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Since Superstorm Sandy, officials in Washington, D.C., have gotten a clear idea of what would happen in a worst-case storm scenario. Key government buildings and tourist sites like the Smithsonian museums are particularly vulnerable to flooding. So federal and local officials are taking steps to protect them.

The legal wrangling over who should be allowed to buy the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill without a prescription came to an end this year. A federal judge ruled that the emergency contraceptive couldn't be withheld from girls 16 and younger. Despite the legal ruling, many Americans support age minimums and parental consent.

In the ancient town of Hastings on England's south coast, fishermen go to sea in small, ten meter boats, much as their forebears did. One fisherman dates his family back to the 1580s. Now they face competition from big boats and worry that overfishing will ruin their livelihood. Their work is dangerous. They often have to go out in rough seas to support their families. Now and then a fisherman is lost at sea and when that happens, one wife says, "the fishermen stick together and help each other — always."

For 100 years the pen has been mightier than the boredom for crossword puzzle aficionados.

Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are pressing for the release of a so-called torture report on Bush-era interrogation practices. But there are several hurdles to clear before portions of the report might become declassified.

The second part of NPR's series on maritime Britain begins on a small ferry en route to the storm-lashed island of Lundy. Pirates once awaited their prey on the three-mile-long island. Today, there are 28 permanent residents, all employed by a conservation group, though some 2,000 bell ringers have made the pilgrimage to the island's old Gothic church.

Among the thousands of hospitals in the U.S., Medicare has identified 95 where elderly patients were most likely to suffer significant setbacks and another 97 hospitals where patients tended to have the smoothest recoveries.

Dr. Tim Ihrig has almost become a member of the Avelleyra family. He's helping Augie and Phyllis, who've been married 60 years, lead the best lives they can under trying health circumstances. When Phyllis was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, Ihrig asked what she wanted from the rest of her life.

In A Curious Invitation: The Forty Greatest Parties in Fiction, London-based party promoter Suzette Field offers a guide to literature's most famous and fabulous hosts and their soirees — from Proust and Tom Wolfe to Jay Gatsby and Hollywood Wives.

Why that unassuming museum art — which you'll find behind taxidermic bison and birds — deserves a closer look.