NPR News

This is part three in our series on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Read part one, "Kill Them, Bury Them," and part two, "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy."

It's now clear that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were a bum deal for taxpayers.

For about a day this week, it sounded to some interested parties like the federal government might be reconsidering the rules that have always meant that same-sex couples are not treated the same as married heterosexuals when it comes to applications for such things as visas and green cards.

But, as The Advocate reports, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Christopher Bentley says "it's business as usual."

The Obama administration has said its purpose in Libya is to protect civilians and not to choose a new government for the country — or to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi through military means.

But while the president is still talking of limits to the intervention, many outside observers are pointing to actions that have stretched beyond what was called for under the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the bombing campaign.

These lines drawn around U.S. goals in Libya are fuzzy for a reason, analysts say.

Singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer, Raul Malo has become a venerable force in both Latin and country music. Malo's career first took off while leading Grammy-winning group The Mavericks. Many of the band's country-influenced singles hit the charts, and when the group disbanded in the early 2000s, it had won a Grammy and two Country Music Awards. Malo had been doing some solo work on the side, and since then it has become his primary focus.

A federal judge in Washington will allow inmates in two restrictive prison units designed for terrorists and other prisoners who get 24-hour monitoring to proceed with parts of their civil rights lawsuit.