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When the bipartisan budget deal was announced in December, supporters heralded cuts that would balance spending increases — among them, a slight reduction to the pensions of working-age military retirees. But a bipartisan consensus emerged to undo it — calling into the question whether Congress has the political will necessary to make any cuts that reduce the long-term debt.

As an acoustic engineer, Trevor Cox has spent most of his career getting rid of bizarre, unwanted sounds. But in The Sound Book, Cox turns up the volume on those sonic oddities. The book explores weird echoes and unexpected noises from around the globe — including "whisper galleries" and a chirping pyramid.

Much of the attention on the Olympic slopestyle events has focused on snowboarders, but the downhill event is also done on skis. Devin Logan enters Tuesday's competition as the world's top-ranked female freestyle skier. And at 20, she'll compete before she can legally celebrate with a beer.

Governments, schools and companies keep track of your race. The statistics are used to track the proportion of blacks and whites who graduate from school. They tell us how many people identify themselves as Native American or Asian. They help us measure health disparities. But there's a problem with all those statistics — and the deeper way we think about race.

House leaders have had weeks to come up with a plan to deal with the nation's debt limit. Now, the day before they want to leave town for a break, it appears they've essentially decided to throw in the towel. They plan to put a bill on the House floor raising the debt ceiling for a year without any conditions attached.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner has said for months that he would not let the United States default on its debt, and he made good on that promise: The House voted Tuesday evening for an increase of the debt limit with no strings attached, just as President Obama had wanted.

Last month, Vermont's governor said addiction has reached epidemic levels in his state. Officials say that high demand, combined with the state's loose gun laws, create a lucrative market for out-of-state dealers.

When it comes to hiring pastors and teachers, religious organizations like churches or schools are exempt from most employment discrimination laws. But a lawsuit in Massachusetts wants to clarify how much leeway they have. For example, can they discriminate against people in same-sex marriages for non-religious jobs like gym teacher or cafeteria worker?

Schools across the country are running out of the planned snow days they'd put in place to deal with bad weather. As winter's blast of frigid temperatures and snowy conditions drags on, some school districts have kids at home completing assignments online while others are figuring out ways to deal with lost school days.

The comedian was one of early network TV's biggest stars, and he didn't do smut or smarmy remarks. Caesar did skits: grown-up, gentle comedy for the whole family. He died Wednesday morning at his home in Beverly Hills.