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House Speaker John Boehner's alternative plan to the automatic tax hikes set to take effect at year's end fell short of enough votes to pass. The bill would have placed a higher tax rate on income over $1 million a year.

Airline travelers, there is some good news this holiday season. The Transportation Security Administration says children and the elderly won't have to remove their shoes. And you can now carry on some (but not all) snow globes. The government has some other pointers heading into a busy travel weekend.

A Japanese company recently announced it has such a device. Using a smartphone app, you can flush without touching the handle. You can also raise and lower the seat, and there are built-in speakers.

The up-scale mall on Red Square is called GUM. It's in the former state-run department store, a Soviet-era monument that was once famous for long lines and unsmiling service. It's been turned into a glittering showplace for high-end foreign brands that most Russians can only look at.

Authorities in Denham Springs, La., threatened Sarah Childs with arrest because her holiday lights were arranged in a particular shape. A judge sided with her, issuing a temporary order allowing her to light up the night with the shape of an extended middle finger.

With the collapse of House Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B," there's renewed talk about the likelihood that the end-of-year tax hikes and automatic spending cuts will not be avoided. A dive off the so-called fiscal cliff could hit the economy hard. But it also could force compromise in the new year.

Also: a winter storm plows into the Northeast; the NRA will hold a news conference and officials are expected to discuss the Sandy Hook massacre; North Korea detains an American; and the brother of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff is sentenced to prison for his ponzi scheme role.

Connecticut officials and residents and others across the nation on Friday observed a moment of silence and the ringing of bells to remember the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown.

A pair of revealing interviews, peacocks who talk and support — moral and financial — for orchestras: your guide to what you must know in classical music this week. Plus: the Schumann 'brand' and Dave Brubeck's encounter with Schoenberg, who wouldn't take even two.

On this morning after he couldn't get fellow Republicans to support his "Plan B" for avoiding the year end "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, House Speaker John Boehner said it's clear Democrats "run Washington." But the GOP will continue to negotiate, he said.

Laura Dern is Amy Jellicoe, a health and beauty executive who returns from a post-meltdown retreat to pick up the pieces of her broken life in the HBO series Enlightened.Series creator Mike White talks about the tone of the show, and whether it's possible for people to reallychange.

House Speaker John Boehner had a news conference Friday, after he had to withdraw his "Plan B" for avoiding the tax increases and spending cuts due at the end of the year. Many of his fellow Republicans wouldn't support it because it included higher taxes for millionaires.

America's increasingly diverse society is rewriting many of the traditional rules of etiquette. Host Michel Martin gets tips from etiquette experts Harriette Cole, Phillip Galanes, and social commentator Firoozeh Dumas.

In the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., mayors are a key part of the debate over the country's gun laws. Host Michel Martin speaks with two leaders who frequently encounter issues of gun violence and gun ownership; Kansas City, Mo. Mayor Sylvester James and former Cincinnati Mayor Kenneth Blackwell.

The Audubon's 113th Christmas Bird Count is underway, and thousands of volunteers are taking part this year. Ornithologist David Bonter, and Gary Langham, Audubon's chief scientist, share tips on which species to look out for, and how even birding beginners can get involved.

When the rhesus macaque turned up in the parking lot of a Toronto store earlier this month, photos and video of him in his little shearling coat went viral. He was placed in a sanctuary and his owner wants him back. But a court has said that won't happen just yet.

Some politicians believed the mass shooting in Newtown would be a tipping point leading to new gun restrictions. That may still happen, but the NRA and other groups have made clear their belief that guns aren't the problem.

Many say Dec. 21, 2012, is the day ancient Mayans prophesized the world would end, but scholars say that is not what the calendar said. The day is the end of a cycle in Mayan life, but not the end of the world.

Over the past quarter-century, millions of people have poured into theaters to see the stage-musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Now it's opening in movie theaters; director Tom Hooper tells NPR's Melissa Block that it was a total labor of love.

Robert Siegel talks to sportswriter Stefan Fatsis about playoffs in the National Football League.