the Webdales, particularly Kendra's mother Pat, who continues to advocate and chairs the Assisted Outpatient Treatment Quality Improvement Panel sponsored by New York's Office of Mental Health.

In addition to mourning Kendra, today is a day to remember some other random victims of the violence that is sometimes a result of untreated mental illness ... and the families who have, like the Webdales, opened their hearts to try to help others.

Edgar Rivera, who lost his legs after being pushed from a N.Y. subway platform in April 1999, epitomized grace and understanding when he lamented that although he lost his legs, at least he had his mind, unlike his assailant.

Linda Gregory partnered with Alice Petrie, the sister of the man who shot her husband in the line of duty as a sheriff's deputy. Their successful advocacy lead to Florida's adoption of AOT and they continue to advocate for more humane treatment.

Amanda and Nick Wilcox's daughter was killed at a mental health center in California by a man with untreated mental illness. They are fighting to get their county to adopt Laura's Law.

There are so many others-- too many to mention here-- but we particularly want to remember 11-year-old Gregory Katsnelson who was killed while riding his bike, by a young man whose family was told he was not "dangerous" enough to be helped. Before he killed Gregory that day, he also killed his own mother. Gregory would be 15 years old now -- the Katnselsons have spent the last 4 years trying to persuade New Jersey legislators to become the 43rd state to adopt an AOT law. The Senate, under the leadership of Governor Codey, passed the bill last year.

Our hope for the New Year is that the Katsnelsons will succeed as other families have in making a terrible tragedy into a legacy of hope for others ... and that better laws and better usage of and understanding of the laws that exist will mean fewer sad anniversaries like today.