Sonny "Hoot" Gibson had tried to find the black cat with yellow eyes that liked to greet customers of his rental business, but had given up after a few days. Then on Sunday he heard a faint meow.
The two cities are the latest to tighten public health rules to combat the spread of the omicron variant. Chicago is seeing its highest number of hospitalizations and rate of deaths in months.
The U.S. economy is lacking more than a million immigrant workers who would be here if not for the pandemic and Trump-era cuts. That may be hurting industries that depend on immigrants, like trucking.
Seven schools in the University of California system, Harvard University, Northwestern University and others are among those changing their plans in response to the highly transmissible variant.
Photographers from NPR's member stations across the country share memorable images from 2021. There are stories that document grief to ones that spread joy in a tumultuous year.
NPR's Melissa Block talks to Dr. Laura Forman, chief of emergency medicine at Kent Hospital in Rhode Island, about shortages, staffing and stress in the midst of another COVID-19 surge.
Five decades ago, the National Cancer Act became law. What did it take for cancer to go from an unmentionable disease to among the most visible and best-funded areas of medicine?