The biggest tear-jerker moment in John Edwards' speech:

When he broke from his written script to talk about one last campaign stop—a New Orleans bridge where more than 100 homeless residents sleep every night and are fed by a local pastor with money from her own pocket.

Edwards described how, en route to giving his speech, he stopped his bus, got out and moved among the people there under the bridge.

"A woman said to me 'You won't forget us, will you? Promise us you won't forget us.'"

John Edwards said that he will return to New Orleans.

In his concession speech today, he said that he will work on a Habitat for Humanity today and return to the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged city in the future.

"One day, the trumpets will sound in Musicians Village," he said.

Edwards called for universal health care, an end to the Iraq war and a return to fighting poverty. He said that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have told him they will make ending poverty central to their presidencies.

"This is the cause of my life," he said, "And I now have their commitment to this cause."

He said that things will work out for him.

"This son of a millworker is going to be just fine," he said. "Our job now is to make sure that America is fine."

The director of a Durham agency that helps the homeless testified before a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday that the federal government could do more to help chronically homeless people stay in permanent housing.

Terry Allebaugh, executive director of Housing for New Hope, told senators that the federal government offers substance abuse services and some money for permanent housing, but that it could better combine the two, Barb Barrett reports.

Allebaugh testified before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee at the invitation of Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican and committee member. Burr has sponsored legislation that would provide $80 million to services to the chronically homeless.

Unfortunately, no one provided Allebaugh with any money for his trip.

"I asked if there was any money to pay for it, but they told me no," he said.

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