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Hurricane relief funds helped pay for a vacation to Hawaii, a sex-change operation and season tickets to football games, according to a government audit. Madeleine Brand discusses the fraud and how the government plans to deal with the problem with Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX). McCaul's House subcommittee is holding hearings Wednesday about the misuse of relief funds.

One Indian-born writer calls Mumbai the "New York of India" and says that's a reason why it was targeted in Wednesday's attacks. Suketu Mehta is a journalism professor at New York University and author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. He speaks with Steve Inskeep.

As Russia swears in a new president, observers question whether the leader, Vladimir Putin's successor, will have real power to chart his own course for the country. He takes over a nation with a booming oil economy, and many serious problems.

In college, biologist Jimmy Breeden learned to identify bird songs — and in them, he heard his life's calling. His passion has taken him from the Smoky Mountains to a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where he works to preserve a rare duck species.

Milwaukee public health officials had an idea for reducing deaths by drug overdoses. They bought vending machines and then stocked them with life-saving supplies — such as Narcan.

The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. She is the court's third woman and first Hispanic. Sotomayor won support from all Democrats who voted, plus some Republicans.

The Transportation Security Administration plans to install 150 new whole-body scanners in airports. Opponents of the machines say they violate passengers' privacy, but supporters say they actually aren't all that invasive — and they're our best weapon against future attacks.

President Obama said Monday the government was doing everything in its power to keep the traveling public safe. Obama was making his first live public statement since a failed attempt to blow up a U.S. jetliner on Christmas Day.

Hotter oceans are threatening coral around the world this summer. A new project is seeking to preserve coral by deep-freezing them, in the hope that one day they can help restore reefs.

Florida's state universities will start accepting an alternative to the SAT exam that's known for its Christian and conservative backing.