The vote makes the former Republican senator the first defense nominee to be filibustered.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Kittens regained sight in a blind eye after being plunged into darkness for 10 days. Researchers say that prolonged darkness may reset the brain to an earlier stage of development, allowing the kittens to recover their vision.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Remember Sen. Marco Rubio's paean to his Florida neighborhood in giving the Republican response to the State of the Union address? It seems Rubio is still living in West Miami because he's been unable to find someone to buy his house in the three months it's been on the market.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

George Prendes was 23 when he was sentenced under New York's Rockefeller drug laws — tough mandatory sentencing guidelines for nonviolent drug crimes. The 15 years Prendes served for a drug transaction still reverberate for him and his family.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

One expert said logistics and safety are considerations, while another said it likely comes down to a question of money.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Small amounts of the drugs that people take end up in wastewater and then in streams and rivers. It's usually not enough to harm the health of humans who swim in or drink the water. But there is growing evidence that pharmaceuticals in wastewater may affect wildlife.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

President Obama will cap off a busy week of politicking with some R&R in Florida, traveling to the West Palm Beach area for what his spokesman called "some well-deserved downtime."

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Maureen O'Connor pleaded not guilty to a money laundering charge, but agreed to repay $2 million she took from her late husband's charity. O'Connor's attorney said she had a gambling problem, stemming from a brain tumor.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

"Canada will never become a safe haven for zombies, ever," the nation's minister of foreign affairs declared this week. It was a tongue-in-cheek moment in Parliament. Or is tongue-in-cheek the wrong analogy in this case?

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The German economy shrank 0.6 percent during the last quarter of 2012, dragging the eurozone deeper into recession. There are some positive signs, however.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The rock known as 2012 DA14 will fly past around 2:24 p.m. ET. It will be closer than many satellites and the size of an office building. And it will be nearer to the planet than anything else of its size that we know of.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The proposed marriage of American Airlines and US Airways is likely the last in a series of industry mega-mergers. But history suggests combining two big carriers isn't easy. Meshing cultures and dealing with pilot seniority add to the complexity of combining airlines, analysts say.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

After years of being burned by Roundup, weeds like palmer amaranth, marestail and giant ragweed have evolved resistance to the herbicide. To fight them, scientists are now looking to a concept that seems straight out of sci-fi.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

An airstrike in Afghanistan's Kunar province that reportedly killed 10 civilians and four Taliban militants has reignited one of the most toxic political issues in Afghanistan: civilian casualties as a result of U.S. or ISAF strikes. But early investigations suggest that the reality on the ground in Kunar is more complex than initially reported.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

This Valentine's Day, people in more than 200 countries are participating in One Billion Rising, a call to rise up and dance to bring awareness to violence against women worldwide. Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and founder of the V-Day antiviolence campaign, talks about her work to fund crisis centers and shelters for victims around the globe.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The announcement of a merger between American Airlines and US Airways on Thursday represents the culmination of a decades-long shake-up in the commercial airline industry. What does the merger mean for employees, consumers and a changing industry?

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The critically acclaimed film Zero Dark Thirty has reinvigorated the debate around the interrogation techniques used during the Bush administration's war on terror. Host Neal Conan discusses the film's depiction of interrogations and what U.S. and international law says about the techniques used during the Bush era.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The relationship began when Nixon sent Clinton a letter of admiration shortly after he became president. The letter gives more detail into an unlikely relationship.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The Carnival cruise ship Triumph will dock in Mobile, Ala., late Thursday night, as the job of towing the stricken 100,000-ton ship across the Gulf of Mexico has taken longer than expected. The ship's 3,143 passengers have coped with sewage problems and a lack of ventilation, but a passenger says they've had plenty of food.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Hadiya Pendleton, 15, became a symbol of urban gun violence when she was shot and killed in daylight on Chicago's South Side. Her death came just days after she performed in the celebration surrounding President Obama's inauguration. Host Michel Martin speaks with Hadiya's mother, Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us