NPR National Stories

When you dive into an alternate reality in a video game, do you ever think about the technology that took you there? For Black History Month,Tell Me More is featuring professionals in science, technology, engineering and math. Host Michel Martin talks to video game developer Lisette Titre about her career as a video game artist.

The Defense Department and other government agencies are preparing for the possible government budget cuts known as sequestration. Host Michel Martin talks with Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Robbins of the Defense Department and Washington Post 'Federal Diary' columnist Joe Davidson about who'll be affected.

This headline may make you go "huh?"

Standing in front of first responders who he says could lose their jobs, President Obama pushed Tuesday for Congress to act now to avoid $85 billion in "automatic, severe budget cuts" set to kick in starting on March 1.

The cuts due because of the so-called sequestration "are not smart, they are not fair [and] they will hurt our economy," the president said.

Most women can expect to get contraceptives without paying out of pocket for them thanks to the federal Affordable Care Act.

Women who are young or those who are poor and rely on publicly funded family planning centers for reproductive health services are covered, too.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Pistorius Says He Feared For His Life; Prosecutor Says Shooting Was Premeditated

-- Clues Connect Global Hacking To Chinese Government, Security Firm Says

http://kut.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/QA-Bernier-Cahill-Hasan-NAWAL.mp3

The daughter of a man killed in the Fort Hood shooting rampage is now friends with the cousin of the accused shooter.

Kerry Cahill lost her father Michael Cahill at Fort Hood in 2009. Now, she's working with Nader Hasan, cousin of alleged shooter Nidal Hasan the alleged shooter, on Nader's effort to speak out against extremism through his organization, the Nawal Foundation.

Listen to our conversation with them by clicking the player above. 

"Hundreds of investigations convince us" that the Chinese government is at least aware of, and likely sponsoring, cyber thieves who have stolen massive amounts of information from companies around the world, including American defense contractors, a U.S. security firm reported Tuesday.