Key takeaways from the second Democratic presidential debate

... soul of Islam." O'Malley sought to separate himself from Clinton and the Obama administration, saying Syria, Libya and Afghanistan are "a mess" and that the United States wasn't doing enough to build stable democracies after toppling dictators. He said the U.S. needed better "human intelligence" on the ...

News Wrap: Pope Francis arrives for U.S. visit

... In Saudi Arabia, more than two million Muslims observed the opening rites today in the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Vast crowds of worshipers circled the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure in the city's Grand Mosque. The main ceremonies come tomorrow in a valley outside Mecca. JUDY WOODRUFF: Back ...

How does Baltimore’s economy recover after the riots?

... in Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots. PAUL SOLMAN: Sociologist Kris Marsh. KRIS MARSH: For the most part, where we saw the hotbed of the Rodney King riots, there hasn't been a lot of reinvestment back in that community. PAUL SOLMAN: Nor was there much reinvestment in Baltimore ...

Mega canal project threatens to uproot Nicaragua’s farmers, imperil wetlands

... a shipping shortcut between the Earth's hemispheres. In the end, the U.S. Congress opted to build in Panama. Nicaragua's waterway will dwarf the Panama Canal, three times as long and twice as deep. Cost estimates range from $50 billion to $100 billion. BILL WILD, HKND Group: It ...

Shields and Brooks on making a deal with Iran, religious freedom and the marketplace

... isolates -- and to me roils the already troubled waters in the Middle East. HARI SREENIVASAN: OK. Kind of a related topic, Bob Menendez is stepping back from the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, senator from New Jersey. How does that impact what's happening now?  Good for the president ...

Here's the dirt on low-cost, less-water gardening in a drought

... be empowering. But if the end result seems like a daunting task, he recommends growing what you eat to make it feel worth your while: “The idea that I could plant a plant in April, come back in September, and make salsa out of it? What’s cooler than that?”

President Obama's full 2015 State of the Union address

2014 midterm election turnout lowest in 70 years

Final numbers are still being tallied, but at this point it looks pretty clear that turnout in these midterms was the lowest overall in 70 years. Turnout of the voting-eligible population was just 36.4 percent, according to the projection from the United States Elections Project. That’s down from the 41 percent that turned out in...

Impatience with Washington drove off-year electorate

House Speaker John Boehner said that his job is to listen to the priorities of the American people. The GOP leadership outlined their new agenda, including authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline and revising the Affordable Care Act. Gwen Ifill talks to David Winston of the Winston Group and Frederick Yang of Hart Research Associates about...

Are we seeing signs of a third intifada? - Part 2