Search results for

NPR's David Welna reports on today's action in the House of Representatives on the proposed repeal of estate taxes. The plan would reduce the top rate of 55 percent to 39 percent by 2010, and then phase it out altogether in 2011. It's a move that is expected to cost $193 billion over the next 10 years.

In the final part of a two-part series, NPR's Madeleine Brand concludes the report on the Supermax prison in Boscobel, Wis. The facility is full of solitary confinement cells, and is one of about three dozen such prisons in the country, which are designed to house inmates who are too disruptive and violent for maximum security prisons.

Want a bigger house, a svelte figure or a gender change? It's possible in the online game "Second Life," where residents trade real money for virtual land, designer clothes and other trappings of a fantasy life.

The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales' nomination as attorney general. Committee Democrats are expected to focus on Gonzales's role in drafting controversial memos that redefined torture. Hear NPR's Nina Totenberg.

After months of negotiation and recent prodding from President Bush, House Republicans are optimistic that a compromise has been reached on intelligence reform. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.

In 1995, Republicans brought forth the Contract with America, a wide-reaching agenda at a time when the party had gained control of the House. Ten years later the contract has a mixed legacy. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

In cities that were quickly encircled and occupied in the early days of the war, it was too dangerous to leave the house – let alone make an escape.

Most of America's millions of old computers are shipped to Asia, where rural villagers strip and sell the scrap metal and plastic. The leftover waste -- often toxic -- is piled up around houses and rivers. Environmentalists are crying foul. For Weekend All Things Considered, NPR's Allison Aubrey reports. (5:15)

Ameriquest, a high-flying sub-prime lender during the housing boom, was accused of predatory lending by state prosecutors. The company now faces a class-action lawsuit by borrowers.

Human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir, who is currently under house arrest in Lahore, talks about her detention, the state of the emergency rule in Pakistan and Friday's scheduled protests.