A school founded by Americans in Iraq before the Saddam Hussein era is an emblem of a time when the United States was known in the Middle East not for military action, but for culture and education. That's the view of Puliter Prize-winning New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, who recently wrote an essay about the school, titled "The American Age, Iraq."

The National Cathedral has hosted some of the most memorable prayer services and state funerals from the past 100 years. President Obama will speak there on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11; he also held his inaugural prayer service at the historic church, like many presidents have done.

But the structure was hit hard by last month's 5.8 magnitude earthquake that rattled the East Coast. Now, it could take years for the landmark to recover.

Crumbling Masonry

In September 2001, Hollywood found itself in a place where it doesn't much like to dwell: reality.

Years ago, it was an occasional debate among press box sociologists about which sport was more attractive to members of the two political parties.

The consensus was that football was more for Republicans, baseball for Democrats — the general reasoning being that GOP types were more militarily inclined, as is the gridiron game, and that since football had long been more a college sport, and more Republicans had gone to college, football had a greater Republican tradition.

We first told you about the long-running feud between Miami's mayor and the city's police chief back in June. Today, NPR's Greg Allen reports the tension reached a climax, when the city manager called Police Chief Miguel Exposito into his office and suspended him.

Greg filed this report:

Was that a jobs plan Mitt Romney unveiled Tuesday or a Steve Jobs plan?

Wanting voters to see him as the political version of the black turtleneck-clad business visionary, Romney compared himself not only to Jobs but to someone using a smartphone (President Obama was still in the coin-operated payphone world, Romney said.)

The BBC was given access to the Libyan home of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was found guilty of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland.

In a controversial move, al-Megrahi was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds. Al-Megrahi was flown to Libya and since then families and relatives of some of the 259 people who died have complained al-Megrahi was not really sick and he was let go because of politics.

Maybe, like me, you're one of the few who missed the recent report on injuries caused by BB and paintball guns that showed how often mishaps lead to emergency room visits. I'm surprised my mom didn't call me personally just to say she told me so.

Back in March, Paul Otellini — president and CEO of Intel Corp. — compared the situation of present-day America to that of the U.K. at the turn of the last century.