Brenda Suits leads a small team doing prep-work for the Habitat house. Photo: Julie Rose

Reporters got a preview Wednesday of the arena as workers prepare for the DNC. Photo: Greg Collard

Lance Armstrong may soon be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, but many supporters are sticking by him — if not as the celebrity cyclist, then as the relentless advocate for cancer survivors.

That's encouraging news for his Livestrong foundation, which must deal with the delicate matter of a scandal-tainted figurehead.

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A historic milestone this week at the Little League World Series.

(SOUNDBITE OF BASEBALL GAME)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Uganda in Africa wins the Little League World Series.

BLOCK: Now to clarify, Uganda didn't win the series, the country is out of contention. This was a victory in a consolation game against Oregon. But it's a huge deal nonetheless. Uganda became the first African nation to win a game at the Little League World Series. In fact, it's the first African team ever to play in the series.

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Iran has made substantial progress this summer expanding its enrichment of uranium. That's the conclusion of a soon-to-be released report from the International Atomic Energy Agency. As NPR's Mike Shuster reports, the news will certainly add fuel to the heated debate about how to respond.

The Obama administration has been leery of any military intervention in Syria and says the idea of a no-fly zone is on the "back burner." But Turkey says it won't be able to handle the influx of refugees much longer and safe zones inside Syria are needed. Analysts say if Turkey and the Syrian rebels push for that, the U.S., as a NATO ally, will have no choice but to provide air cover.

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It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Audie Cornish.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block. After a year and a half of planning, officials in Tampa say they are ready for next week's Republican National Convention. The Tampa Bay Forum, known mostly as a hockey arena, has been transformed into a multimedia political venue. The city has spent some $50 million from a federal grant on security. Much of downtown is cordoned off, patrolled by some 3,500 police officers.

Lance Armstrong. He has a superhero's name, right out of the comic books. He moved from conquering stages of one kind — bike racing — to stages of another kind — cancer. He's chiseled and driven and known all over the world.

But now we learn that the superhero has given up in one of his biggest battles. He says he will no longer continue to fight charges by the United States Anti-Doping Agency that he used performance enhancing drugs to win bicycle races.

A few years ago, if Bill Graff wanted to find out whether other farmers' fields looked anything like his, he'd make some calls and check an online bulletin board. It might take him a few days, even a week, to get a sense of how his crops stacked up against others in his region.

Now Graff, 53, who grows 1,400 acres of corn, soybean, wheat and hay in central Illinois, checks his Twitter feed. "I can get a half-way decent idea of what's going on out there instantaneously," Graff says.