The workforce in the Tongass National Forest has grown a lot over the last couple of years, thanks to some major infusions of federal money. In a presentation at the recent Juneau Economic Development Council's Innovation Summit in Juneau, U.S. Forest Service recreation specialist Jason Anderson said new staff will help the agency catch up on a backlog of maintenance projects and keep up with the tourism boom in Southeast Alaska. Anderson said that since the early 2000s, federal funding to support recreation in national forests had been shrinking. "We were losing our spending power, we were seeing very diminished budgets and the inability to do work," Anderson said. "It also translated in the inability to hire people to do that work, whether you're hiring contractors, Forest Service workforce or partnering. That decline is significant."  

A witness jumped into action after seeing a large house fire in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood early Monday morning. Flames started shooting from the house just after 2 a.m. at 81st Street and South Shore Drive. The fire spread to a second house, causing smoke damage. A man told CBS 2 he was inside a CTA bus when he noticed the flames. The man and the bus driver quickly stepped in to help. "Me and the bus driver seen the flames a half a block away, pulled over. We went and woke up everybody," Chris Campbell said. "Kids, grandparents. That was in one house. I went to a second house and woke them up. The third house. Got them up." No one was hurt in the fire, but several people were displaced. The Red Cross is on the scene helping the displaced residents.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: A firefighter in Kentucky is receiving a lot of deserved attention after his remarkable act of bravery. Bryce Carden was one of the heroes that saved a woman from a cab, attached to a tractor-trailer, that was dangling over a bridge and above the Ohio River. The Louisville firefighter went over the Clark Memorial Bridge to bring the driver to safety. Carden explained he wasn't nervous because his team had him on the top side. The driver was a military veteran. She was involved in a four-vehicle crash when her rig went through a guardrail on Friday. Louisville Fire Chief, Brian O'Neill, described the driver as "cool as a cucumber." "I spoke to some of her brothers and sisters with the Teamsters. They said that she is a military veteran and it obviously helped her keep her calm because she was amazing," said ONeill.  

VIDEO: Massive military transport vehicles are being refitted to fight wildfires and perform rescues during floods. Excess equipment the federal government no longer needs is now being put to use by volunteer fire departments to save lives and property. It's all possible because of a little-known, but heavily used program through the Nebraska Forest Service. "There are roughly 480 fire districts in the state of Nebraska. We have equipment in just about 350 fire districts," said Lew Sieber, the Nebraska Forest Service Shop manager. Sieber also looks over three programs that help get used federal equipment to local agencies. Twice a day, Sieber scavenges over a federal website for equipment. "They are done with it. It's excess to them. So, I requisitioned it, brought it in here," Sieber said.