Search results for

President Obama will soon have the chance to appoint a new justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the court's term.

President Obama says the economy is still stressed out, but there are "glimmers of hope." After meeting with economic advisers, the president says those include low mortgage rates leading to refinancing, increases in small business loans and stimulus tax cuts making their way into paychecks.

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing Wednesday with a witness who warned the Bush administration against harsh interrogation techniques. Former FBI agent Ali Soufan interrogated Abu Zubaydah. He called the harsh methods ineffective.

Indian commandos are still fighting gunmen in Mumbai. At least 150 people were killed with hundreds more injured in the coordinated attacks, which began on Wednesday night. India is blaming the attacks on Islamic extremists. NPR's Alex Cohen talks to reporter Anuj Chopra, who was at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, one of the main targets of the attacks.

President-elect Barack Obama is said to have chosen Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan to serve as education secretary. Duncan has run the country's third-biggest school district for the past seven years. He has focused on improving struggling schools, closing those that fail and getting better teachers.

The Senate has voted 94-2 to confirm Hillary Clinton as secretary of State. Clinton was expected to be confirmed Tuesday, but Texas Sen. John Cornyn raised objections, citing foreign contributions to Bill Clinton's foundation.

President Barack Obama is freezing all pending federal rules changes left by the Bush administration. He also froze salaries for White House staffers who make more than $100,000 a year. And because of some bungled wording during Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony, Chief Justice John Roberts re-administered the oath to Obama Wednesday.

The State Department is holding back on the money for recovery funds for Syria. It was promised by departing Secretary of State Tillerson, and was to go to areas controlled by U.S.-backed rebels.

Suze Rotolo, who strongly influenced Bob Dylan's songwriting and walked beside him on the album cover for The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, died of lung cancer on Friday. She was 67. Fresh Air remembers Dylan's muse with excerpts from a 2008 interview.

The son of country music legends Johnny Cash and June Carter has compiled a book of Southern recipes handed down in his family through the years.

New data suggest a connection between antibiotic resistance and particulate pollution the air we breathe.

An investigative journalist has stepped forward to replace his assassinated colleague as the presidential nominee in Ecuador's presidential election this Sunday.

Sarah Moss' beautifully written novel is set in the 1970s in the rugged countryside of the far north of England, where a group of campers are reenacting the daily lives of Iron Age Britons.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker says the first-in-the-nation law designed to place strict limits on drag shows is unconstitutional.

Pomp and pageantry? Check. Flag-waving tourists? You bet. A modern monarchy appealing to young diverse Britons? Maybe. In Charles' coronation, the royals will try to balance tradition and reality.

NPR's Scott Simon talks with reporter Shalu Yadav about the deadly train crash in India Friday night.

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Reuters journalist Maggie Michael about the deaths of at least 50 children at a state-run orphanage in Sudan since fighting began weeks ago in Khartoum.

Through her work, photographer Arin Yoon re-examines her connection to the U.S., reconsidering histories while exploring her connection to the landscape, her children and their past and future selves.

In The Empire of Necessity, historian Greg Grandin tells the story of a slave revolt at sea. The 1805 event inspired Herman Melville's Benito Cereno, and Grandin's account of the human horror is a work of power and precision.

The White House says the program will provide paid training to 20,000 Americans in its first year. It's much smaller than its New Deal predecessor, but targets a more diverse group of young people.