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The Justice Department has a big decision to make. Parts of new laws in Colorado and Washington that legalize recreational marijuana take effect next month. The Obama administration must decide whether it will sue to stop that or let the states go their own way, despite federal law.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act has removed racial barriers for generations of black voters in the South. Now a legal challenge raises the question of just how much federal oversight election laws still need.

Days after the Supreme Court's landmark decision on the health care law, lawyers say they're still teasing out the consequences in other areas of the law — including civil rights. That's because the ruling involves two federal powers that happen to be the backbone of most civil rights legislation.

Jeb Boasberg is taking over as chief judge of the federal district court in Washington as grand jury investigations of former President Donald Trump intensify.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi with the goal of getting Russian combat forces out of the former Soviet country. Rice is carrying a draft cease-fire that requires Russia to withdraw combat troops and allows peacekeepers to remain in the flash-point separatist region.

President Bush cautioned that the country faces a severe economic crisis. The speech from the White House East Room Wednesday night, followed a second day of hearings on Capitol Hill with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Some lawmakers are pushing the White House to accept a smaller bailout of $150 billion.

Steve Inskeep talks with NPR Ed's Anya Kamenetz about her book, The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed with Standardized Testing — But You Don't Have to Be.

In a year-end press conference, President Bush said Wednesday that the U.S. needs a bigger military. And the president said he knows he'll need to work with Democrats in the new Congress to make progress with his domestic agenda.

Democratic leaders are to meet Wednesday with President Bush to discuss war funds. Congress is likely to send the president a funding bill with a timeline for troop withdrawal. The president says he will veto any such bill.

President Bush addressed a convocation of students, faculty and families at Virginia Tech today, as thousands of people gathered to mourn the killings of 32 people by a gunman Monday. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, killed himself just as police were arriving on the scene.