National

Cobblestone ice has made travel downright dangerous. Over the weekend, Ross Hailey of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram captured this truck driving over cobblestone ice in Haltom City.

National

Texas Ice Storm Plus Sand, Traffic Equals 'Cobblestone Ice'

12:30pm December 11, 2013

by Stella Chavez

The cold snap that hammered Dallas five days ago is still creating problems. Thousands of people remain without power. Some truckers remain trapped at rest stops. And an unusual phenomenon called "cobblestone ice" is hampering crews from de-icing interstate bridges, overpasses and off-ramps.

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Protesters gather outside ALEC headquarters in Washington, D.C., on March 29, 2012, to protest stand-your-ground laws in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing.

How ALEC Serves As A 'Dating Service' For Politicians And Corporations

12:07pm December 11, 2013

Leaked internal documents reveal new insights into the goals and finances of the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC brings together state legislators and representatives of corporations to develop model bills that lawmakers try to pass in their state legislatures.

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Inside these cylinders lies uranium that was once part of a Soviet nuclear weapon. Today it's being used in the US as fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.

Megatons To Megawatts: Russian Warheads Fuel U.S. Power Plants

10:10am December 11, 2013

by Geoff Brumfiel

Once the Cold War ended, much of Russia's surplus uranium from thousands of decommissioned weapons wound up in crumbling military facilities. In 1993, the U.S. Department of Energy made a deal to have the material converted to fuel for U.S. power plants. The last shipment arrives today.

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Sen. Murray On Budget Deal: A 'Compromise' With 'Smarter Cuts'

10:10am December 11, 2013

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan announced a bipartisan budget proposal Tuesday. For more details on the plan, Steve Inskeep speaks with Murray, who led her party in the negotiations.

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Exchange Enrollment Growing But Still Short Of Forecasts

10:10am December 11, 2013

by Scott Horsley

The Obama administration just released the latest sign-up numbers for its troubled health insurance exchange website. Enrollment picked up last month, after a disastrous start in October. Still, the number of people signing up for coverage is below the administration's original forecasts.

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Volcker Rule Aims To Rein In Banks' Risky Trades

12:11pm December 10, 2013

American bank regulators unveiled the final version of the so-called Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks from trading stocks, bonds and derivatives for their own accounts. For more, Steve Inskeep speaks to NPR's Jim Zarroli.

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Congress Tries To Craft Budget Deal Before Holiday Break

10:45am December 10, 2013

by Tamara Keith

The Senate is back from vacation and trying to get a budget deal completed. The House plans to leave town for the year at the end of the week, which means the heat is on to settle on spending levels for 2014 and 2015. Democrats would also like to insert money for extended unemployment benefits, which expire at the end of December. If nothing else, negotiators want to agree on a "topline" spending amount to avoid another government shutdown when the current stopgap spending measure expires Jan. 15.

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National

L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Indicted On Corruption, Civil Rights Abuses

10:45am December 10, 2013

by Kirk Siegler

On Monday, federal prosecutors announced indictments against 18 current and former deputies of the L.A. Sheriff's department for corruption and civil rights abuses inside the nation's largest municipal jail system.

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National

N.Y. Train Crash Spotlights Push For Automatic Safety System

11:36am December 09, 2013

by David Schaper

The high-tech system can essentially override human error and slow a train that is going too fast. Congress mandated that all trains have it by 2015, but only a few passenger and freight railroads will be ready by then. And after a deadly train crash in New York, few in Congress may be willing to vote for a delay.

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Joey Cappuccitti, who works at a Maximus call center, talks with a person looking for help with New York's insurance exchange.

New York's Insurance Exchange Readies For Holiday Rush

10:55am December 09, 2013

by Fred Mogul

As a Dec. 23 enrollment deadline for health insurance that starts Jan. 1 looms, New York state is staffing up its call center and smoothing out the rough spots on its application to meet growing demand. As time runs down, the state is trying to fix technical and design issues that came up when the site debuted in October.

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