Proposed Set Of Academic Standards Unveiled The blueprint released by group of governors and school superintendents lays out what students should be learning in math and English every year from kindergarten through high school. The plan is part of a push to iron out the jumble of state standards and raise expectations for American schools.

Powerful Catholic Quietly Shaping Abortion, Health Bill Debate As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' point man on abortion, Richard Doerflinger has emerged as a major player in the health care debate, one likely to play a pivotal role in the outcome.

Few Democratic Governors Are Safe The president's party typically loses about a half-dozen seats in midterm elections. With 37 governorships at stake this year, that may mean bad news for the Democrats.

Training Displaced Workers But For What Jobs? In Dayton, Ohio, Sinclair Community College has been a driving force in helping retrain the unemployed so they can find work after graduation. But high paying manufacturing jobs don't seem to be coming back, and any good job is tough to find.

Divisiveness Of Abortion Impedes Health Care Plan NPR's Julie Rovner and Father Thomas Reese of Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center talk to Steve Inskeep about how abortion remains an obstacle to passing health care legislation. They also discuss the influence of Catholic bishops on the health care vote.

Study: Doctors May Not Know Which Drug Is Best Doctors prescribe specific drugs based on how well they think individual drugs actually work. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that in many cases, doctors don't have enough information to know which drug is best.

Underwater Cable May Ease Electric Shortages Energy developers have struggled to connect new sources of renewable electricity with big cities, without building ugly and expensive transmission corridors. A Canadian company has unveiled a nearly $4 billion plan to bury underwater cables in Lake Champlain, the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. The project would feed power to New York City and Connecticut.

Campaign Finance Activist Granny D Dies At 100 Doris "Granny D" Haddock, the New Hampshire woman who walked across the country at age 89 to promote campaign finance changes has died. She was 100.

Job Openings Up Sharply In January The Labor Department reported on Tuesday that job openings increased in January. The number of openings in January rose about 7.6 percent to 2.7 million, compared with December. It is still a tough job market, however, but with some signs of improvement.

Texting While Driving: Put The Thumbs Away Some drivers admit to texting while driving despite the known dangers of distraction. And it isn't just young drivers. Some studies show the biggest growth in texting is among people ages 35 and older.

Pennsylvania Woman Indicted On Terrorism Charges Colleen R. LaRose is accused of using the Internet to recruit jihadist fighters and help terrorists overseas, even agreeing to move to Europe to try to kill a Swedish artist, prosecutors said Tuesday. She called herself JihadJane in a YouTube video in which she said she was "desperate" to ease the suffering of Muslims, the indictment said.

Rove's Memoir: 'The Empire Strikes Back'? Karl Rove released a memoir Tuesday that many reviewers criticized as being more defense of George W. Bush-era policies than revealing look at the legendary operative once dubbed "Bush's Brain." But most political memoirs share a similar aim: to get a jump on shaping history as it's written.

Suspect In Airport Security Breach Pleads Guilty Haisong Jiang said he slipped under a rope barrier at Newark Airport to say goodbye to his girlfriend. The Jan. 3 breach led TSA to shut down the terminal for six hours, stranding thousands of passengers and costing airlines millions. Jiang agreed to pay a $500 fine, plus additional court costs, and perform 100 hours of community service.

Official Condom Design: New York's New Sex Symbol You've heard of official state flowers, but an official condom? New York City's health department, which distributes 40 million free condoms a year, held a contest for a new limited-edition wrapper. The winning design, announced Tuesday, will likely become one of the most recognized logos in New York.

States Square Off Against Amazon Over Sales Tax The Supreme Court has said that retailers can't be expected to collect sales taxes in states where they don't have a physical presence. But as states struggle with huge budget deficits, they want to collect on the billions of dollars of taxes they say online shoppers owe.