National News from NPR

It's tough to get excited about another awareness day. In case you hadn't heard, October is National Protect Your Hearing Month. Sept. 21 was National School Backpack Day. There is a Hug Your Hound Day. These are all worthy causes, of course, but at a certain point, one wonders whether any good can come from singling out one more day to force awareness on people.

At this point the McRib has become American folklore. The boneless pork sandwich slathered in barbeque sauce is only sold whenever each individual McDonald's franchise feels like selling it. So — probably because of elusiveness — it's developed a cult-like following.

The AP reports that McRib hunters will be very happy, because the fast-food behemoth is doing what it did last year and asking its restaurants nationwide to sell the sandwich through Nov. 14.

That headline may seem insignificant — you know that Larry Page, Google's CEO, now has more followers on Google+ than Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg — but in the tech world it's seen as tea leaves that hint at the future of the social network.

The news that President Obama and his team are going to make the case that "we can't wait" any longer for Congress (and in particular, his Republican opponents) to take action on his ideas about how to boost job growth has inspired much discussion on Twitter today.

"#WeCantWait" is, it seems, an almost perfect hashtag no matter which side you're on.

Tens of millions of Americans who are eligible to vote are not registered. So before every big election there's a flurry of activity to sign them up.

One South Carolina woman is passionate about registering those who others might ignore. Dr. Brenda Williams, a physician in Sumter, S.C., regularly visits the county jail to sign up inmates.

Williams says it's important for them to become part of the community after they're released. She thinks this will make them less likely to end up back behind bars.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, host: This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Coming up: As cholera epidemic grips Haiti, we'll hear about new efforts to fight the disease and the challenge of getting medical care to all who need it, and we'll also hear about a musical group with roots in the Haitian diaspora that is wowing critics and audiences around the world. That's all coming up later in the program. But first, an announcement that many Americans have been waiting for, for years, that U.S. troops will be leaving Iraq by the end of the year.

An advantage of being an Oval Office incumbent seeking re-election was readily evident Monday in President Obama's roll-out of his administration's latest effort to help struggling homeowners.

With many Americans either facing foreclosure and others, because of declining property values or much tighter lending standards, unable to refinance their mortgages to take advantage of lower interest rates, the Obama administration is doing extensive renovations of its current housing policies.