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Many Staten Island residents are still not back in their homes since Sandy washed ashore. Local volunteers have opened a toy store where FEMA-registered families with children can pick up donated toys, holiday decorations and stocking stuffers. Thus far, the shop has given away more than 2,000 toys.

Japan's economy was a world beater in the 1980s. But the country has now gone through two tough decades and there's no end in sight. What lessons might it hold for the U.S. as it confronts the "fiscal cliff"?

The Republicans' blowup leaves the path to avoiding automatic tax hikes and spending cuts in the new year unclear. Leaders seem to agree that a bipartisan solution is the only way — but, as House Speaker John Boehner said, "How we get there, God only knows."

After a 1996 mass shooting, the country changed its gun laws and the government bought back roughly 20 percent of all guns. Since then, gun violence has been down, and there have not been any mass killings.

There's snow across much of the country this weekend. In eastern North Carolina, where it doesn't snow a lot, snowflakes are an occasion for some folks to flock outside, scooping up what falls to make a particularly seasonal treat.

The inspirational El Sistema music education program, developed in Venezuela, has Sao Paulo Symphony conductor Marin Alsop fantasizing about a better musical world. Her other orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, is bringing similar opportunities to Charm City children.

Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon talks with American Enterprise Institute political analyst Norm Ornstein, about GOP Speaker of the House John Boehner. Since his "Plan B" on the fiscal cliff failed this week, where does he go from here with his unruly Republican caucus?

An update on last weekend's rape of a student in New Delhi, an incident which provoked widespread outrage, and calls for a crackdown on sexual violence in India. Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Julie McCarthy in India.

Russian lawmakers are trying to bar Americans from adopting Russian children. It's meant as retaliation against unfavorable U.S. legislation, but opponents of the ban say it treats Russian children as pawns in a political game.

Yesterday came and went, but I never finished Ulysses. I never took up skydiving. Come to think of it, I didn't even really finish cleaning up my closet before the "Mayan Apocalypse." Yet even a failed apocalypse still has value, in reminding us that life is fleeting, fragile and unpredictable.