Bill Chappell

Following on a pledge to use his office's discretionary powers to adjust the U.S. approach to immigration, President Obama reportedly plans to remove the threat of deportation for up to 5 million people who entered the U.S. illegally.

The administration's shift in approach was reported by The New York ...

A woman who was issued a ticket this summer in Chicago, Ill. for going topless has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court, claiming the city’s ordinance against women appearing bare-chested in public is unconstitutional.

Sonoko Tagami, 41, received a $100 ticket for indecent exposure.

Jason Meisner, a federal courts reporter ...

Medical teams plan to start three clinical trials in the fight against the Ebola virus next month, administering the drugs at treatment centers run by Doctors Without Borders in West Africa. Two of the therapies involve antiviral drugs.

Two of the clinical trials will be conducted in Guinea and Liberia; ...

Two bills that would authorize building the controversial Keystone XL pipeline will soon come to a vote in Congress, as their sponsors — Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La. — head toward a runoff election next month to decide who will win the Senate race.

NPR's Debbie ...

The European Space Agency released a new photo Thursday of the Philae lander safely resting in its new home on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as it hurtles through space. The agency's data also show the lander bounced twice before coming to rest.

Wednesday's historic landing came after hours ...

Accused of working together to manipulate the foreign exchange market, six huge banks have been ordered to pay fines to agencies in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland totaling around $4.25 billion. U.S. firms Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase will pay the largest fines, about $1 billion each.

The fines are part ...

Rejecting the state's argument that it, not the U.S. government, has the authority to define marriage, a federal judge overturned South Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday.

NPR's Debbie Elliott reports:

"Charleston federal judge Richard Gergel ruled same-sex couples have a right to marry under the U.S. Constitution.

"The ...

Dan Sullivan, a Republican whose campaign was supported by both Mitt Romney and Sen. Ted Cruz, has beaten Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich to win the race for U.S. Senate in Alaska, according to The Associated Press.

That expands the GOP's Senate majority to 53 seats.

The late call in ...

Hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, a man-made object was flung at a comet Wednesday — and now it's sticking to the rock as it hurtles through space.

"We are on the comet," Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager, announced Wednesday, marking a historic achievement.

The news came after the ...

President Obama says the U.S. will sharply cut its emissions of greenhouse gases, announcing a new approach to climate change alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping. The plan also includes China's agreement to cap its emissions.

The two leaders' pledges are being called dramatic and ambitious — for the U.S., because ...

Alaska's wrestling tournament for small schools will be held next month — but it won't be at the private Anchorage Christian Schools, the host for the past seven years. A complaint about the tournament's introductory prayer led to a request to stop the practice, and the school refused.

The anonymous ...

A designer who has dyslexia has created a font to help dyslexic readers navigate text, designing letters in a way that avoids confusion and adds clarity. And in England, two researchers are compiling a dictionary that favors meaning over alphabetical order.

Roughly 10 percent of the world's population is dyslexic. ...

What seemed to be an innocent moment during the APEC summit in Beijing has grown into a topic of debate, after China's censors moved to erase Russian President Vladimir Putin's act of placing a shawl over the shoulders of Peng Liyuan, the wife of China's President Xi Jinping.

The gesture ...

At least nine women have reportedly died, and dozens more are in the hospital, after undergoing laparoscopic tubectomy procedures at a government-run health camp in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India. The surgeries were performed Saturday; the first death was reported Monday morning.

"Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh suspended four ...

A tariff system that adds as much as 25 percent to the cost of American high-tech products could be on the way out, thanks to negotiations at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China. President Obama announced the new progress Tuesday.

The development could speed the adoption of a new ...

The captain of the Sewol, the South Korean ferry that capsized and killed 304 people, many of them students, has been sentenced to 36 years in prison. The punishment for the April calamity drew shouts and sharp criticism from victims' family members in the courtroom; many had urged a death ...

Some forecasters call it an arctic front. Others say it's the good old polar vortex, or simply an "intrusion." By any other name, it'll be just as cold: Weather that hit Alaska last week is rushing down into the U.S., rapidly bringing a drop in temperature that won't end for ...

A Dutch project that integrates solar panels into a bike commuter path will officially open this week, on a special roadway outside Amsterdam. Power generated by the SolaRoad's panels will be funneled into the national energy grid.

The project in the town of Krommenie is being called the world's first ...

This week's meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum started Monday, but the sessions have already brought us two interesting photos. In one, the leaders of China and Japan reflect their countries' unease; in another, world leaders dress alike.

In an attempt to ease tensions between China and Japan ...

The U.S. and China are easing visa rules for each other's citizens, in a reciprocal agreement that President Obama says will "benefit everyone from students, to tourists, to businesses large and small." Starting his eight-day visit to East Asia, the president also said "good progress" has recently been made for ...