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Lawmakers have spent much of this year struggling to reach a deal that could get budget deficits under control. But the problem has been developing for at least a decade. In 2000, there was a $200 billion surplus.

After Occupy Wall Street protesters were evicted from Zuccotti Park, it seemed a changed space. But protesters vowed to make Thursday's day of action big.

Magpies and crows are well-known for their habit of collecting odds and ends in their nests. Not so very different, the thinking goes, from the way medieval cooks assembled ingredients for their pies.

Even as Congress' deficit-reduction supercommittee ran into a dead end this week, the resulting mandatory spending cuts were immediately targeted by interest groups and sympathetic lawmakers. No interest group stands to lose more than the defense industry.

After a meteoric rise, GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is now polling in the single digits. But she's still plowing ahead with her campaign, and this week she came out with a memoir. The Minnesota congresswoman talks with co-host Steve Inskeep about Core of Conviction and aiming to win the nomination.

"I can think about it now without sobbing," says Suzi Hileman, who was wounded in the shooting rampage that left six people dead and 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, injured. Others who survived or lost loved ones are also finding ways to cope.

The baby boomer generation came into politics with a liberal challenge to the establishment, but that hasn't made it a reliably Democratic voting block. This middle-aged group is deeply dissatisfied with the economy and frustrated with the president.

Voters in Ohio have defeated a new law that limits the collective bargaining rights of unionized public workers. Since the law hadn't taken effect yet, current union rules will remain in place. Ohio voters hope their outcome will send a message to other states considering similar laws.

Fifty years ago Norton Juster sat down and tried to remember the confusion and dislocation of childhood. His memories became a book, and The Phantom Tollbooth was born. In this essay, Juster looks back at his beloved novel, and the bored, disconnected child who grew up to write it.

Lars von Trier's Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg as sisters who undergo a psychological transformation as disaster approaches. Critic David Edelstein says the film is a sublime fusion of form and content with a truly Wagnerian climax. (Recommended)