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The number of kids with dangerous levels of lead in their blood hasn't declined much in the past decade, as the government has remained focused on managing lead-based paint. Now researchers argue that more attention to contaminated soil is needed to prevent lead poisoning.

The Obama administration said it needed to cut funding for the towers — mostly in small communities — because of $637 million in budget cuts mandated by law.

A majority in the U.S. Senate now supports gay marriage, but a handful of prominent Democrats still haven't joined their party on the issue.

The latest employment numbers showed far fewer jobs were created in March than in February, disappointing those who had hoped robust growth from the winter months would hold into spring. The news overshadowed an effort from the White House to reach out to Republicans on the tax-and-spend front. The president said he would trim the growth in retirement programs if the GOP would accept some higher taxes. NPR's Scott Horsley talks to Robert Siegel about how the two issues are related.

Critic Alan Cheuse has his review of the new novel Submergence by Scottish journalist J.M. Ledgard.

Nearly two week after rebels seized control of the Central African Republic and ousted its president, the country is a shambles after widespread looting. Conflict-weary citizens want peace and to choose a new government, but it's far from certain that the future will more stable than the past.

Few things indicate a president no longer needs to worry about running for re-election more than his willingness to ignite an intraparty firestorm. That's just what President Obama has done by saying he is willing to consider savings from safety net entitlement programs in his new budget proposal.

Sixteen cases of a new flu in China have touched off a major effort to determine what kind of threat it might be. Flu experts want to know where the H7N9 virus is coming from and how it gets around.

Gov. Sam Brownback is expected to sign the measure making abortion access much harder in Kansas. In addition to declaring that life begins "at fertilization," it blocks tax breaks for abortion providers and requires doctors to address a weak link between abortion and breast cancer.

Americans hold about $1 trillion in student loans, and the debt burden is only getting heavier. One financial aid counselor says students are starting to smarten up and asking questions he'd never considered himself before the recession hit.