Search results for

Investigators looking into the space shuttle Columbia accident say NASA workers made safety a top priority, but may have become so comfortable with successful missions that they didn't keep track of small issues that can turn deadly. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

Mike Luckovich, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, got a behind-the-scenes look at the Pentagon this week. He was allowed to sit in on briefings with the defense secretary and top generals and came away with some surprising insights. Read his War Diary and see a sketch from his visit.

In Nebraska, the governor's race has top billing, as polls show a close Republican contest between Charles Herbster, Brett Lindstrom and Jim Pillen.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell is resigning after four years in the agency's top job. His efforts to lift ownership restrictions on media properties earned him critics on both the left and right.

Pentagon top adviser and one of the chief architects of the war in Iraq, Douglas Feith, resigns. Feith, a staunch neo-conservative with close ties to Israel, is a controversial figure, especially for his role in the use of intelligence to justify the war in Iraq.

Guest host Jacki Lyden gets a demo of the Web site meetup.com from one of its co-founders, Scott Heiferman. The Web site has helped Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean move to the top of the fundraising list. But it also helps pug lovers, gardeners and knitters, among others, to "meet up."

The Senate votes of 53-45 to approve former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor's nomination to a lifetime seat on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Republicans hailed Pryor as a top-notch public servant, even as many Democrats described him as a right-wing extremist.

Two worlds have come together in a rare teaching program at one of the nation's top universities. Students at Stanford University are reaching across a cultural divide to help tutor the Mexican immigrants who clean their classrooms and dorms.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) reflects on his rise to the top in his new book, Speaker: Lessons from 40 Years in Coaching and Politics. He speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

This is going to be a big weekend for college sports. There's basketball -- of course -- but for commentator Bob Cook, the real action is going to be at Bethany College in Kansas. It's the President's Cup, where the top four collegiate chess programs in the nation will compete. But, he says, the tournament's favorites are as disliked in the chess world as any outlaw basketball program.