As someone who saw the pictures put it: "It looked like midnight during the day in Baghdad." It was violent and brutal and awful. Elsewhere in the "Axis of Evil," there is the potential for good news to report tonight -- in a story we will handle from Beijing. Back to Iraq for a moment: Richard Engel will give us a soldier's-eye-view of the war tonight from his embedded position with U.S. troops and Jane Arraf will report on the day's violence. The Libby trial goes on -- the defense got underway today -- and we'll touch on the flap involving the Australian P.M. and the Illinois Democrat. On last week's topic, I was glad to see a robust debate -- more pro than con -- on the sentiments expressed both here and on the air Friday.

TRADING PLACES
Those of you who hanker to know more about the folks you see on television will get your chance this week. We're launching a series of reports on the subject of caring for elderly parents. Tonight we kick it off by profiling a guy who looks a little bit like me... at age 90. We will look at what can often be a struggle to provide assisted living care from a long distance away -- specifically, in the case of Gordon Williams of Red Bank, N.J. This is the second time in a journalistic career of a quarter-century that I have employed the first-person in reporting a story -- the first time was a return visit to my New Jersey firehouse. While it goes counter to all of our training, several of us are doing this to put a more human face on this issue that so many of us experience -- with the caveat, of course, that we are blessed (financially and otherwise) to be able to provide this care for our loved ones.

Welcome back for a new week. I hope you can join us for our Monday night broadcast.

Editor's note: You can contribute to this week's "Trading Places" series as well. We want to hear your stories about caring for your aging parents. Click here to submit us text, photos or video. And click here to see what others have already submitted.