NPR Blogs

The Solar Impulse, a solar-powered airplane with the 208-foot wing-span, has begun a slow journey across the United States.

We've told you about the Swiss plane before. A year ago, the plane took 20 hours to fly from Switzerland to Spain and then flew to Morocco completing its first transcontinental flight.

The stock market continues its winning streak: The Dow Jones hit another milestone today, tapping 15,000 for the first time, but closing just shy of the milestone.

This, of course, follows good news about the job market released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If there's one conversation you listen to today, make it Melissa Block's talk with Carmen Blandin Tarleton and Marinda Righter.

Tarleton, who was disfigured when her estranged husband poured Lye over her body, received a face transplant in February. This week, for the first time, Tarleton met Righter, the daughter of the face donor.

Righter and Tarleton embraced and then Righter asked Tarleton if she could touch her face.

"It was probably one of the best feelings I've had in my life," Tarleton told Melissa.

The department of Homeland Security is changing the way border agents process those people entering the country on student visas.

"Effective immediately," the AP reports, agents will have to "verify that every international student who arrives in the U.S. has a valid student visa."

The AP adds:

Wish our boss was this generous.

The principal of a small, private school in Washington decided that it was so beautiful outside, kids should take the day off to enjoy it.

Bellingham Christian, which is right across the border from Vancouver, posted the notice on its website.

The Earth's wettest regions are likely to get wetter while the most arid will get drier due to warming of the atmosphere caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, according to a new NASA analysis of more than a dozen climate models.

The nation's unemployment rate hit a four-year low of 7.5 percent and the job market improved last month. Friday's news helped push the Dow Jones industrial average above 15,000 for the first time.

Was that a rational response?

Although the jobs report for April was positive, what triggered the market reaction was the fact that it was better than expected. Instead of 145,000 jobs created, as most economists predicted, the Labor Department says there were 165,000 new jobs.

Iowa's Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the state's health department must include the names of both same-sex spouses as parents on a child's birth certificate.

This is a post for everyone (like us) who tunes into horse racing just once a year, on the first Saturday in May when the Kentucky Derby is run. Here are three horses that those who pay much closer attention say you should know about: