NPR News

For more stories on New York State, check out The Innovation Trail.
On Friday, the Labor Department will release May jobs data, giving economists a better read on the national labor market. But this much they already know: Unemployment is very uneven, with some states still running nearly double-digit unemployment rates and others hitting full employment. The contrast is especially great between booming Iowa and hard-hit Illinois.
President Obama heads to the 200-acre California estate on Friday for a meeting with the Chinese president. He'll be the eighth president to visit the former winter home of Walter and Leonore Annenberg. It has also entertained the likes of Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart and Frank Sinatra.
Audie Cornish talks to atmospheric science professor Kevin Knupp from the University of Alabama, Huntsville, about an unusual blob that hovered on the local weather radar for nine hours earlier this week.
Thursday, on the 69th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, many have gathered on the coast of Normandy to remember and honor the Allied soldiers who fought their way through Nazi defenses and went on to liberate Europe. There is controversy about a French plan to build 75 wind turbines offshore here. Critics see it as desecration of hollowed ground. Promoters say the wind mills will be at least 6 miles from the coast. They will still be visible but will help France meet its renewable energy goals and create thousands of jobs.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be the most successful prime minister in modern Turkey's history. A deeply pious Muslim once jailed for his outspoken remarks, he has presided over a decade of democratic reforms and economic growth. But now he finds himself the target of angry protesters who call him a dictator and a fascist.
The National Security Agency attained Verizon's customer's phone records via Section 215 of the Patriot Act. That section has spurred some intense debate since 2001. Audie Cornish talks to Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center and a law professor at the George Washington University, for an explainer of this controversial law.