by Darlene Superville

WASHINGTON (AP)--A beaming President Barack Obama on March 23 signed a historic $938 billion health care overhaul that guarantees coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans and will touch nearly every citizen's life, presiding over the biggest shift in U.S. domestic policy since the 1960s and capping a divisive, yearlong debate that could define the November elections.

HISTORIC SIGNING— President Barack Obama signs the health care reform bill in the East Room of the White House in Washington, as Marcellus Owens, 11, from Seattle, Wash., looks on. Other key Democrats stand in back in support.

Celebrating “a new season in America”—the signature accomplishment of his White House so far and one denied to a line of presidents before him—Obama made the massive bill law with an East Room signing ceremony. He was joined by jubilant House and Senate Democrats as well as lesser-known people whose health care struggles have touched the president. Obama scheduled back-to-back events to mark the moment, with much of his White House audience, as well as hundreds of others, heading to the Interior Department immediately after the signing.

NEW YORK (AP)—Remember how shocking it was six months ago when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” to the president?

Suddenly, that outburst seems positively genteel.

STAYING THE COURSE— House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds a large gavel as she walks through the Cannon Rotunda after a Democratic Caucus, along with, from left: Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., John Lewis, D-Ga., and John Larson, D-Conn., on March 21 on Capitol Hill in Washington.

From the “N-word” and anti-gay slurs being leveled at congressmen by protesters right outside the Capitol, to a shout of “baby killer!” within the chamber itself, to veiled and not-so-veiled threats online, the weekend saw an explosion of stunningly ugly discourse.

What is going on? Is our political culture sinking ever lower?

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—By the time 9-year-old Jabari Sanders called 911, his mom was already giving birth to his little brother in the bathroom of their home.

“The baby’s coming now!” Jabari told the dispatcher as his mom screamed in the background.

So the woman on the other end of the line talked the 9-year-old and his 11-year-old sister through the ordeal, telling them to towel off the baby and tie its umbilical cord with a string while they waited for paramedics. Their father, Geoffrey Sanders, called the calm kids “super heroes.”

PROUD FAMILY—This March 16 picture shows the Sanders family, from left: Alana, Faith, 11, Geoffrey, newborn Joseph, Jabari, 9, and Janelle, 2, in Fremont, Calif. Jabari and Faith helped their mother Alana deliver Joseph at home March 9.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (NNPA)—Many Haitians are still in desperate straits—and some even say they feel forgotten—as they crave for food, shelter and other basic needs two months after a devastating earthquake left more than 220,000 people dead in the Caribbean country that is now struggling to recover from the disaster and to rebuild.

“I pray every day for someone to give me a tent. I have 5 children, including a 7 month-old. When it rains everybody gets wet,” said Joceline Magloire, 37.  “This situation is unbearable. I heard that a lot of people are collecting money on behalf of Haiti. Why don’t they buy those tents and ship them to us here,” she said angrily.

ON THE GROUND IN HAITI—Guy Delva, a native Haitian who is secretary general of the Haitian press group, SOS Journalists, is now an occasional Haiti correspondent for the NNPA News Service.