More than half of the hospitals punished this year were also dinged in 2014. The government has used financial carrots and now sticks to improve the quality of care.
Volkswagen's top two executives faced reporters Thursday and explained what they had learned about the emissions scandal that looms over the company. They said the investigation revealed that no member of VW's two boards were involved, and that misconduct was limited to a small number of employees.
Protests continue in Chicago Thursday over how the police department and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have handled to fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white Chicago police officer last year. NPR reports the frustrations run deep, and Emanuel's's choked-up apology Wednesday is doing little to quiet calls for his resignation.
In a previous story on the Chicago mayor's reaction to the shooting of Laquan McDonald, we incorrectly said that McDonald was unarmed. The story should have said that he was carrying a knife.
According to a Pew Research Center report released Wednesday, the middle class is losing ground. The report finds the middle class has shifted into lower and upper-income households. NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Rakesh Kochhar, the lead author of the report and associate director of research at the Pew Research Center, about what it now means to be part of the middle class. Then, Audie Cornish turns to NPR's Mara Liasson about what a shrinking middle class means for the presidential race.
When well-known performers receive health care, the details of their cases can leak. Electronic medical records make peeking easier — and also make it easier to catch the staffers who looked.