Search results for

Nearly nine years after U.S. forces stormed into Iraq, American involvement in the war ends with a flag-lowering ceremony attended by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Only a few thousand U.S. troops remain, and they are to leave within days.

Queen Jackson has been homeless for about a year. As she recently told her case manager, Debra MacKillop, it all started in 2009, when she was laid off. Since then, there have been hard moments — and some precious ones, as well.

Ever since Chuck Berry, St. Louis has been producing rock music that defies the prevailing norm. But is it possible that in 1969 it also produced America's Beatles, a band no one ever heard? Rock historian Ed Ward investigates the curious case of the Aerovons.

Marriage — it's so last century. A new report out on Wednesday finds the share of all U.S. adults who are married has dropped to its lowest on record, at just 51 percent. If the trend continues, the institution will soon lose its majority status in American life.

Boxed wine suffers a reputation for being cheap and generally lousy. Plus, a box can't really compete visually with a sleek glass bottle. So a Swedish company has reshaped the box into a purse, for easy transport and improved lines.

In 1995, Republicans brought forth the Contract with America, a wide-reaching agenda at a time when the party had gained control of the House. Ten years later the contract has a mixed legacy. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

From "smart guy" to "backwards," when the Republican vice presidential nominee's supporters and critics are asked to describe him, they've got some comments.

On jagged new albums and festival stages, rising pop artists are learning there may be no escape from the influencer economy.

A major certifier of fair trade foods says it wants to buy and certify coffee from big farms. But others in fair trade say that goes against the industry's priority of helping small farmers.

Conductor Marin Alsop examines the rarely heard music from early in Aaron Copland's career. With an ear toward Copland's bold and sometimes jazzy rhythms, Alsop says that listeners can hear hints of the wide expanses that would later open up in music such as Appalachian Spring.

The interstate highway system is the result of the largest earth-moving project in human history -- so large that it's been called the "51st state." The system accelerated suburban development, changed shipping, leisure travel and American culture as a whole.

After World War I, an entire generation of American composers went to Paris initiating a musical exchange of ideas between the U.S. and France. Oddly enough, it was in Paris, through the eyes of the French, that expatriate composers started to appreciate their American roots.