U.S. Audio/Video - NPR

President-elect Barack Obama has announced one of the presidential inauguration balls will be a Neighborhood Ball "open to our new neighborhood here in Washington, D.C." D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton says she hopes this means Obama will sign a measure that will grant the District of Columbia voting rights.

Washington D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is fast becoming the country's best-known urban school reformer. But her proposal to do away with teacher tenure and replace it with an ambitious merit pay program has divided the teachers union.

When members of the 56th Stryker Brigade leave their Pennsylvania homes for the Middle East later this year, they won't have to worry about finding homes for their pets. A former Marine has created Canine Corps, a free kennel for Pennsylvania service personnel.

Griffin Bell, who played historic roles as attorney general and earlier as a federal judge, has died at age 90. As attorney general under President Carter, Bell helped to rehabilitate the Justice Department's public image and staff morale after the Watergate scandal.

President-elect Barack Obama will bring former Clinton administration official and federal budget expert Leon Panetta, 71, back to Washington to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Obama plans to fill the other top intelligence post with a military man: retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair.

The chief investigator for the Securities and Exchange Commission told a House subcommittee Monday that he is expanding a probe into why the agency didn't detect $50 billion in alleged fraud by Bernard Madoff's investment firm.

President-elect Barack Obama is meeting with congressional leaders to discuss his plan to create jobs and provide tax relief. Economists Russell Roberts and Robert Reich have different takes on how best to design the plan and keep the country out of a longer, deeper recession.

New York Times reporter Scott Shane has written a new profile of Bruce Ivins, the sole suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings. In his article, Shane describes Ivins as an "amateur juggler" with "mental illness, alcoholism and secret obsessions with hints of violence."

Regulators investigated Bernard Madoff's investment fund at least eight times before the scheme was exposed and Wall Street firms have advised against dealing with him for years.

A recent report on the rise of young black males being killed in the U.S. continues to raise concern among youth, parents and community leaders. Some say the findings reflect a much larger problem, the failure of society on many levels. A roundtable of people directly affected by violence, including two moms whose sons were killed, share their perspective on the crisis.

As President-elect Barack Obama makes plans for change at the nation's capitol, communities closer to the center of power are hoping for some help. In Ward 8, one of the poorest communities in Washington, D.C., residents are optimistic.

President-elect Barack Obama arrived in Washington to get ready for his upcoming inauguration. He's to meet with congressional leaders on his economic stimulus plan Monday. Top Democrats are warning that even if lawmakers move quickly, it could take weeks to get the plan ready to be signed into law.

At a South Side Chicago church Sunday night, there was an emotional introduction for Roland Burris. He's the man selected to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illilnois. Democrats have vowed not to seat Burris because he was named by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. However, Burris says he's ready for a showdown.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has withdrawn his nomination to be commerce secretary in the Obama administration. Richardson took his name out of the running amid a federal grand jury investigation into government contracts.

The recession is driving down energy prices, making it cheaper for people to heat their homes. In the Northeast, home heating oil could cost considerably less this winter than last year. That is, except for people who locked in at a higher price last summer. Curt Nickisch of member station WBUR reports.

Unemployed workers face a tough decision: Should they settle for a lower salary, and get work now, or hold out for a job commensurate with their skills? Employment counselors say some folks are still too proud to take a pay cut, but as weeks drag into months, they may have to settle for less.

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing Monday on the scandal involving disgraced investor Bernard Madoff. He's accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Chairman Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, tells Steve Inskeep the hearing will investigate why the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to detect the scandal.

President-elect Obama and his wife, Michelle, sent their daughters off to the first day at their new school Monday morning in Washington, D.C. One of the people capturing the intimate moment was Time magazine photographer Callie Shell, who has been snapping photos of Obama since 2006.

There are more than 50 murals on the walls of the Justice Department headquarters building. Painted during the Great Depression, they aimed to show how law and justice could improve lives.

At the Edge Foundation, a group of forward-thinking people are pondering that very question. Some of their answers may surprise you.

As many West Coast fisheries collapse, more fishermen are turning to the delectable Dungeness crab. It's one of the last thriving fisheries in California, but the winter race for the crabs means fewer fresh crabs on tables and smaller profits.

Sunday brought the first misfire in the smooth-running Obama transition machine. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his name from nomination as President-elect Obama's secretary of commerce.

The new film Frost/Nixon tells the story of Richard Nixon's 1974 interview with David Frost. Nixon's encounters with Frost were perhaps the closest the former president came to apologizing to the American public for the Watergate scandal. Author Jim Reston Jr., the man who helped Frost prepare for those interviews, gives host Guy Raz the real back story.

The governor of New Mexico and former presidential candidate has withdrawn his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary.

One day after President-elect Barack Obama urged quick passage of his economic stimulus plan, top Democrats are signaling that the package won't be ready in time for inauguration.

The manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy hit a new all time low on Friday. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group for purchasing executives, reports that manufacturing activity in all industry sectors is at the lowest level in 28 years — another measure of the current recession.

Every two years we get a fresh batch of ambitious people in Washington, and this time around the climate in the Senate seems ready to change.

Shawn Goldsmith has accomplished a rare feat for a Boy Scout — he earned all 121 merit badges available. You only need 21 to get the title "Eagle" Scout. "If I run into a stranger, there's definitely something to talk about. I have 121 topics to talk about," he says when asked why he did it.

The evangelical pastor whom President-elect Obama has picked to give the inaugural invocation has a surprising supporter: Melissa Etheridge, who has been outspoken on gay issues. Despite Rick Warren's opposition to gay marriage, she says she understands Obama's decision.

Wildlife may be a little less stressed when deer season ends Saturday in Virginia, but hunters in the state are still uneasy. That's because animal welfare and property rights advocates in Virginia are taking aim at a hunting tradition.

In Colorado, Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to name Michael Bennett to the seat vacated by Sen. Ken Salazar, who's leaving Congress to be Barack Obama's secretary of the interior.

Congratulations to the newcomers to Congress. They include a former head of an arboretum, and one woman who was a top Mary Kay salesperson in her state.

Among the more than 60 new members of Congress to be sworn in on Tuesday is Democrat Tom Perriello. His race was one of the biggest come-from-behind upsets of 2008, winning by fewer than 800 votes in a district that favored John McCain for president.

Israeli air strikes have left more than 400 Gazans dead, and Hamas has continued its rocket fire into Israel. President-elect Obama moves to Washington while his old Senate seat remains the center of controversy in Illinois.

There's a growing number of special courts for American war veterans and the unique problems they're bring back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Judge Michael McCarthy, himself a Vietnam Veteran, says the courtroom is sometimes the only place for veterans to get the help that's available to them.

The past eight years were a good time to be in the Federalist Society. Members of that conservative legal group occupied every level of the Bush administration. Now that the Democrats are ascending, a different group may find similar influence in Washington.

Amid prospects of a prolonged economic downturn, startup companies are having far more trouble finding cash. In the first three quarters of 2008, only six venture-backed companies held initial public offerings, compared with 86 IPOs in 2007.

Atif Irfan is one of the nine Muslim passengers detained and questioned at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after fellow passengers on their AirTran flight reported hearing a suspicious conversation between Irfan and his sister-in-law. The group was later cleared by the FBI and awarded refunds. Irfan discusses what happened.

Grocery retailer Giant, which operates about 160 pharmacies in the mid-Atlantic states, is offering free generic drugs this winter. The company says it knows it will lose money, but says its pharmacists have heard many anecdotes about families struggling.