Mark Memmott

Just in case you're looking for Annalisa Quinn's "daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly," here's a reminder:

She's on vacation this week. So this might be the time to read one of those books she's been writing about for us in recent months.

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With U.S. officials saying there's little doubt that President Bashar Assad's regime used chemical weapons on the Syrian people last week, and with U.S. Navy ships moving toward that country's coast, it now seems to be a question of "when" not "whether" America will strike military targets inside ...

Proving once again that when it comes to economic data there's almost always a "but" to watch out for:

The housing sector has been one of the economy's stars in recent months, as we said Thursday when the news broke that sales of existing homes rose an estimated 6.5 ...

A disturbing story from Bloomberg News that we posted about on Wednesday — "Detroit's Stray Dog Epidemic: 50,000 Or More Roam The City" — is getting some pushback from Detroit journalist Jeff Wattrick.

He blogs that:

"One thing about dogs is they know ...

We like stories about things that wash up on beaches, such as the softball-size eyeball that appeared on the Atlantic Ocean shore in Florida last fall.

So our eyes lit up when we saw this headline: "Mysterious 'Horned' Sea Monster Washes Ashore in Spain; Officials Baffled."

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Steve Ballmer will retire as CEO at Microsoft within the next 12 months, the software giant announced Friday.

According to the company:

"In the meantime, Ballmer will continue as CEO and will lead Microsoft through the next steps of its transformation to a devices and services company ...

"She was remarkable," President Obama tells CNN after being asked about Antoinette Tuff.

She's the school bookkeeper in Decatur, Ga., who on Tuesday persuaded a young man with an assault rifle and other weapons to lay down the guns he had brought into her elementary school ...

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Obama: Time Frame For Possible Action On Syria Has Shortened.

-- After Wild Start, Silence From Bo Xilai Corruption Trial.

-- Book News: Guantanamo Reading Material Spurs More Controversy.

Other news:

-- Jury Continues ...

Chinese authorities clamped down Friday on information coming out of the high-profile corruption trial of one-time rising political star Bo Xilai.

As NPR's Anthony Kuhn reported on Morning Edition, during Thursday's opening day in court Bo appeared to run circles around the judges and prosecutors. He denied any ...

While the U.S. and its allies cannot move militarily against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime "without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence" that Assad's forces have used chemical weapons, the time within which a decision about such action must be made has been shortened, President Obama tells ...

Drones have not been spotted flying over the little town of Deer Trail, Colo., about 55 miles east of Denver.

But that hasn't stopped an effort by some in the town of 550 residents to make it legal to shoot down the unmanned aerial vehicles.

On Oct. 8, people there ...

The Lorax was missing,

From Dr. Seuss' garden.

Who could be so cruel?

Had their heart just hardened?

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Now there's good news.

The little guy's back.

Found quite nearby,

Off the beaten track.

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A man in Montana

Had a tip for police.

And for Seuss' family,

The news ...

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been released from the prison where he's been held while awaiting a retrial on charges related to the killing of protesters in 2011. The protesters lost their lives during the demonstrations that led to the topping of Mubarak's three-decade-old regime.

Earlier this week, a ...

There were 13,000 more claims for unemployment insurance last week than during the week before, the Employment and Training Administration says.

According to the agency, 336,000 first-time claims were filed, up from 323,000 the week before.

That 323,000 figure, by the way, is a small revision from last ...

The Army private responsible for the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history is asking for hormone therapy. Manning's lawyer will push for that to happen during the soldier's long stay in prison.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Chemical Weapons Claims Bring Calls For Force Against Syria.

-- Speculation Mounts That San Diego Mayor Is On His Way Out.

-- Book News: FBI Suspected William T. Vollmann Was The Unabomber.

Other stories in the news:

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Update at 3:40 p.m. ET. 'Tentative Agreement':

The law firm that has helped San Diego Mayor Bob Filner navigate the accusations of sexual harassment, says he and representatives of the city have "reached a tentative agreement," but declined to elaborate:

"Due to the confidential nature of mediation and settlement ...

Claims by the opposition in Syria that President Bashar Assad's forces used chemical weapons during an attack Wednesday near Damascus — killing scores of people, they say — are being followed Thursday by word that:

-- "The French foreign minister has said that the international community would need ...

"I can't touch it or pick it up without thinking about him and I can't pick it up without thinking about this journey of the ring."

That's David C. Cox Jr. of North Carolina talking Wednesday about the rather amazing saga of the ring his father had to trade for ...

At first, we didn't believe this new report from Bloomberg News could be true:

"As many as 50,000 stray dogs roam the streets and vacant homes of bankrupt Detroit, replacing residents, menacing humans who remain and overwhelming the city's ability to find them homes or peaceful deaths."

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