Pam Fessler

A federal appeals court in Ohio just upheld a decision extending early voting in that state — but several other big voting law cases are still undecided, just weeks before the midterm elections.

Voting might not be the sexiest thing in the world, but at least one ad campaign encouraging Americans to register is pretty provocative.

An innovative program seeks to fight persistent poverty by helping a struggling family navigate past some of the day-to-day obstacles that keep many people poor.

The number of U.S. families that struggled to get enough to eat last year was essentially unchanged from the year before, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's latest report on "food security."

The agency says that about 17.5 million families — or 1 in 7 — were food ...

Dozens of lawyers will gather in a federal courtroom in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday for the start of a new challenge to the state's controversial voter ID law.

The trial is expected to last two to three weeks, but it's unlikely to be the end of what's already been ...

The ALS Association has raised more than $94 million in recent weeks via its online ice bucket challenge — compared with $2.7 million this time last year. Now what?

A federal court will hear arguments Monday on whether Kansas and Arizona can require proof of citizenship when people register to vote. It's the first of a wave of voting law cases this fall.

How much does it cost to raise a child these days? The government says it costs $245,340. That's for a child born in 2013 and covers the period from birth to age 18. College not included.

A survey by Feeding America, a network of U.S. food banks, found that one-quarter of all U.S. military households used a food pantry in 2013. But service members are often reluctant to seek such help.

A small percentage of college students commit most of the rapes on campus. Research suggests that the attitudes of male friends can either lead men to commit rape or stop them.

Social service agencies and nonprofits are scrambling to figure out what they need to do to help the thousands of immigrant children who have come to the U.S. in recent months.

The Wisconsin Republican is rolling out a plan that he says will fight poverty more effectively than the programs launched by former President Johnson's War on Poverty, but progressives are skeptical.

Around the U.S., food assistance agencies are trying to come up with new ways to feed hungry kids in the summer. In Hopkins County, Ky., they're using mobile vans to take food to where kids live.

By prohibiting acts like loitering and sleeping in public, cities hope to make streets safer. But advocates for the homeless say this type of legislation can be counterproductive.

Some say the box on job applications that asks, "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" prevents ex-offenders from getting a fair shot. New laws prohibit firms from asking about a criminal record.

After the recession, experts predicted it would take many years for charitable giving to get back to where it was before the economic downturn. But it now appears to be right around the corner.

The campaign to find permanent homes for 100,000 homeless people, including the chronically homeless, was started four years ago. Now, the group behind the push says it has reached its goal.

NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik looks at the role that conservative media may have played in the upset defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in his Republican primary.

Last year, about 1 in 7 people in the U.S. were getting food stamps, or SNAP benefits. But the numbers have started to drop as more people find work and better-paying jobs, analysts say.

They are being pushed out of the rental market in fast-growing cities like Washington, D.C. Many end up spending most of their income on housing, living in substandard housing, or homeless.