Human Race

CALLED: Detroit 13-year-old Keiara Bell garnered national attention last month after she admonished her city council's president pro tem for calling the council president "Shrek" during a televised meeting and heated argument. "You're an adult," Bell told 43-year-old Monica Conyers during a later panel discussion with local schoolchildren. "We have to look up to you. We're looking on TV and we're like, 'This is an adult calling another adult Shrek?'"

DECORATED: It took more than 60 years, but World War II veteran William Laubenstein finally got the recognition he deserved. The 90-year-old was awarded a Purple Heart along with several other medals during a special ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy June 9. In 1944, Laubenstein was taken prisoner after he was injured when Germans shot down his plane over occupied France. "When I was discharged, they asked me if I had wounds to report. Most of us did. But we just wanted to get home."

EARNED: Cincinnati Reds' outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run in the first inning of the Miami game against the Florida Marlins on June 9. Griffey, 38, is only the sixth player in major league history to reach that milestone, preceded by Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), Willie Mays (660), and Sammy Sosa (609).

DIED: Veteran journalist Tim Russert, who since 1991 moderated NBC News' Meet the Press, died June 13 of a heart attack. During his 24-year career at NBC, the 58-year-old Russert served as a political analyst for Nightly News and the Today show, and as the NBC News Washington bureau chief. "This news division will not be the same without his strong clear voice," said former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw. "He'll be missed, as he was loved, greatly."

DIED: Legendary sportscaster Jim McKay, who was known for circling the globe on ABC's Wide World of Sports reporting on the "thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat," died June 7. The 86-year-old, who was the first sportscaster to win an Emmy Award in 1968, is also remembered for anchoring ABC News' coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, breaking the news to the world with one phrase: "They're all gone."

DIED: World War II veteran Jack Lucas, who at 14 joined the Marines by forging his mother's signature on an enlistment waiver, died June 5 at the age of 80. "I would not settle for watching from the sidelines when the United States was in such desperate need of support from its citizens," Lucas said in the 2006 book Indestructible. Lucas was the youngest serviceman since the Civil War to receive the Medal of Honor, an award he earned after the then-17-year-old used his body to shield fellow squad members from two grenades at Iwo Jima.