POLITICAL
POL-Grand-Bargain
President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have been here before: a high-stakes showdown over the debt, visions of a grand bargain and a looming deadline. Last year, secret talks between Obama and Boehner -- discussions that began over a round of golf -- fell apart. So what's different now?
POL-Fiscal-Look-Back
The current outcry over the fiscal cliff feels like déjà vu for those intimately familiar with previously failed debt talks. Congressional brinksmanship with the White House over the nation's debt and federal spending. Numerous eponymously named plans. Groups with catchy titles charged with finding a solution. Grand bargains. Raised hopes. Flared tempers. Bruised egos. As talks break down and partisan lines are drawn, the problem finally is kicked down the road.
POL-Rice-Kerry (with art)
It's a favorite game in Washington to weigh the odds of each potential nominee to a president's cabinet and that game is in full swing -- especially in trying to anticipate President Barack Obama's choice for replacing Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. With speculation mounting that President Obama may soon announce his nominee, two very well-known names -- Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice -- remain the two top possibilities. Each comes with strengths but with baggage as well.
POL-2012-Campaign-Insight (with art)
As voters headed to the polls on Election Day, several of Mitt Romney's senior campaign aides said, they truly thought he was going to win the presidency and retake the White House Republicans lost four years earlier. "I was cautiously optimistic," Romney pollster Neil Newhouse said. Instead, Barack Obama garnered 51% of the popular vote and 332 electoral votes to 206 and approximately 48% of the popular vote for his opponent. Newhouse was one of the key Romney campaign officials who joined counterparts from Obama's campaign at a Harvard University symposium last week that examined the election, the strategies and how various factors influenced the outcome.
FINANCIAL
MONEY-Medicare-Reform
As President Obama and House Republicans tussle over a debt reduction deal, Medicare reform is back in the spotlight.
MONEY-529-Savings-Plan
Someday soon, your employer may match your contributions to a 529 college savings plan, just like it does with your 401(k). One company is already pioneering this concept. Dun & Bradstreet Credibility, a credit reporting and monitoring firm for businesses, is now offering a 529 college savings plan to its 600 employees that matches annual contributions up to $2,500 for salaried workers and $1,000 for hourly employees, dollar for dollar.
MONEY-Apple-Mac-Made-in-USA (with art)
Tim Cook's splashy announcement that Apple will begin making some Macs in the United States is great for Apple's PR, but it's relatively meaningless in terms of actually altering Apple's massive manufacturing operations.
MONEY-Gay-Money
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are better at managing their money than the average American, new research shows.
MONEY-Best-Worst-Corrupt-Countries
While China has become the world's second largest economy, doing business in China is now perceived to be more corrupt, according to Transparency International. China dropped five spots to 80th place out of 176 countries surveyed in the 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index. "The world's leading economies should lead by example, making sure that their institutions are fully transparent and their leaders are held accountable. This is crucial since their institutions play a significant role in preventing corruption from flourishing globally," said Cobus de Swardt, managing director of the Berlin-based corruption watchdog.
MEDICAL
MED-Penile-Reconstruction (with art; also see Freedom-Project-Operation-Hope)
It was a horrific act that brought the boy to an operating room in Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore. A gang on the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh, had cut off his penis and a testicle. He was only 7 at the time. "As far as an injury committed by one person against another, to a child, this is the most severe genital injury that I've ever seen in 23 years of doing this," Dr. John Gearhart, a pediatric urologist, told CNN. Gearhart and pediatric plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Redett volunteered their time to reconstruct the boy's penis.
MED-Morning-Sickness (with art)
Whenever there's a royal wedding, waiting for the news that a royal heir is on the way is always the next step. Less than two years after Britain's Prince William wed his bride Catherine Middleton, word of a royal pregnancy was eagerly anticipated. Now we know Catherine is having a baby. But the world didn't find out in the form of a photo revealing a conspicuous baby bump. Rather, the news broke when Buckingham Palace announced Monday the Duchess of Cambridge has been "admitted ... to King Edward VII Hospital in Central London with hyperemesis gravidarum," - which means excessive vomiting during pregnancy. As most mothers can attest, feeling nauseated during pregnancy is not unusual, so why is the duchess hospitalized?
MED-Breath-Test-Colorectal-Cancer
Breath test could detect colorectal cancer.
MED-Coach-Cancer (with art)
Coach beats his cancer, and learns to give back.
MED-Genetic-Test
New applications of a genetic test could help parents learn more about the genetics of their unborn children.
TECH
TECH-Facebook-Parents-Kids
As they move from their early teens to their late teens, kids no longer want to be pals with Mom and Dad. Teenage boys are much less likely than girls to initiate conversations with their parents. And moms baby their sons. Not exactly news flashes, you say? But we're not talking about real life here, exactly. We're talking about Facebook.
TECH-Edible-iPhone-Case
Yes, critics of the sometimes disposable nature of today's tech world, it's come to this. You can now eat your iPhone case. The price of a crunchy treat that also (theoretically) protects your most precious of mobile gadgets? $81.
TECH-SMS-Text-Message-20
It's been hailed for its succinctness and blamed for everything from sore thumbs to the decline of conversation. Love it or hate it, the text message is 20 years old.
TECH-Bright-Eyes-Coding-Glasses
The "shutter shades" most recently popularized by fashion-conscious rapper Kanye West are in the midst of a transformation from flash-in-the-pan style accessory to a clever technological learning aid that its makers hope will encourage more people to learn the art of computer coding.
