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Social Security accounts for about 20 percent of federal spending. As Congress edges toward having to come up with a new spending plan, one argument in favor of cuts is that Social Security amounts to a huge transfer of wealth from the young to the old.

For all their notoriety as wasteful "pork barrel" projects, earmarks did have one obvious benefit: They helped congressional leaders pass spending bills. A multibillion-dollar appropriations package was much easier to sell to members if they could brag about something for their home states. In recent years, with earmarks banned, spending bills have largely been replaced with "continuing resolutions," which simply keep spending levels for existing programs going for a few more weeks or months.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is testifying Wednesday on Capitol Hill. She can expect some heated questions about the rugged rollout of the Affordable Care Act. President Obama, meanwhile, heads to Boston to talk about health care in the afternoon.

It's been a year since Hurricane Sandy knocked the mid-Atlantic states for a loop. Scientists say that as sea level rises, such storms are likely to occur more often. But the new, more realistic flood maps could boost flood insurance rates. Will politics trump science?

The actor joins NPR's Robert Siegel to talk about an upcoming revival of the 1978 Harold Pinter play. In the show, directed by Mike Nichols, Craig is acting with his real-life wife, Rachel Weisz — but he says the two don't talk about it outside the office.

Fantasy film star Lily Collins seems harmless but beware of looking for more about the starlet on the Internet. According to antivirus software company McAfee, she is the Most Dangerous Celebrity. Plugging Collins' name into a search engine has a 14 percent chance of turning up a computer virus.

The northeastern city of Olinda is trying to tame its chaotic roads with "traffic clowns," who hit the streets in full costume, encouraging drivers to slow down, don a helmet or buckle their seat belts.

The actor plays — played? — DEA Agent Hank Schrader on the soon-to-end drama Breaking Bad, as well as local politician Big Jim Rennie on Under the Dome. He chatted with NPR's Steve Inskeep about Hank's disposition, playing these two very different roles, and singing onstage when he was 5.

If you demand democracy in China, you can quickly find yourself at odds with the government. So these days, reformers are trying to use the constitution to make the party accountable to the people. But that didn't keep a Shanghai professor from getting suspended.

For the Church of the Living God in Toccopola, Miss., the lap steel guitar channels the voice of God through hymns and improvised solos that mix gospel, blues and country.