Neighbors comfort Harvey Lesser, 58, after he was evicted from his apartment on December 11, 2009 in Boulder, Colorado. Lesser, an unemployed software developer suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic back problems, says he could not afford to make his rent payment the previous month, which led to the eviction. Since being laidoff by IBM, Lesser's savings, including his retirement, has been exhausted due to living expenses and his $700-a-month health insurance premium.

A candidate takes the oral test to become a tour leader at the Yangjialing Revolution Headquarters site in Yan'an, China, on November 8, 2009. In 1945, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in this assembly hall, naming Mao Zedong the undisputed leader of the party and the revolution and enshrining Mao's "thought" into the Party Constitution.

Barack H. Obama meditates backstage at the Capitol before being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009. Earlier that morning, the President-elect had listened to President Bush's parting words at the White House before making the short drive to the Capitol, where more than a million people were waiting on the National Mall. The first African-American to be elected president, Obama, 47, was poised to inherit two wars, a recession and rising unemployment.

Inga Schuenemann, 27, of Riverside, California, screams outside a memorial service for Michael Jackson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, on July 7, 2009. Some 1.6 million people applied for tickets to the memorial, but only 11,000 were given a spot inside the arena.