The deadline for the fiscal cliff is fast-approaching. NPR's David Welna is at the Capitol and talks with host Jacki Lyden about where congressional leaders are on a deal.
This year's weather will be one for the record books; 2012 is slated to be the hottest summer on record. "We've already passed all kinds of tipping points," environmentalist Bill McKibben says. He's wondering if President Obama will take a different approach to climate change in the coming year.
President Obama may nominate former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to be the next defense secretary. The Vietnam veteran could bring a bipartisan presence to Obama's Cabinet, but only if he survives opposition from some in his own party.
Mikhail Sebastian came to the South Pacific island for what should have been a short vacation; he has now been there for a year. U.S. immigration officials say he self-deported.
In 2009, thousands of boxes of potential evidence were discovered untested. Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy is leading the effort to handle the backlog. While the city still lacks sufficient funding to test all of the 11,000 kits, it has made two convictions and discovered a pattern of serial rapists.
Even though the top four congressional leaders left their White House meeting with the president separately and silently Friday, they cast the hourlong encounter in a positive light back at the Capitol.
The deadline for the so-called "fiscal cliff" is fast-approaching. The combination of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes go into effect in just three days. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with host Jacki Lyden about where congressional leaders are on a deal.
"If it's not me, who's it going to be?" asks Colorado school cafeteria manager Kathy Del Tonto. After serving processed foods in her cafeterias for years, she realized that reducing childhood obesity can begin with her. She now has the lunch ladies making 95 percent of meals from scratch.
For the first time in a decade of war, more active-duty troops took their own lives this year than died fighting in Afghanistan. The national suicide hotline is one way the Department of Veterans Affairs is trying to help troops and vets.
A threatened strike by the International Longshoremen's Association at 14 ports along the East and Gulf Coasts has been called off. Federal negotiators say the union has reached an agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance and will extend contract talks.