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Four years of crippling drought has withered the agricultural economies of Great Plains states like Oklahoma. The USDA forecasts this year's wheat crop will be half what it would be in a good year.

Jeffrey Zients, the 46-year-old tapped to help solve the Obamacare website problems, is known as a brainy problem-solver with a talent for cutting through bureaucratic knots.

A Mexican national was executed by the state of Texas on Wednesday night for killing a Houston police officer. He was put to death by lethal injection shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeal, and despite calls from Secretary of State John Kerry to delay the punishment.

Insurance enrollment will be a key yardstick for assessing whether the Affordable Care Act is working. Almost as important as the total number of people who get coverage is whether a significant percentage of them are healthy.

Michael Sam, a standout at the University of Missouri, announced that he's gay. He's the first active NFL prospect or player to do that. Scouts and executives say he wasn't going to be a first- or second-round pick before that news. The reality is he's now slipped further in the draft, they say.

Bicyclists account for a just a small percentage of commuters in the U.S., but their numbers have grown by nearly 60 percent over the past decade as cities have become more bike-friendly.

The Volcker rule, a key part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law, prevents banks from using government-insured money to make speculative bets.

President Obama's nominee to run the CIA has his confirmation hearing Thursday afternoon. The hearing of White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan comes as lawmakers are studying a memo on drone strikes overseas. Robert Siegel talks to Tom Gjelten.

Police investigating the Sandy Hook shootings say they have weeks of work ahead of them. Dozens of interviews, including of traumatized school kids, remain. Host Guy Raz gets the latest in the investigation from NPR's Carrie Johnson.

From spanking children to denying service to gay couples, legislation in Kansas has been stirring up controversy. Some lawmakers argue their colleagues are drifting from the important issues.