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House Democrats unveiled a health care measure Tuesday with provisions for a government-sponsored plan. The measure would require most people to have insurance and for most employers to pay for it. It was missing a key ingredient, however: how it would be financed.

When Congress passed a new law to give people up to $4,500 to junk their old cars and buy new, more efficient ones, the auto industry cheered. But some charities say they'll be the unintended victims of this program, and so will the low-income people they try to help.

At her confirmation hearing Tuesday, Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor answered questions about her ruling in a racial discrimination case and her comments on the influence that a judge's life experiences have on her view of a case.

Billions of microscopic eggs or larvae of local marine creatures live in ships' ballast water. When transported across the globe, these invasive species can wreak havoc on ecosystems, costing billions of dollars in cleanup each year. Scientists are developing water treatment systems to remove these organisms from the water.

The rest of Wall Street may still be reeling, but Goldman Sachs showed Tuesday that it is not only back, it is making money at a furious pace. Goldman reported earnings of more than $3.4 billion in the second quarter on record results in trading and stock underwriting. It's quite a turnaround from a year ago when it posted a loss.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to replace Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court, answered questions Tuesday from several members of a Senate panel at her confirmation hearing. At issue were her handling of the New Haven firefighters' case and previous statements about life experience and impartiality.

The No. 1 problem entrepreneurs face is getting enough money to fund their ideas. Attracting capital during the worst recession in decades is even tougher. So, entrepreneurs with big ideas are increasingly turning to the entity that's still spending: the federal government.

Recent violence in Urumqi, China, marks the second year of major ethnic unrest in the country's far west, after riots in Tibet last year. The events have prompted renewed debate over the treatment of ethnic minorities in China.

Sonia Sotomayor is known as a judge who doesn't hesitate to challenge lawyers. That straight-up judicial personality was on full display Tuesday. The Supreme Court nominee remained unflappable during a barrage of aggressive and persistent questions from Senate Republicans.

CIA Director Leon Panetta has quashed an agency program that considered forming assassination squads to kill al-Qaida leaders. Among the lingering questions: How far did those plans get, and should Congress have been advised?

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, textbooks used in Saudi Arabian schools have been criticized for teaching religious intolerance that can lead to violence. Now, the country is revising textbooks and reforming education. Critics wonder if those efforts go far enough.

Retail sales advanced in June by the largest amount in five months, led by a surge in gasoline prices and a slight rebound in the battered auto sector. And wholesale prices took a bigger-than-expected leap last month.

The nation's No. 1 lender to small and mid-sized U.S. businesses is struggling financially. CIT Group has said it is holding advanced talks with the government about receiving emergency federal assistance. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says he is monitoring developments.

Senators working to craft an overhaul bill have turned back several abortion-related amendments. And in the House, a group of Democrats has vowed to vote against any bill unless it explicitly excludes abortion as a covered or subsidized benefit.

Intelligence officials have long hoped that data mining — collecting vast amounts of personal information — would uncover some sort of discernable terrorist pattern. But as hopes for that outcome dim, analysts are turning to a system that searches through data to find common threads.

Six months after the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip ended, the U.N. has launched a $12 million project to clear away the rubble, but there is no indication when actual reconstruction will start. Israel continues to block cement, steel and other building materials from entering Gaza.

As senators debated Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination Monday, some of them really seemed to be fighting old political battles over former judicial nominees — including Chief Justice Roberts.

President Obama has made his choice for U.S. surgeon general. Regina Benjamin's clinic in Alabama was destroyed twice by hurricanes and once by a fire. She's also a MacArthur fellow who was the first minority to sit on the board of the American Medical Association.

Read the opening statement, as prepared for delivery, by Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the first day of her confirmation hearings to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nearly two weeks after U.S. combat troops officially pulled out of Iraq's cities, the government in Baghdad says the arrangement is going smoothly. Many Iraqis, however, aren't so sure and are questioning why American soldiers are still on their streets.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday that her experiences "help me listen and understand, with the law always commanding the result." Republicans raised concerns about her impartiality, while Democrats praised her years on the federal bench.

Some in the Hispanic community hope to undermine efforts to count illegal immigrants in next year's census. They want undocumented immigrants to boycott the count to send a protest message to Congress. But boycott opponents say it won't make a difference.

Law enforcement agencies vacuum up vast quantities of data in search of patterns that might suggest terrorist activity — raising fears that privacy may be violated in the process. New software helps track who is looking at what to enforce government accountability.

A wave of British casualties in Afghanistan has triggered angry questions from opposition leaders in parliament. They say the government has failed to provide vital equipment, leaving British forces vulnerable. It's not clear whether the losses have shaken public support for the war.

For 20 years, California politicians have quipped that the state is ungovernable. While some have blamed questionably drawn legislative districts and ballot initiatives for the problems, one group says change will only come if the state's constitution is rewritten.

The president has picked Dr. Regina Benjamin, a rural Alabama family physician who made headlines with her fierce determination to rebuild her nonprofit medical clinic in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Read the opening statement, as prepared for delivery, by Sen. Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican of the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the beginning of the confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Read the opening statement, as prepared for delivery, by Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the beginning of the confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Women may have a harder time kicking their smoking habit than men do. Researchers say women are more likely to get stressed and reach for a cigarette when trying to quit, meaning it takes them more tries to stop for good.

The FDA will now require warning labels on Chantix and Zyban, two popular anti-smoking prescription drugs that it says could spark changes in a patient, including depression, hostility and suicidal thoughts.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor takes the stand Monday as her confirmation hearings begin on Capitol Hill. Slate legal eagle Dahlia Lithwick talks to NPR's Guy Raz about what we can expect as the hearings progress — and whether newly minted Judiciary Committee member Al Franken will get off any good jokes.

The Pacific island nation of Palau (population 20,000) offered to take in 13 Uighur detainees from Guantanamo at the United States' request.

President Obama is back in the White House Sunday morning after a weeklong trip overseas. His last stop was the West African nation of Ghana, where Obama noted that his family has shared in the tragedies of Africa's past, but added that today's Africans must take responsibility for their own future.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA eight years ago not to brief Congress on a secret counterterrorism program created after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to reports from the Associated Press and The New York Times.

From long-term care savings accounts to parks funding, revamping the health care system is about more than just new taxes and deals with hospitals and insurance companies.

Confirmation hearings begin Monday for Sonia Sotomayor, the Bronx-raised daughter of Puerto Ricans tapped for the Supreme Court. Her potent life story is appealing, but GOP senators are sure to question whether gender and ethnicity influence her too much.

Last month, small business owner Larry Harbour of Broken Bow, Neb., told NPR that health insurance was unaffordable because of the $24,000- to $40,000-a-year premiums. That sounded way off-base to a Nebraska insurance broker. So, he called Harbour himself.

A climate change bill squeaked through the House last month. Now the question is whether a 60-vote Democratic supermajority can succeed in the Senate, where past efforts have failed. But Democrats have already pushed back a self-imposed deadline.

The Obama family is on a plane back to the U.S. after a whirlwind visit to Ghana. It was the first visit to sub-Saharan Africa for this African-American president. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton talks with Guy Raz about Obama's visit.