All Things Considered from NPR

A storm is brewing in Washington that could darken political debate for months to come. It's about the debt, the deficit, taxes and spending — all hot topics lawmakers have been fighting about for years now.

This time, though, there's a deadline, and the consequences of inaction would be immediate. That has many in Washington saying: Here we go again.

In the past week, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have begun a new round of sparring over the U.S. debt ceiling.

European Union leaders are in Brussels for a mini-summit to discuss ways to promote jobs and growth in Europe while keeping the debt crisis from deepening.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

It's time now for your letters. Yesterday, we remembered Eugene Polley, the inventor of the first wireless remote control. He died last weekend at the age of 96. Polley earned 18 U.S. patents in his long career at what was then the Zenith Radio Corporation in Chicago.

JOHN TAYLOR: But he will always be best known as the father of the couch potato.

SIEGEL: That's John Taylor, a spokesman for what is now Zenith Electronics and its parent company, LG Electronics.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

On Mount Everest, the climbing season is at its peak, and that means that if clear conditions hold, hundreds will attempt to scale the mountain this weekend alone. Suppose you wanted to climb the world's highest peak, Would it alter your decision if you knew that rescue was just a phone call and a helicopter ride away? Well, it turns out that helicopter rescues have been increasingly common in the mountains of Nepal. And that has raised lots of questions about risk-taking, not just for climbers, but for pilots, too.

Sufjan Stevens is a classically trained singer-songwriter whose recent work has leaned symphonic. Son Lux is a classically trained beatmaker whose solo albums do indeed evoke luxury. Serengeti is a self-trained rapper who creates voices for a panoply of full-fledged characters who range from scufflers to yuppies. Billed as s / s / s, this ad hoc trio has just released an EP called Beak and Claw that somehow synthesizes their specialties.

For years now, the Tea Party has held individualism up as the great American value. But Washington Post columnist and Georgetown University professor E.J. Dionne Jr. says that while Americans have always prized individualism, they've prized community just as much.

There they go again — those 17 federally appointed experts at the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are telling American doctors and patients to stop routinely doing lifesaving tests.