Bob Dole, a longtime Senate Republican leader and the party's presidential nominee in 1996, died Sunday at age 98.

Dole's death was confirmed in a tweet by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation.

Thomas Gavin may be one of the most prolific artifact thieves in U.S. history.

There are no movies or books about him, and no wild police chases or Indiana Jones-like adventures. In fact, until a couple of years ago no one even knew who he was.

But Gavin had been on a tear in the '60s and '70s, hitting nearly a dozen museums on the East Coast. He mostly stole antique firearms and stashed them in his hideout — a cluttered, non-descript barn in rural Pennsylvania.

Buying stuff is a part of America's DNA.

It's a tradition that really took off near the end of World War II, when the economy was thriving and the market exploded with products Americans didn't even know they wanted.

And even in an economy rocked by a pandemic, buying is on track to exceed 2020 levels this holiday season. The result of all that spending means consumption drives 70% of our country's GDP, but it's also driving very real environmental issues.

There are more homeless families in the United States than in any other industrialized country. The main cause is the lack of affordable housing.

Nearly 172,000 families experienced homelessness in 2020, making up about 30% of the homeless population.

Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for now-President Biden. That's according to a new analysis by NPR that examines how political polarization and misinformation are driving a significant share of the deaths in the pandemic.