NPR National Stories

As many as 30 million people living from Oklahoma to the Ohio Valley are in the path of a storm moving east out of California that could dump several inches of snow in some areas and freezing rain and sleet elsewhere in the next few days.

According to the Weather Channel, the storm is caused by an "upper-level dip in the jet stream," on Wednesday.

The conservative group Tea Party Patriots has apologized to GOP strategist Karl Rove after an "outside vendor" sent an email with a photoshopped image of Rove wearing a Nazi uniform.

"Wipe that smirk off Rove's face," the subject of the email read.

In a statement, the group said the image was "inappropriate."

New Zealand seems to be the destination of choice for wayward Antarctic penguins.

Stepping forward now because he thought others were about to "breach this privacy," former New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici has told the Albuquerque Journal that he fathered a son outside of his marriage more than 30 years ago.

The mother is Michelle Laxalt, the daughter of another prominent Republican politician — former Nevada Sen. and Gov. Paul Laxalt. Their son is Adam Paul Laxalt, a lawyer in Nevada according to the Journal.

Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. A grim milestone last week in Tibet: Over the past four years, more than 100 people have now set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. According to the campaign, International Campaign for Tibet, at least 85 died following their protest.

Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

It's Wednesday, and time to read from your comments. On February 13th, we marked World Radio Day by asking: What's the radio moment that changed your life?

Brian in Louisville wrote about the first he heard a famous comedy duo: Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding. He wrote: Lying in bed with a boyfriend in the early '90s, I couldn't sleep. I turned on the radio and found, for the first time, a rerun of a Bob and Ray broadcast, Wally Ballou lead ingot factory soap opera. I never laughed so hard. I never got to sleep.

The U.S. Postal Service is getting creative in its search for new revenue after last year's $15.9 billion budget shortfall. The agency says it will debut a new clothing and accessories line called Rain Heat & Snow, inspired by its unofficial motto: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

These days politics and advertising go hand in hand. Mayors stage photo ops. The Bush administration compared the Iraq war to rolling out a new product. And just last year, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spent nearly a billion dollars running for president. If you're an American, such wall-to-wall marketing has come to seem a natural phenomenon, like Hurricane Sandy or LeBron James.