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Also: There's video of a ship still trapped in Antarctic ice; the final Connecticut police report on the Newtown shootings will be released today; hackers can access phone numbers on social media site, Snapchat; and piranhas attack swimmers in Argentina.

The U.S. may or may not have achieved energy independence in 2013. There is much debate about what that phrase means and when it might (or already did) happen. But the year just passed will definitely be remembered as a time when oil and natural gas markets started changing quickly and perceptions about America's role in world energy markets changed as well.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list. The wolf had been extirpated from the West and had dwindled most other places in the U.S. The great canine has rebounded since it was reintroduced to the northern Rockies in the 1990s and is continuing to spread into the Pacific Northwest. But biologists warn that if these wolves loses federal protection, they will not be able to return to some places, such as Colorado, where the ecosystem sorely needs them.

For more than two centuries, France's Pleyel pianos were among the best in the world. They were a favorite of Chopin and Debussy. But now the iconic brand has been forced to close its last remaining plant.

Miss Havisham is one of Charles Dickens' most enduring characters. She appears in Great Expectations as an eccentric recluse, jilted at the altar years ago, who still wears her wedding gown and presides over a rotting feast. In his new novel, Ronald Frame imagines the kind of life that would have created such a woman.

When author Chris Abani was a boy, he was miserable at Catholic seminary and he felt like an outsider in his own family. One summer break, at home in Afikpo, he discovered James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room. The tragic, taboo love story made young Abani feel that at last he'd found someone who understood how out of place he felt in his own life.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of a short-lived Cleveland TV show that's still being talked about today — by musicians. It was called Ghoulardi's Shock Theater, and for a generation of Ohio kids, its anarchic host could be called a godfather of punk.

By the time 2013 ends, the Minnesota Orchestra will not have played a single note in its own concert hall due to a labor dispute between musicians and management. It's an emblem of the problems facing non-profit arts institutions around the country.

2013 was a dismal year in the Middle East. More than two years after the uprisings of the Arab Spring, the region has largely descended into chaos and violence. NPR's Arun Rath talks to Marc Lynch, a Middle East analyst at George Washington University.

This year was lauded by many news outlets as an incredible year for black films. CNN heralded "Hollywood's African-American Renaissance;" The New York Times called 2013 a "a breakout year for black films." Shani Hilton, deputy editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, talks to NPR's Arun Rath about why she think those assertions are overstated.

This year saw a major development in a story that NPR's Ina Jaffe has been following since 2011. NPR's Arun Ruth checks in her about a group of homeless, disabled veterans who filed a lawsuit seeking housing on the sprawling campus of the VA health care facility in West Los Angeles.

The attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in the Libyan city on Sept. 11, 2012, killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. The newspaper says the attack was led by local fighters and was fueled in large part by anger at a video denigrating Islam.

If a drama were to be made about Charlotte’s public television station, the script would go like this: After two years of withering losses and on the…

Poet Federico Garcia Lorca's life was cut short during the Spanish Civil War, but he left behind a rich legacy of poetry and drama. Reviewer Juan Vidal says the best poetry in translation to come out this year is a new collection of Lorca's verse, translated by writers who were deeply influenced by him.

Despite news that hackers stole PIN data from the giant retailer Target during prime buying season, shoppers say they will still use their cards to ring up purchases there. Target says the PINs are encrypted, but security experts say that given time, hackers could still outwit the system.

Republicans are casting doubt on a New York Times report that backs the Obama administration's version of events.

Activists across the nation want to counter the onslaught of regulations that limit abortions and regulate clinics with new laws that protect access to abortion.

Former NFL coach Bum Phillips died in October. With his unmistakable cowboy hat and colorful wit, he led the Houston Oilers to two conference championship games, missing the Super Bowl only due to the dominance of the Pittsburgh Steelers at the time. We here from longtime Houston sports writer John McClain.

George Mitchell, the "father of hydraulic fracturing," passed away earlier this year. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Russell Gold about Mitchell's invention and his somewhat progressive environmental views.

Cam Newton ran the whole game, so the Panthers’ quarterback wasn’t about to stop Sunday after the Panthers clinched their first division title in five…