Search results for

After what may seem like a lifetime, Election Day will be here Tuesday. As the candidates sprint through a final day of appearances, Democrat Barack Obama remains comfortably ahead of Republican John McCain in national polls. Swings states that previously leaned red have been getting a lot of attention from both candidates.

President-elect Barack Obama is set to announce his national security team Monday. The list of people will be familiar to many Americans. Hillary Clinton is expected to be named secretary of state.

President Obama announced Wednesday that he'll rein in the huge number of corporations that the Bush administration hired to do government work. Obama says controlling wasteful and fraudulent contracts could save up to $40 billion a year.

Radio legend Paul Harvey died Saturday at age 90. Harvey was famous not only for his newscasts, but also for the ads that he wove seamlessly throughout them. Bruce Dumont, a friend of the radio icon and founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, talks to host Robert Smith.

Elaine Showalter's A Jury Of Her Peers offers a literary history of American women writers spanning from the tales of Puritan Anne Bradstreet to the modern-day gay cowboy stories of Annie Proulx. Maureen Corrigan has a review.

Isabel Gillies grapples with the sudden dissolution of her marriage in the memoir Happens Every Day. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls this "all too-true story" a "compulsive" and "chilling" late-night read.

On this tax deadline day, President Obama plans to highlight some of the tax cuts included in the economic stimulus plan. Yesterday, the president delivered a lengthy speech about how the U.S. got into the recession, where the economy is now and his plans to encourage a more prosperous future.

The nation's unemployment rate last month is the highest it's been in more than 25 years. However, the pace of layoffs eased. Employers cut 345,000 jobs in May, the fewest since September.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the U.S. Constitution does not give convicts the right to test DNA evidence from their cases. The court's 5-4 majority said such decisions are best left to the states.

The streets of Tehran are quiet Thursday for the first time in days. It's supposed to be a day of reflection before Friday's presidential election. Voters will choose between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a fierce critic of the U.S., and his more moderate rivals.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, about the extreme weather events occurring globally.

The Supreme Court on Monday wrapped up its term with a long-awaited decision, ruling in favor of white firefighters who had complained that the city of New Haven, Conn., had discriminated against them on the basis of race by refusing to certify promotion exam scores. The ruling reversed a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

Thousands of Marines have descended upon the Helmand River valley in Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold that is known for poppy growing. The Marines plan to stay, one of the first concrete examples of the Obama administration's new strategy for Afghanistan.

When South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford announced this week he'd had an extramarital affair, he joined several other high-profile politicians admitting infidelities, including Eliot Spitzer, John Ensign, David Vitter and John Edwards.

Though the nation's unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent in February, employers actually cut payrolls by a net 63,000 jobs. The rate fell because so many people decided to stop looking for work — a new sign of weakness in the economy.

The Federal Reserve's decision to extend credit to the ailing investment bank Bear Stearns is an unprecedented move. And the Fed took additional steps to address a crisis of confidence on Wall Street.

Many people lost big money as Bear Stearns collapsed, among them British billionaire Joseph Lewis and Dallas-based money manager James Barrow. But employees may take the biggest hit. Collectively, they owned a huge stake in the bank.

Darryl Jenkins, former executive director of the Aviation Institute at George Washington University, discusses with Melissa Block how mergers will allow airlines to turn a profit, even with soaring fuel costs.

Any fresh produce that's grown in dirt, then plucked and processed by human hands, runs the risk of becoming contaminated along the way with microbes that can cause food poisoning. Do you need veggie wash solutions, or can you just rub an apple clean on your sleeve?

Robert Siegel talks with Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times' book review and Week in Review section. Tanenhaus has been working on a biography of William F. Buckley Jr., the conservative icon who died today at 82.

More than 111 million people across the U.S. remain under weather advisories or warnings as forecasters say an oppressive heat wave might get worse before it gets any better.

NPR's Michel Martin talks to international affairs professor Nina Khrushcheva of The New School in New York City, about why the Kremlin shared details of Putin's meeting with the Wagner Group chief.

Mattel is the latest company to be embarrassed by defective products from China. It recalled toys with lead paint and small magnets children could swallow. Nancy Nord, acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, talks with Renee Montagne.

If John McCain is going to patch relations with conservative voters, one place to go might be Colorado, whose Republicans overwhelmingly chose Mitt Romney in the caucuses Tuesday. State GOP leaders appear ready to rally behind McCain, but winning over the rank-and-file will take some work.

How did Sen. John McCain manage to make 150,000 votes enough to win South Carolina when the 250,000 votes he got in 2000 left him a loser to George W. Bush? He had a lot of help from Fred Thompson.