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If completed, the request would mean one-third of the southwest border would be fenced. Facing a skeptical Congress, the White House says it plans to ask for more funding in future years.

California and Washington passed stricter gun control measures, Nebraska and Oklahoma both passed measures backing the death penalty, and Colorado became the sixth state to legalize assisted suicide.

German Catholics are facing a stark choice: Pay a church tax or forget about receiving the sacraments, including baptisms, weddings and funerals. Germany taxes registered Catholics, Protestants and Jews. In 2011, the tax raised $6.5 billion for the Catholic Church alone. Many progressives and conservatives are up in arms over the German bishops' decree.

Those opposed to taxes and big government are putting their money where their mouths are in the state. A food drive there was put together by libertarians and anarchists, and they say they privately funded, voluntary charity is superior to the welfare system.

The economy added 195,000 jobs in June, a surprise and a delight to both economists and Wall Street, even though the unemployment rate was stuck at 7.6 percent. NPR's Sonari Glinton reports that the economic recovery continues at a slow but steady pace.

It was a deadly combination: Winter jet streams collided with warm and moist air. Twisters flattened subdivisions in Washington, Ill., and tore through farming communities. The destruction spread to other states across the upper Midwest. Six deaths have been reported in Illinois, two in Michigan.

On her latest album, Claroscuro, the jazz clarinetist explores influences that range from Louis Armstrong to Brazilian music to that of her native Israel. It's this desire to adapt the instrument to so many musical traditions that has earned Cohen such acclaim. (Originally broadcast on Feb. 6, 2013.)

There are only four teams left in the men's NCAA bracket, as Kentucky, Connecticut, Florida, and Wisconsin vie for spots in Monday night's title game.

SNCF, whose subsidiary is bidding on a $6 billion light rail project in Maryland, transported thousands of victims to concentration camps in Nazi-occupied France. The company says it's not obligated.

Since 1990, nearly 2 billion people have gained clean toilets, or at least decent outhouses. And many more children in the developing world now eat better, go to school and get medical treatment. The advances mean that fewer children are dying of preventable diseases.