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Over the weekend, people in Lewisburg, Pa., gathered for a weather forecast from caterpillars. Woolly bear caterpillars are black, with a brown stripe down the middle. Folklore says the larger the stripe, the milder the winter.

Food banks in North Carolina that are struggling to keep up with high demand are getting emergency relief from Governor Pat McCrory's administration.…

There were no reports of damage or injuries from two dry ice bombs that went off Sunday and Monday. Two other devices were found, but didn't go off. Police said that so far there do not appear to be any links to terrorism.

There's a lot of uncertainly in the air as harvest season gets into full swing across the Midwest. But this is a time of year when farm families come together to focus on the big task at hand.

House Republicans said Tuesday that they were planning their own bill to end the shutdown and raise the debt limit — one that makes changes to President Obama's health care law.

MTV's silly Catfish television show has made it through two seasons, and it hasn't learned anything about taking the fascinating personal situations into which it inserts itself and using them to ask any interesting questions.

Maxine Powell, who ran a finishing school for Motown's musicians, died this weekend at the age of 98. Her work polishing young artists for mainstream exposure was a big reason the legendary record label was able to integrate the airwaves.

Authorities in Moscow have rounded up more than 1,600 migrant workers after an ethnic riot took place over the weekend. Russian nationalists and soccer hooligans attacked a market area in a gritty industrial suburb of Moscow that's home to many migrant workers from the North Caucasus. The riot broke out after police announced that they were searching for a North Caucasian man suspected in the stabbing death of a young, ethnic Slav man. The situation highlights Russia's immigration problem — the country needs migrant labor, but fears what it perceives as foreign influence.

Israel is keeping a close eye on the Geneva talks on Iran's nuclear program. Israel is not party to the negotiations but its leaders say they have a big stake in the outcome. A cabinet statement Tuesday warned of "cosmetic [Iranian] concessions that could be reversed in weeks. In exchange, Iran demands an easing of the sanctions, which have taken years to put in place."

A sales tax on medical devices was passed to help pay for the Affordable Care Act. Manufacturers have been waging a persistent campaign to get rid of it. Now it's one of the bargaining chips being tossed around in the budget crisis on Capitol Hill.

For the first time in decades, interest rates for jumbo home loans are lower than rates for a typical mortgage. And because of that, the luxury market is the fastest growing sector of home loans. In Phoenix, sales of homes that cost more than $500,000 are up 64 percent.

Determining the day on which the U.S. government might default is tricky. The Bipartisan Policy Center says the last eight days of October is a critical period because of all the payments due that week. The potential for a credit default is already causing problems for big financial firms that use U.S. Treasurys as collateral.

With the threat of a government default looming, House leaders tried to take the upper hand in the standoff with a bill appealing to their most conservative members. They failed, resulting in chaos in the House and giving the initiative back to the Senate.

Psychologist Greg Walton has found that a simple intervention can help many students get the most out of college. The trick is in helping students see that setbacks are temporary, and often don't have larger implications.

Sgt. John Munch is turning in his badge on Law & Order SVU Wednesday night. Actor Richard Belzer has played Munch for 15 seasons on the show. And we remember veteran baseball umpire Wally Bell, who died of a heart attack this week. He'd been on the job for 21 seasons. Bell was 48.

The Senate has been working on a bipartisan deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. But House conservatives have signaled they might not go along with a Senate deal. Steve Inskeep talks to Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia about how he thinks the impasse can be resolved.

Also: New Jersey holds its special senate election today; a federal judge will rule on Michigan's ban on gay marriage; a deadly typhoon rakes Japan's coast; Nirvana is among the nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and an injured kangaroo seeks help from a pharmacy.

By 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nash Grier had appeared on national television, made more Vine videos on the streets of New York City, reached 1.5 million followers…

Writer Malcolm Gladwell calls them "eminent orphans" — an intriguingly large number of successful politicians, statesmen, poets, scientists who lost a parent when they were young. Why the pattern? Is it just coincidence? Or is it something more?

Sure, you know Sherlock and Downton, but don't forget: PBS still shows some of the best nature documentaries in the business. Tonight brings the return of Nature, and a lot of baby otters.