With more flights filled to capacity, airline passengers are rediscovering the middle seat. Airplanes are now typically more than 80 percent full, and that can translate into a host of problems for travelers — including the possibility of getting bumped.
Think the feminists who protested the 1968 Miss America pageant in the name of women's liberation burned their bras? Think again. No bras were set aflame that September day. But the idea that they were helped launch the movement onto the national stage.
August was a bad month. Employers slashed 84,000 jobs and the unemployment rate hit a five-year high. We explore why this is particularly bad for female workers.
Hurricane Hanna is on its way to North Carolina and other hurricanes are close behind. Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, discusses the coming storms.
Analyst Juan Williams assesses the state of the presidential campaign two months ahead of election day. From the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, he tells us what he took away from each convention.
The gritty Pennsylvania city has emerged as a symbolic battleground this election season. We talk with the Obama campaign and a neighborhood organization about how a slumping economy is affecting Scranton.
Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist at the center of a Washington, D.C., corruption scandal, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison. According to the Washington Post, he told the judge he is no longer the person who "happily and arrogantly" engaged in a lifestyle of corruption. In fact, he's now a writer.
The levees of New Orleans held fast against Hurricane Gustav but several more storms — including Hanna, Ike and Josephine — are now forming. Hurricane expert Ivor van Heerden discusses the levee reconstruction project and how New Orleans will fare during what is expected to be an active hurricane season.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has agreed to step down later this month and serve 120 days in a county jail as part of a plea deal. Kilpatrick's resignation ends an almost six-month fight to stay in office amid obstruction of justice charges. Thursday night, Kilpatrick made his first public speech to Detroiters after the plea bargain.
The stock market took another hit Thursday on bad economic news. All of the major indices were down. On Friday morning, investors awaited the government's latest jobs report.
These days, party nominating conventions are events for the media as much as for the delegates. The McCain campaign took its turn carefully crafting its image visually and rhetorically before a captive media crowd this week. Did the GOP accomplish what it set out to achieve in St. Paul?
John McCain accepted the GOP's presidential nomination in a nearly hour-long speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. McCain complimented rival Barack Obama for winning the Democratic nomination, but offered a long list of criticisms of the Illinois senator.
Determined not to let the Republicans get the entire spotlight, Barack Obama has been campaigning hard in swing states. On Thursday, he was in Pennsylvania, which Democrats have won in the past two presidential elections.
It was John McCain's night to shine Thursday at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. In accepting the party's presidential nomination, McCain promised to work against constant partisan rancor and reach across party lines. McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, aren't wasting any time and began the day campaigning in Wisconsin.
When a politician takes the convention stage, he or she is speaking to two very different audiences: the undecided viewers at home and the delegates in the arena. Thursday night, John McCain officially accepted the GOP's presidential nomination. On the convention floor, his acceptance speech was well received.
With the NFL season under way, the New England Patriots are asking fans, "Are you ready for some shopping?" Team owner Robert Kraft has built a huge new mall next to Gillette Stadium that costs as much as the stadium itself: more than $300 million.
John McCain, promising "change is coming" to Washington, accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday night, kicking off a fall campaign between two candidates who both pledge to upend the status quo in what may well remain a closely divided race until Election Day.
Dr. Robert Morrow is one of only two dentists in Walsh, Colo. He's also a city councilor and county coroner and formerly served as mayor and fire chief. He says people have to take on many jobs and volunteer activities to keep this small town alive, but it's worth it.
In her speech Thursday evening, Cindy McCain said the world is facing perilous times and Americans need to help each other. She calls her husband a "source of inspiration" who has "shown the value of self-sacrifice." And she describes her upbringing, her role as a mother and her world charity work.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick accepted a plea agreement, stepped down from office and will serve jail time. He pleaded guilty to two felony obstruction charges stemming from a scandal involving a cover-up of an alleged affair with his former top aide.
Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff is sentenced to four years in prison for conspiracy in connection with a highly publicized public corruption case. The scandal involved a number of members of Congress, many of them Republicans, and contributed to several key election defeats in 2006.
All Things Considered has followed New Orleans resident Sharon White since Hurricane Katrina. After Katrina, she returned home to find her New Orleans East house damaged by floodwaters. She returned in March. She talks about life in the city and about Hurricane Gustav.
Protesters are planning to march outside the Republican National Convention to call for an end to the Iraq war as John McCain accepts his party's nomination. More than 100 protesters have already been arrested Thursday in Minneapolis.
Gettysburg is trying to return the battlefield to what it looked like in 1863. Last month, high winds sheared off the top of a honey locust that stood in the center of the Union line in the battle. The park is helping the Witness Tree heal.
Organizers of a school boycott in Chicago are trying high-profile tactics to protest education funding. On Tuesday, more than 1,000 students skipped the first day of classes. On Wednesday, some classes were held in the lobbies of office buildings.
The town of Bloomer, Wis., responds to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's speech Wednesday and her selection as Republican John McCain's running mate. The town had sounded off on Democrat Barack Obama before the state's primary in February.
As students head back to school, teachers can find themselves face to face with teenagers clinging to their summer styles. Commentator Annmarie Kelly Harbaugh knows that the boundary between what is and is not appropriate school clothing can be a bit blurry.
Sarah Palin's speech didn't really prove whether the 44-year-old former small-town mayor deserved the job of vice president after just 21 months as Alaska governor. But John McCain's running mate did show she knew how to take a punch, and how to deliver one, with a sly grin.
Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has entered into a plea deal on obstruction charges in connection with a city hall sex scandal. He will step down as mayor, serve 120 days in jail and pay the city of Detroit one million dollars in damages.
For the moment, Sarah Palin is the toast of St. Paul. But as the cool Minnesota day turns to night, the attention of the Republican National Convention swivels toward John McCain and the campaign to come.
The Republican Party has sought to showcase diversity in its recent conventions, but according to published reports, only 2 percent of the delegates at this week's gathering in St. Paul, Minnesota are black. Tell Me More takes to the convention floor to ask African-American delegates how they interpret the lack of diverse attendees.
There are only a handful of African-American delegates at this week's Republican Nation Convention. Still, some black conservatives feel conflicted about their choice for president this election cycle. In the latest installment of the series, What If, author Shelby Steele, political commentator John McWhorter and Republican activist Yvonne Davis discuss choosing between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain.
Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has accepted a plea deal requiring him to resign from office immediately, pay $1 million in restitution and serve four months in jail. Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley discusses details of Kilpatrick's plea deal and what it means for City Hall.
NPR's Linton Weeks tests the St. Paul skyway system to rise above the pedestrian life. But he realizes there are some pleasures of that life he misses during his time in the labyrinth of above ground, covered corridors that run between downtown skyscrapers.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a deal that will force him from office. The guilty plea to two felony charges stems from Kilpatrick's role in the city's $8.4 million settlement of a whistleblower lawsuit brought by two fired police officers.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's plea deal brings to an end a seven-months-long ordeal that led to felony charges against Kilpatrick and plunged the city, region and state into political chaos.
The creator of the hot-selling video game series The Sims has a new game coming out this weekend. In Spore, players create their own worlds starting from creatures the size of a cell. The cell and the world evolve, and ultimately an entire civilization is created. Some say it may help young people get interested in science.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama continued his swing through battleground states with a stop in Ohio. The Democrats and Republicans are in a fierce battle for the votes of women. At one stop Wednesday, a 24-year-old single mother working for minimum wage introduced Obama in a college courtyard.
The bike messenger business is changing. Electronic document transfer — especially for legal documents — has cut into the business. But now, high gas prices and new bikes that can carry bigger loads mean that bike messengers are branching into bigger deliveries.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's speech at the GOP convention Wednesday was the occasion for parties in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. Residents there are proud of her, but they also are beginning to push back a little under all the national scrutiny.