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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

President Obama's nominee to lead the Pentagon spent the day getting grilled by his former colleagues in the Senate. Chuck Hagel is a Republican and President Obama picked him in part as a gesture to the GOP. But today's hearing did not feature a lot of bipartisan warmth. As NPR's Tom Bowman reports, it was Hagel's stellar Republicans who gave him the toughest time and forced him to defend his record.

Melissa spent months looking for a job — any job. For days, the 25-year-old consistently visited her welfare-to-work program in downtown Brooklyn, resume in hand and an interview smile splashed across her face.

"Every day, Monday through Friday, 9 to 4," she explains. "That's dedication."

Melissa, who asked us to not reveal her last name, has plenty of job experience. She's a self-identified "people person" and says she aces every interview. But there's just one thing holding her back: the past.

An assistant district attorney in North Texas was shot and killed as he arrived at the courthouse where he worked on Thursday.

The Associated Press reports:

On 53rd Street and Vermont Avenue in South Los Angeles, violent members of at least six gangs run the streets. A landmark church is boarded up and tagged. There are liquor stores and abandoned lots. On Tuesday night, there was a drive-by shooting two blocks away, and folks are expecting retaliation. This is an area where murders, robberies and rapes are common — and so are guns.

"There's too many guns out there," says Randolph Wright, 18. "I can tell you right now, every hood has an AK[-47]. Regardless of whatever other gun they got, they have an AK."

Over the past year, small gnomes started springing up all around Oakland, Calif. The elfin creatures are hand-painted on wooden boards; each is about 6 inches tall, with red hat, brown boots and white beard. They're bits of urban folk art from an anonymous painter who surreptitiously screws them onto the base of utility poles.

The Grammy-award winning singer Beyoncé has finally put an end to all the talk surrounding her performance during President Obama's second inauguration.

And she did it in diva fashion, during a press conference to preview her Super Bowl performance.

Shots were fired at an Atlanta middle school, this afternoon, several news outlets are reporting. The Associated Press quotes an Atlanta fire official saying that a 14-year-old had been shot at Price Middle School.

WSBTV reports that one teacher was injured and the condition of the teen is not known.

Officially as of last week, there's nothing quite like Apple's stores. After an array of patents of its products, Apple has decided to go whole hog and trademark its minimalist store design. The trademark was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 22, Reuters reported.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton "got away with murder" for her handling of the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Libya. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, who led the independent investigation into the attacks, talks about the future of diplomatic security.

The traditional American shooting range is extending its range.

In Summerville, S.C., for example, the ATP Gunshop & Range stages community-minded blood drives and Toys-for-Tots collections. Twice a week there are Ladies Nights, where women can learn to fire pistols and receive free T-shirts.

Caleb Moore, a freestyle snowmobile rider, who suffered a spectacular crash during last week's Winter X Games in Aspen, died today because of his injuries, his family said.

Moore was 25.

Here's how ESPN, which hosts the X Games, describes the incident:

The New York Times writer Jon Pareles called Lionel Loueke "the gentle virtuoso" for the engaging way Loueke melds African guitar traditions with jazz harmony. Loueke gets African-style rhythms going, tapping on his guitar and using his effects pedals. He sings and harmonizes with his own voice.

President Barack Obama says he hopes that the immigration reform plan designed out by a bipartisan Senate committee will become a bill as soon as March. The president also warned, that this debate will become more heated and emotional as it moves ahead.

The Washington Post's Fact Checker takes on the subject of whether President Obama was shooting straight when he told The New Republic that he has fired a gun and that "we do skeet shooting all the time" at Camp David.

And what does Fact Checker conclude?

"Verdict Pending."

A Media Day interview has turned into a maelstrom for Super-Bowl-bound Chris Culliver, the San Francisco 49ers cornerback.

Wednesday, during a short interview with radio host Artie Lange, Culliver was asked if there were any gay players on his team.

"Nah," he answered. "We ain't got no gay people on the team. They gotta get up outta here if they do. Can't be with that sweet stuff. Nah, can't be in the locker room."

Lange went on to ask if players should stay in the closet.

On a new box set collecting the first four albums of Jack DeJohnette and his band Special Edition, two discs are gems and the other two have their moments. DeJohnette's quartet-slash-quintet was fronted by smoking saxophonists on the way up, set loose on catchy riffs and melodies. The springy rhythm section could tweak the tempos like no one this side of '60s goddess Laura Nyro.

A $20.1 billion merger of beer conglomerates is now delayed, after the U.S. Justice Department sued to stop Anheuser-Busch InBev's acquisition of Mexico's dominant brewer, Grupo Modelo, Thursday. The agency's antitrust division says the two corporations haven't done enough to protect consumers.

The deal would put Corona, Bud Light, Stella Artois, and other popular beers under the same corporate umbrella, ending the competition that Justice officials say has resulted in lower prices. The Mexican government approved the merger last November.

Although the national conversation about immigration policy tends to focus on Latinos, it is Asian-Americans who encounter some of the knottiest challenges facing immigrants and immigration reformers.

Of the five countries with the longest backlogs for visas, four are in Asia.

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let's bring up our next two contestants, shall we?

JONATHAN COULTON: Let's do.

EISENBERG: Here they are. We have Dory Green and David Steinberg.

(APPLAUSE)

DAVID STEINBERG: Hello.

DORY GREEN: Hi.

EISENBERG: Dory, I give you props, being a pediatric dentist.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Big props. And you like to build stuff.

GREEN: I do like to build stuff.

EISENBERG: Recently you were in a costume contest of sorts. Did you win?

GREEN: No.

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OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let's bring up our next two fearless contestants. We have Diana Tenery and Samantha Boardman.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Diana, you are a hard-core competitive bridge player.

DIANA TENERY: Sort of.

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OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

All right, what do you say we get this puzzle started?

JOHN CHANESKI: That sounds like a good idea.

EISENBERG: Let me introduce our first two contestants. We have Alix Claps and Danny Errico.

(APPLAUSE)

ALIX CLAPS: Hi.

DANNY ERRICO: Hi.

EISENBERG: Thank you so much for joining us. Alix, I hear you're a big theater and music geek and a production manager at NYU.

CLAPS: That's true.

EISENBERG: Fantastic. What's your favorite musical?

CLAPS: "Kiss of the Spider-Woman."