Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a popular Democrat, former governor and strong proponent of the Affordable Care Act, is taking some heat back home for the problems with HealthCare.gov. She faces re-election next year, but a formidable Republican opponent has yet to emerge.

When doctors stick electrodes into the brain of a patient with epilepsy, they're hoping to find a cure for debilitating seizures. But they're also exploring a still-mysterious landscape. And they couldn't do it without a patient willing to help.

Frigid weather and freezing rain have beset large swaths of the country. Those below-average temperatures are expected to stay well into the week.

When the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican governments were negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement back in the 1990s, environmentalists warned that it would create a race to the bottom: Countries would compete to gut environmental rules to attract businesses. But by and large, those fears were not realized. Still, the trade deal had other unforeseen environmental consequences.

Fast-food workers across the country protested their low pay this week, while President Obama decried the nation's growing wealth gap, calling it "the defining challenge of our time." Meanwhile, the nation's capital city passed a new minimum wage law.

There's no question that people have mixed motives when they send out their cards. No doubt they want to put the best face on their own lives, offering an annual report marked more by pride, perhaps, than honesty. Christmas cards may be self-serving and smug, but they're also well-meant attempts to connect.

More than 100,000 troops left the service with other-than-honorable discharges in the last 10 years. The consequences of a bad discharge can last a lifetime, disqualifying veterans from benefits and health care. Host Rachel Martin speaks with NPR's Quil Lawrence about his series on these former members of the military.

In December 1993, President Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law. Presidential candidate Ross Perot predicted Americans would hear a "giant sucking sound" as Mexico vacuumed up U.S. jobs. Economists say that the worst of Perot's fears never materialized. But opponents still see downsides.

Freezing rain is creeping across Tennessee on its way to the mid-Atlantic as the stunning cold, snow and ice that gripped Texas and the west on Saturday makes its advance eastward.

The high-tech system can essentially override human error and slow a train that is going too fast. Congress mandated that all trains have it by 2015, but only a few passenger and freight railroads will be ready by then. And after a deadly train crash in New York, few in Congress may be willing to vote for a delay.

U.S. civil rights leaders were among the first Americans to shine an international light on apartheid in South Africa. But calls for economic sanctions eventually led to wider actions, from college campuses to Wall Street. Richard Knight, project director of the African Activist Archive, remembers the role the U.S. indirectly played in South Africa's struggle.

Newman was deported by North Korea on Friday, days after he appeared on state TV reading an apology for alleged war crimes.

Earlier efforts to use gene therapy to treat a rare immune disorder in young children failed when some of the children got leukemia. Scientists say they think they may have figured it out, with eight children now living normal toddler lives.