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The clearest area of agreement between the candidates is on the states that matter most in this election. A handful of populous states, most of them in the upper Midwest, appear to hold the balance of power between the parties in this year's race for the White House. Yesterday, both major party nominees were in Ohio. Today it was Michigan. NPR's Anthony Brooks reports.

NPR's Richard Harris reports that researchers have made a promising step toward repairing spinal cord damage. In a study being reported in the journal Science, researchers were able to transplant nerves to the severed spinal cords of rats to bridge the damaged area. The rats then appeared to regain at least partial use of their hind legs.

Hurricane Charley is upgraded to a Category 4 storm. The storm's sustained winds reach 145 mph as it bears down on Florida's west coast. Charley is expected to make landfall near Ft. Myers. An estimated 1.5 million have been urged to evacuate coastal and low-lying areas. Hear NPR News.

About 1,000 U.S. soldiers parachute into an airfield in an area controlled by Iraqi Kurds in the latest U.S. effort to threaten the Iraqi regime from the north. In the southern cities of Basra and Nasiriyah, U.S. and British forces continue to face combat. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Ivan Watson.

To environmentalists, the National Environmental Policy Act is sacred. NEPA has given them the power to halt or amend hundreds of federal projects. Now, as NPR's Allison Aubrey reports, they're arguing that the Bush administration is undermining the statute to speed up oil and gas exploration in areas like Utah's red-rock country.

Grand Rapids artist Leah Friesen and Chair of the Grand Rapids Arts and Culture Commission Kari Hedlund (also known as KAXE/KBXE's Music Director), spoke with Heidi Holtan on the Morning show to learn about the importance of public art in rural areas in Minnesota. Click the player at the top of the page to hear the entire conversation.

The Supreme Court hears a case that tests whether local governments may force homeowners to sell their land so that private companies can redevelop the area to create jobs and generate tax revenue. A group of homeowners in New London, Conn., argues that eminent domain should only be invoked for public projects such as roads or schools.

U.S. and Iraqi forces move against insurgents in the area known as the "triangle of death," south of Baghdad. U.S. commanders say they need to press into neighborhoods where rebels have taken refuge. Iraq's defense minister has signaled that another offensive is planned for the capital itself. NPR's Anne Garrels reports.

A mass grave filled with the remains of dozens of people, some with blindfolds and hands bound, is discovered in a southern Iraqi town near Najaf. The bodies are believed to be those of Iraqis executed in a 1991 Shiite Muslim uprising. Red Crescent workers say they believe more graves will be found in the area. Hear Reuters reporter Christine Hauser.

Flood waters are rising in New Orleans, which remains without power after being hit by Hurricane Katrina Monday. Phone service is also largely down, and looting is taking place in several areas. Fallout from the storm has prompted President Bush to return to the White House two days ahead of schedule.

Prosecutors in Northern Virginia ask a juvenile court to rule that John Lee Malvo, 17, should be tried as an adult for the murder of FBI employee Linda Franklin. Malvo is one of two suspects in sniper-style shootings -- most in the Washington, D.C. area -- that left 13 people dead. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Winterbloom isn't a traditional "group" so much as an ongoing event in which four talented, Boston-area singer-songwriters bond over holiday music. In a session, Winterbloom doesn't sing about Rudolph and Frosty, but instead plays contemporary folk songs about the world during Christmas and the darkness of winter.

Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo is cross-examined by his former partner and mentor John Allen Muhammad, who is on trial in Maryland on six murder charges. Malvo discussed his role in the sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area four years ago. Muhammad is acting as his own attorney.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says that locals in an area about 35 miles north of Baghdad tipped off the government to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's location several weeks ago. That information was then passed along to U.S. officials, who used it to kill Zarqawi and seven associates with an airstrike Wednesday.

Voters encountered long lines at the polls and scattered problems on Tuesday. Many of the difficulties were in the New York and New Jersey areas where some voters had to cast ballots in the dark or were confused about where to vote. There was also confusion about ID requirements in Pennsylvania, and some confrontations involving poll watchers.

Half a century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against segregation in schools. Yet patterns of housing and immigration have created in many areas schools that are extremely segregated. NPR's Claudio Sanchez and NPR's Ina Jaffe report from California, where in some places, the level of segregation is as intense as any in 1954.

In the Cleveland area, there's a plan to inspire kids to start thinking about college early on by giving them seed money. Officials want to set up kindergarteners with savings accounts. Though the initial $100 deposit isn't likely to cover much, the hope is that it will inspire them to take the idea of going to college seriously.

Even Irish music sensation Damien Rice doesn't know exactly how to describe his own songs — part folk, part rock, a little chamber music, tied together with his unique, passionate singing voice. NPR's Melissa Block talks with the European music sensation on the eve of his first American tour — hear samples of his debut solo CD, O.

The Senate is planning to vote on welfare reform next Tuesday, and today, President Clinton, Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich all appeared on radio to stake out their positions. Clinton expressed his support for Senate progress on the plan, although he warned that if conservative voices prevail and the Congress walks away from bipartisan progress, welfare reform will die. Dole and Gingrich predicted welfare reform would pass.