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The Biden Administration may announce the nomination of a key regulator who could direct billions of dollars for down-payment assistance and make more affordable homes available.

Soap dispensers and mirrors ripped from walls; damaged sinks, partitions and ceiling panels; clogged toilets: Students record themselves vandalizing their schools for social media notoriety.

A Food and Drug Administration panel voted against giving most Americans a third Pfizer vaccine despite President Biden's plan to provide a COVID-19 booster to anyone over the age of 16.

Days before the Emmy winners are announced, NPR TV Critic Eric Deggans hands out his own awards — The Deggys — for shows that should be recognized.

It's been weeks since Hurricane Ida barrelled through Louisiana with 150 mph winds, damaging or destroying thousands of homes. Scores of people are still trying to figure how or whether to rebuild.

Scott Simon questions the automatic aldermanic pay raises in Chicago even as three aldermen face criminal charges in federal court.

Scott Simon talks with Washington Post correspondent Arelis Hernandez about the thousands of Haitians gathered at the southern border.

A growing body of research shows the many ways trees improves our mental and physical health. There's a push to understand more.

The weekly death record came as Florida reported more than 51,000 people have died from COVID-19, with more than 10,000 of these lives lost in the last month alone.

Signs of slowdown are everywhere after huge increases in vacation bookings, traveling and eating out earlier this year. Southwest Airlines, Airbnb and restaurants are starting to see a pullback.

France said it was "unacceptable behavior" for Australia to abruptly drop a $40 billion submarine purchasing agreement with France in favor of a new deal with the U.S. and U.K.

With efforts to vaccinate the world's poorest countries lagging, President Biden plans a virtual summit alongside the United Nations General Assembly to set new goals in the pandemic fight.

Scott Simon speaks with Jennifer Martin of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine about how to navigate disordered sleep as a result of the pandemic.

NPR's Tovia Smith reports that more family courts are ruling that children in custody cases should spend equal with both divorcing parents. For example, a Massachusetts judge decided recently that a five-year-old boy should spend alternating years with his divorcing mother and father. Fathers' rights groups approve of the trend; critics say it favors parents' rights over the best interests of children.

Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush have been all but bumper-to-bumper on the campaign trail this week as they concentrate on Midwestern swing states. Yesterday, Bush addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Milwaukee, Wisconsin before heading to Illinois. Today, Gore spoke to the same VFW meeting before making his way to Chicago. Bush told the veterans that the Clinton-Gore administration had allowed U-S military readiness to deteriorate. Gore today enlisted the help of former Defense Secretary William Perry to rebut those charges. NPR's Melissa Block reports from Milwaukee.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome that Pope John Paul the Second plans to beatify two of his predecessors next month. The two popes who will be elevated on the ladder toward sainthood influenced the Roman Catholic Church in very different ways. Pope Pius the Ninth is regarded by many as an arch-conservative, known for promulgating the doctrine of papal infallibility. He's also known as the pope who insisted a Jewish boy in Rome be raised a Catholic, against the wishes of the boy's parents. Pope John the Twenty-third, by contrast, is renowned for liberalizing the Church with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Americans -- especially young Americans -- are losing the battle against fat. The percentage of teenagers who are overweight has doubled in the past two decades. Science reporter Frank Browning reports that the reason has to do with a culture that encourages overconsumption.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports from Moscow that President Vladimir Putin said today he feels guilty and responsible for the sinking of submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea. He said Russia's defense minister, navy chief and commander of the Northern Fleet had all offered to resign, but he did not accept their resignations. Putin said there would be no rush to assign guilt until the facts of the accident are known. Yesterday, family members of the 118 sailors who died on the Kursk grilled Putin for hours about his handling of the crisis. Little of the meeting was shown on television. Lawyers for the Kursk families are threatening legal action against the government over the Kursk disaster.

President Clinton's legal defense fund released its semi-annual report today showing the same friends of the White House contributing as in past years. The fund was established when the president began accumulating big legal bills to deal with investigations by Congress and a series of independent counsels. NPR's Peter Overby reports.

Robert Siegel and Jacob Weisberg, Chief Political Correspondent for the online magazine Slate, talk about the latest round of presidential campaign ads. 1969 is the title of Al Gore's latest. The George W. Bush campaign has released a new one called Education Agenda, and re-released an earlier ad called Hard Things. (7:00) Slate's address is http://slate.msn.com

Producer Dianne Ballon, of Maine, collected stories about people and their experiences with lawnmowers. We hear some of them firsthand. Some reflect on the skill required to avoid rocks with power mowers. Others talk about lawn mowing jobs they had as kids.

NPR's Tovia Smith reports from Boston on ethics complaints against the Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor. Jane Swift may have violated the state's conflict-of-interest law by asking her staff to babysit and move her family to a new house. But some say Swift is being made a scapegoat by conservative groups, who would have applauded a male official for the same things for which she is being criticized.

NPR's Madeline Brand examines the similarities between the survival skills required in the workplace and those on the popular television program, Survivor, which concludes tonight.

NPR's Patricia Neighmond reports on a new study in this week's Journal of American Medicine on treating alcoholics. They study showed that giving patients a drug used to treat the side-effects of chemo-therapy may help them stay sober.

Commentator Austin Bay says he's skeptical of a new plan to provide mercenary peacekeepers to the United Nations.