Following Speaker John Boehner's decision to resign, the House majority leader quickly became a front-runner to replace him. McCarthy has already gone far in Congress relatively quickly.
The former NSA contractor was up to more than 600,000 followers hours after joining Twitter. His presence on the social-media platform could mean domestic surveillance makes a campaign comeback.
The congressional hearing was oftentimes contentious with the head of Planned Parenthood defending her organization and explaining that it does not receive federal money for most abortions.
A group of Democratic and Republican senators is finalizing a bill that would make major changes to the justice system. The idea has support from surprise backers like Koch Industries and the ACLU.
Republican entrepreneur Jay Faison tells NPR's Robert Siegel why his foundation, ClearPath, brought together GOP pollsters to help find a way to get Americans to take climate change seriously.
Californians have really stepped up water conservation due to the drought. Some cities are selling almost half as much water as they normally do. But there's a big downside for water agencies — lost revenue. People using less water means major budget shortfalls.