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Insurgent attacks appear to be growing in Iraq, less than two weeks before scheduled national elections. Nineteen Iraqis died Saturday in one attack, and 10 U.S. Marines were killed in Fallujah earlier in the week.

Madeleine Brand talks with NPR senior correspondent Juan Williams about events on Capitol Hill this week, including the departure of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). The powerful conservative resigned amid a string of ethics controversies, and will join a lobbyist group in Virginia.

In the immigration debate, the most sweeping claims deal with jobs and pay. Some say that illegal immigrants work in jobs that Americans are unwilling to take. Others claim that illegal immigrants drive down wages for blue-collar workers. Economists say the reality is a lot more complicated.

A new National Academy of Sciences report finds that transportation accidents involving nuclear waste pose minimal risks. The academy recommends further study of scenarios involving long-duration fires or terrorist attack, and it points out another issue the government needs to address: public fear.

In Rio de Janeiro, rather than gather round the Christmas tree, people choose to watch it float. For 10 years, the city has come together once a year to celebrate the holidays and watch the world's largest Christmas tree float in Rio's lagoa -- a small lake that sits behind the narrow strip of land known as Ipanema.

Voters in Spokane, Wash., recalled Mayor Jim West Tuesday in a special election -- a vote sparked by a local paper's reports on allegations West misused his office to solicit sexual liaisons with young men. Madeleine Brand speaks with Seattle Times chief political reporter David Postman about the election and the requirement that West leave his office by December 16.

The prosecution rests in the first phase of the Zacarias Moussaoui sentencing trial. Prosecutors, seeking the death penalty, needed to convince the jury that at least one person who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could have been saved if Moussaoui had told authorities about his involvement with al-Qaida's plans.

After 15 years of lawsuits and delays, the Army Corps of Engineers is finally releasing enough water for a "spring rise" flood in the Missouri River. The goal is to spur breeding of an endangered fish, the Pallid Sturgeon. But the flood is controversial -- especially with down-river farmers. Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports.

Having met resistance from the Pentagon and from Democrats in Congress, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee today gave up on his effort to limit the role of women in combat. An unusual coalition changed the course of the defense bill.

Astronaut Stephen Robinson pulled out two pieces of filler material that were protruding from Space Shuttle Discovery's belly. Robinson was tethered to a boom arm to reach the underside of the craft.

With the latest announcement from the Biden administration, here's a look at what so-called "ghost guns" are and what the government's new rule does.

Officials have linked a set of keys to an abandoned U-Haul van found blocks from the Brooklyn shooting. Investigators say the van was rented by Frank R. James in Philadelphia.

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Dr. Leana Wen about Philadelphia's decision to reinstate a citywide mask mandate < > in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases.

No one knows what birds see when they look out at the world, but one ornithologist is sure they don't see glass. Daniel Klem estimates that at least 1 billion birds are killed by flying into windows every year in the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in a challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Opponents of the law are challenging a particular provision that forbids use of corporate or union money to pay for ads that refer to a candidate.

Ben Bernanke is on Capitol Hill delivering his first economic report to Congress since becoming chairman of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke told lawmakers that "economic expansion remains on track" and left open the possibility that interest rates would go up. Renee Montagne talks to David Wessel, The Wall Street Journal's deputy Washington bureau chief.

Members of a parliamentary committee in Iraq say they can draft the country's new constitution by the Aug. 15 deadline. Committee members face intense pressure from the United States to meet the deadline. So far, sectarian and religious differences have plagued the work of the drafting committee.

In the latest Politically Speaking column, Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving examines what President Bush hopes for in selecting Condoleezza Rice as his second-term secretary of state.

A German prosecutor is expected to brief the U.N. Security Council Tuesday about his investigation into the slaying of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The report has named senior Syrian and Lebanese officials.

Transit union leaders vote Thursday to end a three-day strike after state mediators worked out a deal to bring them back to the bargaining table. Union members will work without a new contract, and subway and bus services will resume as early as Thursday night.

Roland Martin, executive editor of The Chicago Defender, talks about his recent column criticizing media diva Oprah Winfrey for her absence from the funeral of Ebony and Jet publisher John H. Johnson.

The annual report of Reporters Without Borders finds that more journalists have been killed in Iraq since March 2003 than during the 20 years of conflict in Vietnam. Reporters have become targets in Iraq in marked contrast with reporters' experiences during the war in Vietnam.

An increasing number of retiring Americans are buying their own piece of paradise in parts of Central America that were once considered dangerous backwaters. The real-estate boom is having mixed results on the island paradise of Boca del Toro.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas officially opens the Rafah border crossing from the Gaza Strip into Egypt. Beginning Saturday, Gaza residents will be able to have some freedom of movement abroad for the first time since 1967. The terminal's opening is seen as a move toward Palestinian statehood.

One of the most clandestine kitchens ever was created by an inmate in solitary confinement in Louisiana's Angola State Pentitentiary. Over three decades, Robert "King" Wilkerson perfected a recipe for pralines, which he made in a makeshift kitchen in his tiny cell.