NPR News
NCAA Round One, Day Two: Hoops, Hopes, Hoopla
After a first day chock-full of upsets and buzzer-beaters, the NCAA men's basketball tournament has another 16 first-round games on tap Friday. In early play, Cornell and Minnesota were both threatening to defy the oddsmakers.
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President Rallies Support For Final Health Care Votes
With Sunday's expected vote hanging on the support of just a handful of wavering Democrats, Obama delivered a closing argument for the goal to which he has devoted much of his presidency and on which its future could pivot.
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Nine Major Changes In The Democrats' Health Bill
In their push to pass a sweeping health care overhaul this weekend, House Democrats unveiled a package of legislative fixes to lure undecided or opposed members of their party to the "yes" category.
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Diplomats Urge Israel, Palestinians To Resume Talks
The "Quartet" of peacemakers from the U.S., Russia, the European Union and special representative Tony Blair call for negotiations with a goal of reaching a final settlement that would create an independent Palestinian state within 24 months.
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Immigration Activists Frustrated By Pace Of Reform
President Obama promised to make overhauling immigration laws a top priority in his first year as president, but the odds that it will happen even in his second year seem long. Thousands of activists plan to converge on Washington, D.C., in hopes of prodding him to action.
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Dodgers Say Vin Scully Hospitalized, Doing Well
Dodgers Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully was admitted to a hospital Thursday night after he got up from bed too quickly, fell and bumped his head. Scully, 82, was taken from his Hidden Hills home to West Hills Hospital and Medical Center as a precaution and would stay overnight for observation, Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch said.
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Diplomats Urge Resumption of Mideast Talks
Top international diplomats on Friday called on Israel and the Palestinians to return to peace negotiations with a goal of reaching a final settlement that would create an independent Palestinian state within 24 months. They reiterated their condemnation of Israel's latest move to add Jewish housing in disputed east Jerusalem but did not escalate criticism of the Jewish state.
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Parents Fight For The Right To Sell Treats At School
New York City parents want the right to bake their cake and sell it, too, after officials began enforcing a once-a-month limit on PTA bake sales during the school day. Schools say they're trying to balance health with the need to find ways to fund programs. But parents say their treats are more wholesome than the prepackaged foods that schools do allow.
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FDA Restricts Marketing Tobacco To Youth
The FDA has issued the first regulations since Congress gave the agency power to regulate tobacco. The regulations clamp down on the marketing of cigarettes to children and teenagers. The new rules prohibit a number of ad strategies like giving way hats and T-shirts with tobacco logos. Plus, no more selling of cigarettes in certain vending machines where kids can get at them.
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Undecided Lawmakers Targeted For Their Health Vote
On Capitol Hill, a few dozen House members are trying to decide how to vote on health care — while hundreds of advocates and thousands of e-mails are trying to sway them one way or the other. The House is expected to vote on its health care overhaul legislation on Sunday.
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Thousands To Rally For Immigration Overhaul
Activists are arriving in Washington D.C. for this weekend's rally to push for an overhaul of immigration laws. Arizona has some of the toughest laws in the nation targeting illegal immigrants. Churches and advocacy groups from the state are sending delegates to Washington to march for changes at the federal level.
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CBO Figures Show Health Care Bill Would Cut Deficit
The tension is high and the stakes are even higher, as Republicans and Democrats near the decisive moment of the health care battle. The language of the final bill was released Thursday. Along with Congressional Budget Office numbers that show it would cost $940 billion over 10 years, it would also reduce the deficit in the long run.
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NCAA Play Begins With Upsets Aplenty
As the men's basketball tournament began, major underdogs Murray State, Ohio University, Washington and Old Dominion were too much for more highly regarded opponents. St. Mary's, Northern Iowa and Wake Forest also turned the tables on the oddsmakers.
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Stakes High For Obama Presidency In Health Care Bill
President Obama is making a final frenzied push before the health care bill comes up for a vote in the House on Sunday. If the bill fails, he will be severely weakened. He will have failed to deliver his signature initiative, and his Democratic Party will look incapable of governing.
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The Word Is Out: A New Voice For 'On Language'
This weekend, Ben Zimmer will take over The New York Times Magazine column William Safire originated in 1979 and continued to write until his death last year. Zimmer's first column will be on the word "no."
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Runaway Cars: Driver Error Or Car Malfunction?
The problems with Toyota's gas pedals have been front page news for weeks now, but what about the people in front of the pedals? Earlier studies have found that the majority of car-surging incidents were actually the fault of the driver. But the recent problems with cars continuing to accelerate haven't been studied yet.
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Exploring The Taliban's Complex, Shadowy Finances
Western nations have long criticized Afghanistan's failure to curtail opium production, a main source of income for the Taliban. But counterterrorism officials say the problem is far more complex than just drug money, including diverted charity payments and "protection money" from convoys seeking to resupply U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
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Austinites Angle For A Piece Of SXSW Cash Cow
The South by Southwest music festival bills itself as "the premier destination for discovery." It's also the destination for truckloads of cash, as music and art fans flock to Austin, Texas, each March. Last year's event brought nearly $100 million to the city, according to one analyst.
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Toyota Deals Get Customers Back To Showrooms
Thanks to specials like zero percent financing and price cuts, Toyota sales have risen sharply. A recent Edmunds.com dealer survey finds that so far this month, Toyota has regained the same market share of sales it had before the gas pedal recall.
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Toxic Assets Market Awaits Rebound
During the peak of the housing market, the value of the mortgages that got stuffed into those complicated mortgage bonds known as toxic assets was more than $3 trillion. But now the market has stalled, in part because many sellers are waiting for the economy to improve.
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