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Retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to head the Department of Veteran Affairs, has promised to modernize the agency. Shinseki appeared Wednesday before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee at his confirmation hearing.

A massive fire in the Angeles National Forest nearly doubled in size overnight, threatening 12,000 homes in the Los Angeles area. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued emergency declarations for four counties.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is on a short swing through the Middle East, was in Iraq on Tuesday. On his agenda: a visit to a command post in southern Iraq where U.S. troops serve in an advisory capacity; a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and a visit to Kurdistan.

Grace Go, a 17-year-old rising senior at Mercer Island High School outside Seattle, is the winner of the first-ever Best Mental Health Podcast Prize from NPR's Student Podcast Challenge.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the recent beating death of a Chicago teen a "wake-up call" that would lead to action. Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan held a news conference with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. The two Cabinet officials were sent by the White House to Chicago after the killing.

Students who are covered by Medicaid could get access to a wider network of doctors and hospitals, as well as mental health services, if they get care through their school's health plan.

The administration wants to tie more of Medicare's spending on health care to quality and to encourage doctors and hospitals to be more frugal in their spending.

President Biden heads to a New York district where Republicans eked out a victory in 2022. It's part of a push to put pressure on vulnerable Republicans to lift the debt ceiling.

Families of Uvalde shooting victims plan to keep fighting to advance a bill raising the minimum age to buy assault-style weapons. But in Texas, a committee vote may be as far as gun control can go.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized on Thursday and treated for pancreatic cancer. Ginsburg, 75, has told friends she intends to be back on the bench when the court reconvenes Feb. 23. Nevertheless, there's speculation about whom President Obama would chose to replace her should she step down.

The White House on Thursday hosts a summit designed to begin overhauling the nation's health care system. It's just one of the major issues President Obama is trying to tackle. Is it a good idea to have so many major issues in play at once?

Most people are putting off big purchases during the recession — especially cars. Dealers are trying to change that with what analysts say are some of the lowest prices in a long time. But all those rebates and discounts have yet to re-kindle the market.

President Obama made an unannounced stop in Baghdad on Tuesday as he returned from his European trip. It's Obama's first war-zone visit as president.

A Congressional subcommittee on Wednesday had a hearing with two witnesses who warned the Bush administration against harsh interrogation techniques. One is Ali Soufan, the FBI agent who interrogated Abu Zubaydah. The other is Philip Zelikow, the State Department official who protested that there was no legal basis for justifying the techniques.

Russia announced it is suspending participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, as a key bridge linking annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland was attacked again.

Senators announced a compromise between House and Senate negotiators on the economic stimulus package. Some House Democrats are upset that money for states and schools had been removed from the measure, but backed the deal.

There are growing calls for new Illinois Sen. Roland Burris to resign. A county prosecutor in Illinois is looking into whether Burris perjured himself in testimony to Illinois lawmakers about how he got appointed to the Senate. The Democrat has acknowledged trying to raise money for ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich before being appointed to the Senate.

The expanded bailout of AIG wasn't greeted too enthusiastically on Wall Street. The stock market plunged sharply Monday — closing down below 7,000 for the first time in 12 years.

A new paper says coral bleaching episodes due to climate change have made irreversible changes to the world's coral reefs. The challenge now is to keep them alive with good governance.

Former counterterrorism coordinator for Homeland Security John Cohen tells NPR's Scott Simon why the federal government may ask Visa Waiver Program applicants to hand over social media account info.

In a new podcast, Vivian Yoon dissects her personal stake in K-pop, and how her obscure childhood passion has evolved into a billion-dollar industry.

For the second time this summer, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze when taking questions at a news conference — this time in his home state of Kentucky.

Actors in period garb are the usual denizens of the Strawbery Banke Museum campus in Portsmouth, N.H., which spans 250 years of history. To make ends meet, the museum has lured more modern dwellers.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Hamed Aleaziz of The LA Times about his reporting on asylum seekers from majority-Muslim countries getting disproportionately imprisoned in a Texas district.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on racial profiling and police violence ahead of sweeping legislation on police reform. Philonise Floyd, George Floyd's brother, was one of the witnesses.