NPR People: Liz Halloran

In an NPR interview, the House speaker predicted she can corral enough votes from moderate Democrats to guarantee final passage of health care legislation — even if it contains the less-restrictive rules on abortion contained in the Senate version of the bill.

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try the alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in federal courts has elicited sharply divided responses from Capitol Hill, the American public and victims' families. Holder says his decision is driven by evidence, not politics.

Family members say Maj. Nidal Hasan had been looking for an exit from the military because he didn't want to participate in fighting Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. Advocates of conscientious objector status say if it were more liberally applied, it might have given Hasan a way out.

Outrage is growing among Democratic activists over new and far-reaching abortion restrictions contained in the health care bill passed by the House. Some warn that Democrats may face trouble at the polls in 2010 if the restrictions survive a final bill.

As officials continue to investigate what prompted Army Maj. Nidal Hasan's alleged rampage at the Texas military post last week, President Obama and the Army's top general cautioned against a backlash toward Muslims in the military.

Democrats have little time to savor the narrow passage of their historic heath care overhaul in the House of Representatives as attention turns to the deeply divided U.S. Senate.

The story of suspected Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan is a reminder of the stresses and potential pitfalls Muslims and Arab-Americans face in serving in the U.S. armed forces in a post-9/11 world.

Republicans, fresh off electoral wins this week, are looking ahead to the 2010 midterms with their hit lists ready. Some of their top House targets: Blue Dog Democrats, many of whom have pushed back on the president's top domestic initiatives.

Democrats are playing down Tuesday's gubernatorial losses in New Jersey and Virginia as far less than a referendum on President Obama and his agenda. But the losses do offer Republicans a model for victory in the 2010 midterms.

Charles Swift was among a team of attorneys who successfully challenged before the Supreme Court the Bush-era military commissions set up for Guantanamo detainees. Here, he talks to NPR about what's involved in holding detainee trials in U.S. courts and the state of military commissions.

The Justice Department faces a Nov. 16 deadline to present a plan for prosecuting detainees at the U.S. prison camp. Meanwhile, the national debate continues over how to administer justice to prisoners whose allegiances may or may not lie with a terrorist ideology.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Senate's merged health care bill will include a government-sponsored program in the insurance market. But it remains unclear whether Reid has locked in the 60 votes needed to guarantee passage of a final bill with a public option.

The Obama administration's bid to ease public outrage over huge Wall Street paydays may be politically expedient. But critics say it distracts from the fact that a real overhaul of the troubled financial system appears to be withering on the vine on Capitol Hill.

Women's health advocates and female Democratic senators are spotlighting controversial insurance practices that often result in dramatically higher premiums for women. One patient told a Senate hearing recently that an insurer rejected her because she wasn't sterilized.

Social Security recipients won't be getting a cost-of-living increase next year, but the White House has backed a plan to give them a one-time payment of $250, calling it an extension of the stimulus program. Some suggest the plan is as much an investment in politics as in the economy.