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Coming off the 2012 election, many at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference are trying to figure out who can best return the party to White House power while upholding conservative principles. And Thursday, the young senators from Florida and Kentucky each made their case.

Lack of a director can leave a federal agency treading water on policy and personnel issues, and several major agencies have been leaderless for years. The Senate also needs to act before federal judgeships can be filled, and some 10 percent of those jobs are vacant.

President Obama's past relations with Israel's government have not always gone well. The two nations insist they've reached new levels of security cooperation. They have publicly debated issues ranging from Iran to the Mideast peace process.

Moments after touching down Wednesday, he toured an anti-missile battery, symbolizing the U.S.-backed Iron Dome system that's helped Israel repel hundreds of rocket attacks. Before his meeting with Palestinian leaders Thursday, Obama was to make another symbolic visit, to an Israeli museum.

Two weeks after the attacks that killed the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, there is still confusion about what exactly happened and whether the United States might have prevented the tragedy. Critics of the Obama administration accuse the White House of dissembling about the attack. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston talks to Melissa Block.

Since the 1961 publication of the Third International Dictionary, people have debated the merits of dictionaries that describe language as it is and those that explain how it should be. Today the debate continues, but it doesn't hold the same cultural significance as before, writes Geoff Nunberg.

In the closely watched Senate race in Virginia, Democrat and former Governor Tim Kaine holds an edge over Republican and former Governor George Allen. Kaine is a former Democratic National Committee chairman and Allen is a former senator who wants his seat back.

With the presidential race tightening, both candidates are eying the same prize: Ohio. President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney both campaigned there Tuesday. It was Obama's second visit to Ohio in five days.

Listening to Republicans this week, it was often hard to figure out the party's stance on the across-the-board cuts. But while they took different approaches, many made more or less the same argument: They're open to making the cuts more flexible, but they're not sorry to see spending cut.

It's easy to see why a rocket scientist's obituary that led with a mention of her culinary prowess set off accusations of sexism. But food is undeniably a powerful marker of identity, as much or more of a statement of who we are as what we do for a living.

The University of Connecticut has won the women's NCAA basketball championship, beating Louisville 93-60. Louisville was trying to become just the second school to win both the men's and women's titles. But the Cards couldn't duplicate the Louisville men's championship from Monday night.

Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon chats sports with Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine about how the Super Bowl has become more about the TV ads than the actual game.

The tropical island set in turquoise water just off the Great Barrier Reef is the site of an experiment to see what will happen to coral reefs as the ocean absorbs ever more of the carbon dioxide and heat we've added to our planet's thin skin. The results weren't so pretty.

A decade ago, as the U.S. led an intervention to Iraq, France stood on the sidelines and members of Congress were so furious that they renamed French fries in the cafeteria as freedom fries. Ten years later, some lawmakers are urging the U.S. to follow the French lead in Syria. France, along with Britain, says it's time to arm the Syrian rebels and tip the military balance to force President Bashar al-Assad out of power. France has also taken a leading role in recent years in Libya, Mali and even on Iran.

The Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington state is set to lose $182 million due to federal budget cuts known as the sequester. The cuts come just after news that six tanks full of radioactive waste are leaking. Those tanks are filled with millions of gallons of the most toxic nuclear waste on Earth and are not far from the Northwest's iconic Columbia River.

When Superstorm Sandy flooded lower Manhattan last year, thousands of lab animals drowned and many scientists lost months or even years of work. The specialty animals can be very difficult to replace, but researchers say the loss of animal life is emotionally devastating and difficult to get over.

Claire Messud's new novel, The Woman Upstairs, delves into the inner life of the quiet, friendly — and secretly furious — woman upstairs, a frustrated artist named Nora who becomes obsessed with a glamorous immigrant family.

The protests against an anti-Islam movie made in the U.S. are expected to continue for a while. How concerned is the Obama administration about political fallout at home? Plus, what's the impact of early and absentee votes on November's presidential election?

Once again this week, European officials sat down and tried to figure out what to do about the debt crisis. Investors seem to like the plan they came up with, and stock prices rose. But the program still faces hurdles, including a major court ruling in Germany next week. Host Scott Simon speaks with NPR's Jim Zarroli.

http://66.225.205.104/SG20091016.mp3NASCAR once again comes home to Lowe's Motor Speedway this weekend. But the homecoming is bittersweet for the many…