President Obama called repeatedly on Congress to address issues of paramount importance to the country during his State of the Union address Tuesday. But he also made it clear that when Congress fails to act or agree with his policies, he intends to push ahead on his own.

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Five-year-old Banana Joe beat out Swagger, the old English sheepdog, and five others. More than 2,700 dogs too part in the competition.

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Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address, strove mightily to transform the perception, cemented during last year's presidential race, that his party's embrace excludes those who aren't rich and white.

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After The New York Times published a scathing review of Tesla's Model S electric car, the automaker's CEO took to Twitter to slam the reporter. Disputed facts aside, the timing of the spat could hurt Tesla, which is under pressure to improve its financial performance.

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Obama used his fourth State of the Union address to set forth a sweeping vision for his second term. Obama said he would seek to reform entitlements, the tax code and immigration policy. He also offered a laundry list of smaller initiatives like raising the minimum wage and offering universal preschool.

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Hindus in India are celebrating the 55-day-long Kumbh Mela, the world's biggest religious festival. An estimated 100 million pilgrims are expected to gather, pray and bathe in the waters at the confluence of three sacred rivers.

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Diclofenac — sold under the brand names Voltaren, Cambia, Cataflam and Zipsor — raises the risk of a heart attack by about 40 percent. But that hasn't prevented the drug from becoming the world's most popular painkiller in its class. Now researchers are calling on the World Health Organization to remove it from a list of so-called "essential medicines."

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The Kennedy administration commemorated the Emancipation Proclamation with a reception for a virtual who's who of black Americans. However, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed away.

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Comcast Corp. said Tuesday it will complete its buyout of NBCUniversal from GE for about $16.7 billion, ahead of schedule. Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, has owned 51 percent of NBCUniversal since their $28 billion merger in 2011.

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The Los Angeles Police Department rejected reports that a body had been recovered at a mountain cabin where the fugitive accused of killing four people had engaged law enforcement in a standoff. An LAPD official said the cabin was too hot to enter.

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Presidents use references to great events as a way of acknowledging that what unites Americans is not ethnicity or even language but ideas and a shared past. President Obama cited historical moments in his inaugural; look for similar touchstones at the State of the Union address.

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A study of more than 85,000 women in Norway found that those who started taking a folic acid supplement four weeks before getting pregnant were about 40 percent less likely to have a child who developed the disorder. Mothers had to continue taking the supplement during the first eight weeks of pregnancy to get the full benefit.

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President Obama is expected to put specifics behind the vision he outlined in his inaugural address a few weeks ago. Get live updates from the speech and join NPR journalists in analyzing what it could mean for the future.

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North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test is much more powerful than the previous two, according to estimates made by instruments that measure seismic waves from the blast. But it's hard to verify North Korea's claim that the test was of a miniaturized nuclear weapon.

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When NPR White House correspondent Ari Shapiro posed that question to his 125,000 Facebook followers, plenty of people jumped at the chance for a show of wit. Let the bon mots roll!

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In New Orleans today, one thing was made clear: Revelry doesn't stop for dark clouds. While the crowds were thinner than usual, many thought the weather was perfect for Fat Tuesday.

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The late civil rights icon's statue will join those in the National Statuary Hall Collection. The dedication is set for Feb. 27.

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The magazine argues that the care veterans do receive is bare bones and insufficient. A story about the bin Laden "shooter" asserted that the elite service member would get no benefits from the military.

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A new smartphone app allows users to document falling precipitation in their location. The mPING app aims to help weather officials program radar to determine exactly what's falling near you. For example, is it hail or mixed rain?

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The restaurant's slogan is "taste worth dying for!" Its menu includes "Flatliner Fries" and a burger that packs about 10,000 calories. John Alleman had been its "unofficial spokesman" for more than a year.

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