National

Democrat Cory Booker (left) and Republican Steve Lonegan stand together after their first debate in the race for U.S. Senate on Oct. 4 in Trenton, N.J.

Booker Gets A Run For His Money In N.J. Senate Race

9:22am October 09, 2013

by Joel Rose

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is still in the lead in the race to fill the seat of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg. But Tea Party favorite Steve Lonegan is mounting an unexpectedly strong challenge to the Democrat.

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Phase 2 Of BP Trial Focuses On Amount Of Spilled Oil

12:48pm October 08, 2013

by Jeff Brady

Both the U.S. government and BP have estimates on just how much oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010. The problem: They reached two different numbers. At stake is up to $18 billion in fines and penalties under federal environmental laws.

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National

Calif. Law Allows Undocumented Immigrants To Practice Law

11:32am October 08, 2013

by Emily Green

Sergio Garcia passed the California bar exam four years ago. The bar granted Garcia a law license but then rescinded it because he was undocumented. Gov. Jerry Brown has since signed a measure into law that permits undocumented immigrants to be a licenses attorneys.

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Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois is congratulated by members of Congress during the unveiling of his portrait at the Capitol in 2009.

Hastert: Primary Challenges Making Congress 'Kind Of Neurotic'

11:25am October 08, 2013

by Erica Ryan

"All of a sudden, people are looking over their shoulders," says former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. He says changes in the way campaigns are financed have led members of Congress to worry that if they're seen as not liberal or not conservative enough, they'll be challenged by their own party.

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A U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flies over Somalia in September 1993, a month before the battle of Mogadishu.

What A Downed Black Hawk In Somalia Taught America

9:44am October 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

It's been 20 years since the Battle of Mogadishu, a mission gone wrong that cost 18 American lives. The operation and its aftermath left an opening for extremists, says journalist Mark Bowden, and made the U.S. more cautious about sending troops into foreign conflicts. Would the operation go differently today?

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National

Deepwater Horizon Trial Enters Second Phase

6:50pm October 07, 2013

The second phase of the BP oil spill trial is under way in New Orleans. Last week, the court heard arguments about how BP responded to the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010. The judge will now hear testimony about how much oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. BP and the federal government have differing numbers and at stake are billions of dollars in potential fines under the Clean Water Act.

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President Obama arrives to speak about the government shutdown at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Response Coordination Center on Monday.

Raids Project Presidential Power Amid Shutdown's Gridlock

6:50pm October 07, 2013

by Ari Shapiro

The special forces operations against terrorism targets in Libya and Somalia over the weekend came at a time when President Obama badly needed something to go his way. It's a reminder that counterterrorism is the unusual arena where Obama can decide on a course of action — and execute it.

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A helicopter is unloaded from an LC-130 in Antarctica last December. Researchers on this mission were studying the Pine Island Glacier, one of the fastest-receding glaciers on the continent.

Even Antarctica Feels Effects Of The Government Shutdown

6:50pm October 07, 2013

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Scientists who study the remote, rugged continent at the bottom of the world are on edge as funding for research there remains in jeopardy. It hasn't been decided yet if Antarctic operations for the research season will be allowed to continue.

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The Supreme Court opens its new term this week.

Despite Shutdown, Supreme Court Opens Its Doors For New Term

11:09am October 07, 2013

by Nina Totenberg

The docket this year has nothing quite as riveting as last year's same-sex marriage cases, or the challenge to President Obama's health care overhaul from the term before. But once again, the court is facing hot-button social issues and questions of presidential and congressional power.

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The Wright Brothers Flyer lifts off in Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903. Now 110 years later, a thriving aviation industry is looking to fill jobs in high-tech manufacturing.

Wanted: A New Generation Of High-Tech Aviation Workers

10:53am October 07, 2013

by Jeff Tiberii

Millions of U.S. factory jobs have been lost in the past decade. Now, in North Carolina, high school students are being encouraged to think about taking manufacturing jobs. But this isn't the furniture-making or textile labor of generations past — it's a new kind of highly technical work in aviation.

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