NPR News

As Japan continues to grapple with the effects of the March 11 earthquake, the prefecture of Fukushima faces some of the biggest challenges.

Fukushima's roads were damaged in the earthquake, its coast was battered by the tsunami, and now leaking radiation around the crippled Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has made parts of the prefecture unlivable.

Rebel fighters aren't waiting around as an international coalition debates whether to do more to arm and train them in battling Col. Moammar Gadhafi's troops. They've ramped up a crash training course for volunteers in hopes of better organizing the improvised army that is struggling to make sustained military gains against the autocratic regime.

In a sprawling cement lot of a military base in the rebels' stronghold of Benghazi, two teenagers practice setting up the heavy tripod barrel and base of a mortar system as a trainer watches carefully.

Nevada leads the nation in foreclosures. In Las Vegas, banks are repossessing record numbers of homes. But the flip side is that for some low-income buyers, home ownership is finally within reach.

Lady Luck has smiled on David Krueger, a waiter at the glitzy Mirage Hotel who earns $13 an hour, plus tips. That's about $30,000 a year. His partner makes less.

Krueger recently bought a three-bedroom house for $115,000. From some of the windows, he can look west and see mountains. His 15-year-old is a big reason Krueger bought the home.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are arguing over budget line items and billions of dollars as they try to strike a deal to keep the government running for the rest of the fiscal year. The latest in a string of short-term funding bills expires in early April.

But in places like Unity Health Care's Upper Cardozo clinic in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., doctors, nurses and other health care providers are too busy treating patients to focus on the fights happening across town.

As we head into the first weekend of the Major League Baseball season, many Americans will be tuning in to root for their favorite teams, including 94-year-old Sister Vincent Cecire.

Cecire entered the convent in 1934 and has been devoted to the Dodgers ever since they won their first World Series in 1955. She has lived in cities all over the country, working as an elementary school teacher, and with every move, she always brought her love of the baseball with her.