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NPR's Joanne Silberner reports that the House debates a health insurance bill (with a vote later this evening) that will allow people who have insurance to keep it even if they get sick or change jobs. But conservative Republicans have tacked on a number of features for insurers, small businesses, doctors and other interest groups that are bound to give the bill problems when it meets the more streamlined Senate version later this spring.

The election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel last May came about in part because of the staunch support of the nation's ultra-orthodox Jewish community. As Eric Weiner reports from Jerusalem, that new political power has created tensions between religious and secular Jews, as the ultra-orthodox seek to make the rest of the nation's Jews conform to their own conservative religious beliefs and social behavior.

NPR's Michael Goldfarb reports from London that with two weeks before the General Election, Prime Minister John Major is facing a rebellion within his own Conservative Party. His party is divided about adopting the proposed single European currency. Instead of campaigning for votes for his party, Major has been forced to campaign within his party for support of his European policy.

After 10 years of liberal government in South Korea, the political pendulum is about to swing the other way in the country's presidential election Wednesday. The former mayor of Seoul, the conservative standard bearer, leads a field of 12 candidates, but he has been tainted by financial scandal. Still, his principal challenger, a former minister in President Roh Moo-hyun's Cabinet, admits that it will be a miracle if he wins.

Prosecutors in Milwaukee are conducting a probe into a death last year at the county jail. An inmate died of dehydration, after staff allegedly turned off the water to his cell. It's one of four deaths in recent years at the facility, which high-profile Sheriff David Clarke oversees. Although he runs as a Democrat, Clarke is a frequent conservative commentator and served as a surrogate for President Trump on the campaign trail.

Mexico elects its next president July 2. The race is hotly contested between leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and conservative Felipe Calderon. Mexico's electoral system has long been known for fraud, financing irregularities, and the outright buying of votes. While Mexico has improved dramatically under an independent electoral watchdog, shadows of its past remain. Michael O'Boyle reports.

While recent polling suggests public opinion is weighing against the GOP's approach to the government shutdown, the message is very different for Republican congressmen from deeply conservative districts. The word from back home is to continue to take a hard line. That's the case in one district in the northwest corner of Georgia, which is home to Congressman Tom Graves, a leader of the defund Obamacare movement in the House who was elected in 2010.

When former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush got to work on his new book on immigration, he was expected to be out in front of his party urging a broader conversation with Hispanics and more open legislation. After all, he had previously supported a pathway to citizenship for immigrants here illegally. Instead, it's fellow Florida Republican Marco Rubio in the lead, and Bush who's explaining an apparent reversal on the issue of citizenship. Both are likely candidates for president in 2016.

A former presidential aide testified before a House committee today about some notes he wrote in 1993 regarding the firings of White House travel office employees. The notes mention conversations in which third parties told the witness that Hillary Rodham Clinton wanted the employees fired. Mrs Clinton has said she did not direct any dismissals, and NPR's Jon Greenberg reports that the witness testified that she did not tell him to fire them.

Linda has a conversation with Bob Bennett, the chairman of the Ohio state Republican Party about the impact Bob Dole will have in his visit to the state tomorrow. While Bennett is happy that Dole will be coming to Ohio, he does believe that regional state races could be won by Republican candidates on their own -- without Dole's help. Some polls are showing Dole down by 14 points in the state. Bennett explains that voters don't seem to have passionate feelings about this election at the presidential level.

NPR's Phillip Martin reports on the National Urban League's annual assessment of African American progress. The "State of Black America" report shows home ownership at record highs, unemployment at all-time lows and surging college enrollment, especially among black women. But a disproportionate number of African American children live in poverty, more black men are imprisoned, and more black people die of AIDS, cancer and other diseases. Conversely, the reports says the black middle class continues to grow and the educated young experience fewer barriers than earlier generations.

Last week we asked listeners to phone in their questions concerning the standoff between the U-S and North Korea. Today we answer some of those question with the help of Ambassador Wendy Sherman who is the former special advisor on North Korea during the Clinton administration. She's now a partner at the international consulting firm -- the Albright Group. Also joining the conversation: Donald Oberdorfer, a professor at Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He's also the author of "Two Koreas: A Contemporary History." (12:30) Oberdorfer's book is published by Basic Books, 1999.

In June of 1951, a husband and wife -- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg -- were executed in the United States. They had been convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The star witness against them was Ethel's brother, David Greenglass. Greenglass also served 10 years in prison for spying. And then, he and his wife and children disappeared, into a fog of false identities. Decades later, New York Times reporter Sam Roberts tracked him down. Roberts recorded his conversations with Greenglass. Robert Siegel talks with Roberts about his encounters with Greenglass.

At a Congressional hearing today, FBI general counsel Howard Shapiro denied allegations about Hillary Rodham Clinton's involvement in the hiring of Craig Livingstone by the White House. Livingstone resigned his position this summer after it was revealed that his office had improperly acquired the FBI files of hundreds of former White House employees. Shapiro said the FBI had not acted improperly by notifying the White House that a former FBI agent had notes of a conversation in which then-White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum allegedly said Mrs. Clinton had asked that Livingstone be hired. Shapiro also defended the FBI's questioning of the former agents about the notes.

NPR's Cheryl Devall reports that President Clinton's controversial campaign advisor, Dick Morris, resigned today after published reports that he had carried on a year-long relationship with a prostitute, and had shared with her a copy of Hillary Clinton's convention speech before it was given. It is also alleged that Morris let the woman listen in on a presidential phone conversation. Morris has been a lightning rod for criticism because of his brash style and advice to Clinton to move to the center politically. The resignation comes at the high point of a convention that Democrats -- and the president's campaign staff -- hope will propel Clinton to victory in November.

More than 5,000 people in Britain converted to Islam last year. That's an average of 14 a day, and most of them are women, including Lauren Booth, Tony Blair's sister-in-law. Academic studies in the U.K. have concluded that the idea that these conversions are driven mostly by marriage is a myth, and that most converts are simply attracted by the values of Islam. But there's a paradox here. In a controversial speech this week, Britain's first female Muslim Cabinet minister complained of growing intolerance toward Muslims in the U.K.

The Third Coast Chamber Collective is hosting a number of events this summer including summer camps for kids and adults. The TCCC also hosts a Festival which begins on August 12th at locations across northern Minnesota. Cellist and Co-founder of the TCCC, Magdalena Sas and Managing Director of the Itasca Orchestra and Strings Program, Buffy Dege, joined KAXE producer Max Philbrook for a conversation about these events and the importance of unexpected chamber music to northern Minnesota. Click the "Listen" player above to hear the full conversation.

Award-winning children's book author Rachel Vail took time to chat with Heidi Holtan and Kari Hedlund about her new book Sometimes I Grumblesquinch. The book, illustrated by Hyewon Yum, was published at a time when kids haven't had the practice of daily social emotional learning that comes with daily interactions with peers, neighbors, and strangers. Click the "Listen" player above to hear the full conversation PLUS a special guest interview with a young reader of the book.

At long last, Luke Gorski has arrived at the stage in his journey that he has been looking forward to since the very beginning of his 10 week, 66 park journey: the Minnesota state parks along the north shore of Lake Superior. Read on to find out more about what makes this part of the state so special for Luke. Or to hear the whole conversation with Luke, Heidi, and Staff Phenologist John Latimer, click the "Listen" player above.

Commentator Jim Sleeper says news that Senator Joe Lieberman will be the first Jew on a major national ticket says volumes about past mistakes of the Democratic party. He says Lieberman is a return to the party's center. Had the party kept Lieberman's kind of balance of faith and political pragmatism, of family values and social justice, says Sleeper, a lot of its faithful wouldn't have left to become neo-conservatives.