U.S. News

The Philadelphia abortion provider who was found guilty of first-degree murder in three illegally performed late-term abortions will be spared the death penalty.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who was convicted Monday, agreed Tuesday to give up his right to an appeal. He faces life in prison.

The Associated Press reports:

U.S. oil production is rising sharply and increased output from shale will be a "game changer" in global energy markets in the coming years, according to a new report out Tuesday by the International Energy Agency.

Attorney General Eric Holder met reporters on Tuesday for the first time since reports surfaced of his Justice Department secretly seizing telephone logs from the homes and offices of Associated Press journalists. Holder said he himself had not been involved in that subpoena, but that it had been part of an investigation into a national security breach he called a threat to American lives. Audie Cornish talks to Carrie Johnson about the news conference and about her own interview with the attorney general.

A recent federal seizure of two months of phone records for Associated Press reporters and editors highlights the aggressive approach the Obama administration has taken to investigating leaks. Melissa Block speaks with Steven Aftergood, who monitors government secrecy as a senior research analyst for the Federation of American Scientists, about how the Obama administration stands out for its rigorous pursuit of leaks.

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And now to Russia, where a U.S. Embassy employee has been ordered to leave the country, this after Russian authorities nabbed him in a highly publicized arrest. They charge the American as a CIA agent who was caught trying to recruit a Russian spy.

NPR's Corey Flintoff tells us more.

This was the critical moment, the brief time between his inaugural and when the nation's collective focus turns to whom his successor will be, when President Obama had to make real progress on his second-term agenda and thus forge his legacy.

Instead, the president finds his administration, the public, Congress and the news media distracted by controversies over Benghazi, the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups and a leak investigation in which the Justice Department secretly obtained months of phone records of Associated Press journalists.

Attorney General Eric Holder has defended the Justice Department's actions in secretly obtaining journalists' phone records as part of a probe into leaks of classified material, but said he himself had nothing to do with the subpoena.

Chinese-American mom Amy Chua sparked a firestorm in the parenting world with her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. She credited her strict Asian-American parenting style with her kids' success. But what are the downsides? Host Michel Martin is joined by Asian-American parents to talk about how they're now bringing up their own kids.

Amy Chua launched the phrase "Tiger Mother" into our cultural lexicon in 2011 to describe a harsh, demanding style of parenting Chua identified as being especially common among parents of Chinese ancestry. The term clearly stuck.

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Saying she is "writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience," actress Angelina Jolie reveals on the op-ed pages of The New York Times that she had a double mastectomy earlier this year to substantially reduce the chances she will develop breast cancer.

Lanny J. Davis, a former special counsel for President Clinton, is a man who knows something about managing a White House crisis. And he isn't exactly impressed by how President Obama's aides have handled the fallout from numerous crises, from Solyndra to Benghazi and now with the Internal Revenue Service controversy.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that when farmers use patented seed for more than one planting in violation of their licensing agreements, they are liable for damages.

Billed as David vs. Goliath, the case pitted an Indiana farmer against the agribusiness behemoth Monsanto.

What would you do if the IRS wanted to see your interactions on social media?

At least one Tea Party group in Ohio received just such a request. As part of a broad inquiry for information about the group's activities after it had applied for tax-exempt status, the IRS wanted details about how the Ohio Liberty Coalition promotes or publicizes itself on social media such as Facebook.

The Associated Press news agency says that the Department of Justice secretly obtained two months of telephone records on 20 lines used by its reporters and editors.

The records covered April and May 2012, and according to the AP:

Americans appear to be split over the Obama administration's handling of the aftermath from the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

A bill making its way through the Louisiana Legislature would let Cajun citizens celebrate their ancestry by customizing their driver's license, adding the phrase "I'm a Cajun" below their photograph.

It would cost $5 to add the message; the money would go toward "scholarships distributed by the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, a program promoting French language and culture in the state," reports NOLA.com.

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The editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News is apologizing. That's after admitting his reporters tracked how subscribers use the company's famous financial data terminals. The disclosure has caused an uproar in the financial services world. As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, the episode has roots both in Bloomberg's innovations in data management, and its corporate culture.

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In Philadelphia, a jury has found a doctor guilty of murder at a clinic where he performed abortions. Dr. Kermit Gosnell was convicted of killing three babies, and acquitted in the death of a fourth. He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, in the death of a patient. NPR's Jeff Brady was in the courtroom today and joins us now. And Jeff, Gosnell faced hundreds of counts in this trial. Help us understand this conviction.

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You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

Minnesota is poised to become the 12th state to legalize gay marriage. Democratic Governor Mark Dayton is expected to sign the bill tomorrow.

As we hear from Sasha Aslanian of Minnesota Public Radio, the embrace of gay marriage in the state caps a dramatic few years of political tug-of-war.

Parents often dread talking to tweens and teens about alcohol. So the government is here to help. Really.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration launched a campaign today that aims to get parents talking with their children about alcohol as early as age 9.

Age 9? Eek!

That early start is important because children start to look at alcohol more positively between ages 9 and 13, researchers say. About 10 percent of 12-year-olds have tried alcohol. That number goes up to 50 percent by age 15.

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against the NHL by the family of hockey enforcer Derek Boogaard, who was 28 when he died from an accidental overdose of alcohol and oxycodone in May of 2011. The suit accuses the NHL of being negligent and with supplying the painkiller to Boogaard.

A jury in Philadelphia has found Dr. Kermit Gosnell guilty of first-degree murder in three illegally performed late-term abortions.

The jury also found Gosnell, 72, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a woman who was overdosed on anesthesia while undergoing a second-trimester abortion. He was found not guilty of one other murder charge in the death of an infant. Three other similar counts were thrown out by the judge last month.

The first-degree murder convictions carry a possible death sentence.

The trial of Jodi Arias, convicted of murdering her boyfriend, has become a national media sensation. Former Law and Order producer Robert Nathan and authors Laura Lippman and Walter Mosley explore why Americans are so drawn to real-life courtroom dramas.

According to a new report, historically black colleges and universities are attracting more Asian and Latino students than ever before. Host Michel Martin discusses that and other findings with the report's author, Marybeth Gasman, and Morgan State University President, David Wilson.

Almost half of teenagers cop to texting while driving. And those texting teens are more likely to make other risky moves while in the car, too.

That includes not wearing seat belts, drinking and driving, and riding with a driver who's been drinking, a study just published in the journal Pediatrics finds.

Car crashes have long been the leading cause of death for teenagers, even before texting entered the scene.

Larry Bright holds his 3-year-old son's hand while the boy steps through a leafy playground in Silver Spring, Md., and practices counting his numbers in English.

At the top of the slide, the boy begins counting in his other language: Vietnamese.

Bright, the boy's father, is African-American; his mother, Thien Kim Lam, is Vietnamese. The couple has two children.

"They are a perfect mix between the two of us," Lam tells Arun Rath, host of weekends on All Things Considered.