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Insurance companies often are blamed for rising health costs, but hospitals also play a role. One California health care chain has so much clout that it dictates what insurance companies pay for its services.

This week saw two big music releases: a new album from pop baritone Josh Groban and the new download from mash-up genius Girl Talk. Music critic Tom Moon offers his thoughts on two very different albums.

NPR producer Art Silverman uncovers New Jersey's filthy situation: the Passaic River. U.S. manufacturing was jump-started along its banks. Now the river is so toxic, part of it is a superfund site, and much of the rest is, as one writer puts it, "a toilet."

NPR producer Art Silverman uncovers New Jersey's filthy situation: the Passaic River. U.S. manufacturing was jump-started along its banks. Now the river is so toxic, part of it is a superfund site, and much of the rest is, as one writer puts it, "a toilet."

Hamburg-born Astrid Kirchherr met the Beatles in 1960, before they were famous. She took some of the earliest photographs of the group and was engaged to Stuart Sutcliffe, the Beatles' original bassist, before he died of a brain hemorrhage in 1962.

Songwriter Hugh Martin co-wrote the Christmas tune that Judy Garland made famous in the 1944 classic Meet Me in St. Louis. Martin, who recently released a memoir, explains how he came up with his famous lyrics.

Susan Stamberg first broadcast her mother-in-law's "sounds terrible, tastes terrific" relish recipe on All Things Considered in 1972. This year, she asked rapper and chef Coolio to taste the Pepto-Bismol-hued Thanksgiving dish: "The color is a little weird, but it was actually quite good," he reports.

A report from the Bipartisan Policy Center suggests that seniors should start paying more for Medicare to help the nation's deficit. It also wants the government to check the growth of both Medicare and Medicaid programs in the future.

Financial officials will be taking a close look at Ireland's broken banking system. A big part of their mission is to restore confidence in the bond market and stop Ireland's malaise from spreading to other eurozone nations.

In ancient times, people didn't have a word for cancer. And centuries ago, the treatment for cancer was just as deadly as the disease. Oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, talks to Steve Inskeep about some breakthroughs that came from unexpected people and in unexpected places.