Health innovators are experimenting with "pay for performance" models that focus on preventive care, coordination between doctors and ways to lower readmission rates. We explore how hospital systems and providers are adapting to the changing health care environment.

Host Michel Martin and editor Ammad Omar crack open the listener mailbox for backtalk. This week, they talk about a controversy surrounding the possible sale of fine art in Detroit to settle the city's debts.

A Chinese company plans to buy U.S. pork giant Smithfield Foods for nearly $5 billion. The deal may undergo review by an interagency panel known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The panel has played a significant role in shaping foreign investments in this country for nearly four decades.

This week, the European Union gave some of its member nations more time to meet deficit-reduction targets. In other words, to ease back on austerity. The programs have crushed growth and sent European unemployment to a record high 12 percent.

Interest rates on government-backed college loans are set to double July 1 — unless Congress agrees on a fix before then. The president is expected to urge Congress on Friday to block that increase.

Prince George's County's new budget differs from what County Executive Rushern Baker proposed in several areas.

Newly released data from the Department of Labor shows the D.C. region is faring better than expected under the federal budget cuts.

Fast food workers have been going on strikes in major cities nationwide. They're demanding higher wages, but some critics are asking why they should have it their way. Host Michel Martin hears from both sides of the debate.