President Obama bypassed Congress this week in appointing Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and filling vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. Republicans called the appointments an unconstitutional power grab and said they were made while the Senate was still technically in session.

In a case before the Supreme Court on Monday, a couple seeking to build their dream home say the Environmental Protection Agency put a stop to their plans after accusing them of building on wetlands. Is it a case of bureaucratic power run amok, or a trumped-up case aimed at eviscerating the EPA's regulatory powers?

More hospitals are watching and waiting instead of operating on some patients with gunshot or stab wounds, a new study finds. Exploratory surgery, long the norm in such cases, may be safely skipped some of the time.

Why would a cat crave mushrooms? A scientist says it's the umami. Though cats can't taste sweetness like people can, they are aces at sniffing out the amino acids that signal protein-rich foods.

One NPR reporter's harrowing trip to cover the Iowa caucuses turned out to be the perfect start to 2012.

Hairy-chested yeti crabs, seven-armed sea stars, white octopuses — all these creatures were seen for the first time by researchers in the Antarctic. Robert Siegel talks to biologist Alex Rodgers of the University of Oxford, who led the expedition.

If you Google Rick Santorum, one of the top returns is a scatological sexual reference. It was created back in 2003, when writer Dan Savage asked his readers to make up something disgusting and sexual to link to Santorum. It was a response to Santorum's rhetoric against gay marriage.

The NFL kicks off an exciting weekend of games Saturday when it starts its playoffs. Meanwhile, there's big news in the sport that most of the rest of the world calls football. Fox television is making a major play to air more soccer games in this country, including an English Premier League game before the Super Bowl. Sportswriter Stefan Fatsis talks with Robert Siegel about the news in both kinds of football.

The Justice Department is redefining the criminal definition of "rape" for the first time since the 1920s. It will now include same-sex assaults and a definition beyond actual intercourse. This will change the way local police departments report crime statistics.

Four years ago, Melissa Block traveled several times to Milford, N.H., to talk with voters. Friday, she talks to two of the people she met there: Noreen O'Connell and Steve O'Keefe. They discuss the current GOP presidential field.