Bill Chappell

Massachusetts' Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to develop its own standardized test by the spring of 2017, instead of adopting a federally funded Common Core Standards Initiative test. But critics say the state board didn't go far enough.

Reporting on today's 8-3 vote in favor of creating its ...

In a change that's sure to send ripples through a media empire built on a thoughtful and rigorous approach to food, chef Chris Kimball is leaving America's Test Kitchen, the company he co-founded. Kimball's departure comes two months after the company got its first-ever CEO.

"Kimball's departure is immediate," says ...

Serious and sober talks are being held at this week's G-20 Summit — but the event briefly became a source of comedic relief, after three cats took over its main stage. Unimpressed with their rarefied surroundings, the cats eventually wandered off.

Some of the world's most powerful leaders are attending ...

The death toll in a coordinated and ruthless attack on six different targets in and around Paris has risen to 129, with 352 people injured, according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molins. He added that 99 people were critically wounded.

Speaking nearly 24 hours after the start of Friday night's attacks, ...

A French TGV train has derailed and some of its cars have landed in a canal during a test run close to the German border. At least five people died in the crash, according to multiple French media reports that cited the government in Bas-Rhin prefecture.

There's no sign of ...

The morning after gunmen and explosions left at least 128 people dead and hundreds more wounded in Paris, ISIS has released a statement claiming responsibility for the attacks, according to jihadist-monitoring group SITE Intelligence.

The Paris attack would be the most sophisticated yet by ISIS, as the simultaneous assaults ...

Updated at 12:10 p.m. ET

Paris is largely shut down Saturday, as investigators work to identify those behind Friday night's coordinated terror attacks, which killed 129 people and wounded more than 350. The Eiffel Tower and other public gathering spaces are closed.

This morning, French President Francois Hollande accused the ...

Updated at 9:30 p.m. ET

As Paris assesses the full toll of Friday night's terrorist attacks that hit six locations in and around the city, here's what we know so far:

The Victims

The attacks that began around 9:20 p.m. local time killed 129 people, French officials say, and left ...

Update 4:25 p.m. ET

Some called it unwatchable — and that wasn't just because the Jets and Bills were playing. Thursday night's NFL game is drawing criticism for featuring teams in all-red and all-green uniforms, making them virtually indecipherable to fans with red-green colorblindness.

The uniforms were part of the ...

The U.S. is "reasonably certain" that the ISIS frontman known as "Jihadi John" has been killed by a drone strike in Syria, a Pentagon spokesman says. The U.S. attacked a vehicle that was believed to be carrying the British terrorist Thursday.

"We know for a fact that the weapons system ...

They fled from Iraq, Syria and other desperate places — and now they find themselves on an island in the Pacific Ocean that is the smallest independent republic in the world. Children who are being detained as refugees in Nauru have reportedly started a Facebook page to tell their stories.

A force of some 7,000 Kurds says it has wrested control of Sinjar from ISIS, ending in a few days an occupation that had lasted 15 months. The northern Iraqi town is a key junction in the ISIS supply line.

The breakthrough comes after at least 20 U.S. airstrikes

Nearly 1.2 million public housing units would need to become "entirely smoke-free" under a new rule put forth Thursday by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro.

The proposed rule would give more than 3,100 public housing agencies 18 months to ban cigarettes, cigars and pipes in all living ...

In an attack that Lebanon's Health Ministry says has killed at least 43 people and injured 239 more, two suicide bombers set off explosions within minutes of each other Thursday in southern Beirut.

"The self-declared Islamic State has purportedly claimed responsibility for two blasts that hit a busy street," NPR's ...

More than 100 women across the U.S. have filed a lawsuit against a drug company, saying that an error in the packaging of birth control pills resulted in unplanned pregnancies. Some of the plaintiffs are asking drugmaker Qualitest to pay for the cost of raising their children.

The plaintiffs say ...

It's Veterans Day in the U.S. and Armistice Day in much of Europe, a holiday that has its roots in the end of World War I.

President Obama visited Arlington National Cemetery Wednesday, where Marines in dress uniform lined the road leading to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Obama ...

Spinning in orbit just 3,700 miles above the Mars' surface, the planet's largest moon, Phobos, seems to be undergoing a "structural failure," NASA says, providing a new explanation about a moon whose odd features have sparked many theories — including the idea that Phobos is hollow.

"Mars' gravity is drawing ...

A Brobdingnagian beer company is closer to becoming reality, as Anheuser-Busch InBev has worked out terms to buy its biggest rival, SABMiller, for more than $105 billion. The deal includes a $12 billion sell-off of MillerCoors to Molson Coors, to ease antitrust concerns.

The update comes nearly a month after ...

Hours after launching a Kickstarter campaign to revive a TV show that made it fun to watch horrible movies, Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson has raised more than $500,000 — a quarter of his $2 million goal.

If the fundraising campaign is successful, the Mystery Science Theater team ...

During his eight years in office, he was admired for the way he steered West Germany through both an economic crisis and violent outbursts of terrorism. Former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has died at his home in Hamburg at 96.

In response to the oil crisis of the early 1970s, Schmidt ...