There is also an advance desk and a sports copy desk and features desk. Also, a business desk. 10-15 stories and the quality of copy depends on origin, but usually it is all fairly clean except for stories done on deadline.
Bureau copy sometimes requires fair amount of work.
No real career path. Most of the copy editors I work with have made it their career by choice. Despite the hours and the days off, most prefer copy editing. There are a few who would love to do some reporting, though. On a scale of 1 to 10, we're probably an 8.