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People line up outside of the Social Security Administration office in San Francisco, in February of 2005.

Social Security Wrongfully Paid $1.3 Billion In Disability

Congressional investigators said that during a two-year period, the agency paid people who were working while claiming they were disabled.

In 'Sprinkler,' A Wacky Poet Returns With New Obsessions

Nicholson Baker's latest novel, Traveling Sprinkler, revolves around Paul Chowder, a lonely poet who's fascinated by drone warfare and Debussy. Chowder was the star of Baker's 2009 novel The Anthologist, and reviewer Heller McAlpin welcomes his reappearance — though not his political rants.

Laborers stand on a new ship at a Rongsheng Heavy Industries shipyard in Nantong, China, in 2012. The troubles at Rongsheng, China's largest private shipbuilder, mirror what's happening in the global industry.

Why Is The Global Shipbuilding Business Struggling?

One word: oversupply. Too many ships were built before the 2008 global economic crisis. This drove down shipping rates, forcing the industry to scale back. The effects are still being felt. This week, a Finnish shipbuilder said it would close a yard that employed 700 workers.

A woman and her daughter shop for groceries in New York City's Union Square using electronic benefits transfer (EBT), more commonly known as food stamps, on Wednesday.

House Votes To Slash $40 Billion From Food Stamp Program

The bill would cut funding for the program over the next 10 years and affect an estimated 4 million Americans. The measure, passed narrowly along party lines, is not expected to pass the Senate.

So where did the phrase "call a spade a spade" come from?

Is It Racist To 'Call A Spade A Spade'?

For almost half a millennium, the phrase "call a spade a spade" has served as a demand to "tell it like it is." It is only in the past century that the expression began to acquire a negative, racial overtone.

Burger King: Customers Can Have Their Fries And Eat Them, Too

The world's No. 2 hamburger chain is rolling out lower fat, lower calorie french fries on Tuesday. Executives at the company say except for their shape, customers won't be able to tell that Satisfies are lower in calories.

'Can't Even See The Sky': Ex-Prisoner On Solitary Confinement

Thousands of California prisoners are waging a hunger strike, protesting conditions in the prisons. For more on the strike and the prisoners' demands, host Michel Martin talks with Los Angeles Times Reporter Paige St. John and former inmate Jerry Elster, of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.

Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland is a ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He's released documents that suggest that the IRS targeted progressives as well as Tea Party groups.

If The IRS Targeted The Left, Too, Will The House Hear It?

The House Oversight Committee will hold its latest hearing next week into how the IRS handled the applications of groups seeking tax exempt status. The hearings have morphed from a scandal over the targeting of Tea Party groups into something broader.

Sergei Magnitsky, who died in jail in 2009, was convicted of tax evasion on July 11, 2013. Kremlin critics say this was just the strangest of several legal cases against government opponents.

Russia Keeps Up Prosecutions Of Critics, Living And Dead

The prosecution of a deceased critic of the government made headlines this week, but opposition figures say it was just one of several cases where dissidents are being targeted.

Mohammed al Hariri is known as the mafia don of the Zaatari Refugee camp. He is the man who gets things done.

The Don Who's Taken Charge Of Jordan's Biggest Refugee Camp

After fleeing his native Syria, Mohammad al-Hariri became the most powerful man in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, where more than 120,000 refugees live. Aid workers view him as running a criminal enterprise, but they appear to have little choice but to work with him.

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