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Over the past decade, the government has been paying farmers to keep their land covered with native grasses instead of crops. But as grain prices have risen, the conservation reserve has shrunk by more than 25 percent. This decline in native grasslands means more soil erosion and less habitat for wildlife.

Crews collected 4.6 million pounds of oily material from the Gulf Coast shoreline this year. Coastal residents are asking how long they'll be living with the effects of BP's 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

But results were boosted by several one-time-only factors, including cost-cutting efforts and asset sales.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill that bars professional teams there from treating their cheerleaders as independent contractors. The bill came after lawsuits alleged the cheerleaders were underpaid.

Credit card companies Visa and MasterCard along with major banks have agreed to pay several billion dollars to settle a lawsuit brought by retailers. The deal is one of the largest anti-trust settlements in history. The retailers claimed that Visa, MasterCard and the banks conspired to fix the fees that stores pay to accept credit and debit cards. NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports.

Domestic violence

The Lightning offense struggled, getting just 24 shots on goal. Tampa Bay also won half as many faceoffs as Chicago and had six penalty minutes to the Blackhawks' two.

A new Internet protocol system launched Wednesday, adding trillions upon trillions of new Internet addresses that can now connect almost everything you own to the Web. Here's what you need to know about all that extra digital real estate.

A Russian hacker claims to have hacked into the business networking site. LinkedIn says compromised passwords have been disabled.

Matthew Cordle confessed online to driving drunk. A man was killed in the accident he caused. Cordle's video went viral. On Wednesday, he received less than the maximum sentence of about eight years in prison.

The Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) is launching its new storytelling competition Finding America, and to celebrate, they’re throwing a big…

For those sick of roses and chocolates, we've got a bracing dose of Valentine's Day bitterness — featuring cartoon heartbreak, real life heartbreak, tumultuous relationships and just a touch of hope here and there. Plus a bonus playlist from our friends at NPR Music.