海角大神

Houston is home to about 600,000 immigrants of dubious legal status.

But this week, the tension between justice and mercy took a break. Compassion won. As the waters rose, no one asked if his rescuer 鈥� or the rescuee 鈥� had a green card. In Houston, spontaneous generosity ruled.

Ordinary citizens carried strangers to safety. One man showed up at a shelter with a stack of warm pizzas. A woman hosted 16 people and seven dogs in her home. Two guys tired of watching the devastation on TV put up a sign in a Walgreens parking lot Tuesday to accept donations. The Houston Chronicle described Joe Looke and Daniel Webb 聽as "" 聽Within a few hours, donors filled 30 SUVs with food, water, medicine, and toiletries.

that his Facebook feed is filled with these acts. 鈥淚've been choked up in admiration 鈥� about small bits of sanity and kindness and extraordinary calm and love that no one, or no more than a handful of other people, will ever see, or know about, or remember.鈥�

Even as the rain eased Wednesday, mercy also ruled, at least temporarily, with a federal judge鈥檚 decision to block for unauthorized immigrants.

The Texas law is similar to one in Arizona. And the United States is founded on the rule of law. But a lesson may be drawn from Houston: Justice and mercy are often best served when individual circumstances shape the response.

Now our five stories selected for today.