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In 1931, Harry Powers killed two women and three children at his home in Quiet Dell, W.Va. Writer Jayne Anne Phillips learned about the murders from her mother, who was a child when the deaths became a media sensation. Phillips' new novel retells the tragedy through the eyes of a young reporter.

The main reason? The debacle in Washington. The credit ratings agency — one of the big three — said "faith" in the credit of the country is in danger.

The record-breaking wildfire in Yosemite National Park is calling attention to a problem found across the West: Forests are overloaded with fuel after a century of putting out fires. What to do about that is fueling its own heated debate.

Psychologist Greg Walton has found that a simple intervention can help many students get the most out of college. The trick is in helping students see that setbacks are temporary, and often don't have larger implications.

For the first time in decades, interest rates for jumbo home loans are lower than rates for a typical mortgage. And because of that, the luxury market is the fastest growing sector of home loans. In Phoenix, sales of homes that cost more than $500,000 are up 64 percent.

Two recent operations in Libya and Somalia offer a vivid example of how members of U.S. Special Operations are being deployed around the world to go after terrorists. Renee Montagne talks to author Jeremy Scahill about his newest book, Dirty Wars, which is about the rise of special forces.

The Senate has been working on a bipartisan deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. But House conservatives have signaled they might not go along with a Senate deal. Steve Inskeep talks to Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia about how he thinks the impasse can be resolved.

Most migration is driven by economics, but Americans are no longer packing up their bags in search of a better life. Journalist Timothy Noah tells host Michel Martin why income inequality is up and geographic mobility has gone down.

The debate over lifting a ban on uranium extraction pits the Danish territory's lawmakers against environmentalists. It would be a controversial move and one with consequences for Greenland's economic development as well as its political status.

In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed John Foster Dulles as secretary of state, and Allen Dulles as director of the CIA. In his new book, The Brothers, journalist Stephen Kinzer says the Dulles' actions "helped set off some of the world's most profound long-term crises."