The White House is a home, not a museum, so when presidents move in, they do what any new homeowner would do: they redecorate. Just like the rest of us, they paint, paper, change the furniture and carpets.

The Obama administration is slowly ratcheting up pressure on Syria, slapping more targeted sanctions on some top officials — including the brother of President Bashar al-Assad.

The U.S. and its partners failed to get the UN Security Council to even agree to a press statement on the Syrian government crackdown on protesters, but it fared better in the UN Human Rights Council, which voted Friday to launch an investigation.

No state may be more politically polarized right now than Wisconsin. That follows the effort by Republican Gov. Scott Walker to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of most public workers there. The divide is most apparent between Wisconsin's biggest cities and its smallest towns.

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Two days before hundreds of deadly tornadoes swept through the South on April 27 and 28, meteorologists were telling people in that part of the country to get ready for powerful twisters.

But those same meteorologists have no idea whether there will be a similar outbreak of tornadoes next week or next month.

"This could be it for the rest of the season or it could continue to be crazy — we absolutely don't know," says Howard Bluestein, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.

In the past, we rarely heard or cared about what NFL players did during the spring and early summer.

Not so now. Since the NFL locked-out players over a labor dispute and a court later lifted the lockout this week, football fans have focused on pro football's off-season much more than in past years.

Consider what we heard recently from Chicago offensive lineman J'Marcus Webb, when he was asked about being locked out of team facilities.

Congresswoman Diana DeGette was among many stem-cell research advocates cheering a court ruling on Friday.

The site of last year's deadly coal mine explosion in West Virginia may be abandoned and sealed-off, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

29 coal miners died at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine a year ago in the nation's worst mine disaster in four decades.

"Massey Energy has indicated it wants to seal the UBB mine," says MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere. "A meeting is set for May 5 to discuss the plan for sealing the mine."

Massey has yet to respond to NPR's request for comment.

Colorado lawmakers have a little over a week left in the 120 day legislative session and a lot of work still needs to be finished.

The Federal Transit Administration has determined that New Jersey must repay the federal government the entire $271 million it spent on early design and engineering work for a New Jersey-New York train tunnel that Gov. Chris Christie scrapped.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the final decision Friday in a letter to New Jersey's congressional delegation and in a 52-page report sent to the Christie administration from the FTA's Budget and Policy office. The Associated Press obtained copies of both documents.