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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

As the White House and Congress debate taxes and entitlement reform, an influential liberal think-tank is offering what appears to be an olive branch. It comes at a time when many Democrats are trying to protect entitlements, such as Medicare. At the same time, Republicans say those entitlements are too expensive in their present form.

The anti-austerity protests in Greece were relatively small, reflecting the frustration that two and a half years of demonstrations haven't changed the course of austerity.

Israel launched a new wave of air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The commander of Hamas' military wing was among the first casualties.

Anti-austerity protests in Italy were coordinated with those in other southern European countries. Italian demonstrators reveal growing anger at Prime Minister Mario Monti, who was hailed as the man who could lead Italy out of its crisis just a year ago.

Anti-austerity demonstrations took place across southern Europe today, from Portugal to Greece. Large crowds voiced anger over budget cuts imposed by their governments or by multinational financial institutions. This is the first time that austerity protests have been coordinated across European borders.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

After President Obama's news conference today, he moved on to a meeting with the CEOs of a number of big corporations to talk about avoiding the fiscal cliff. We're going to talk now with one business leader who has advised the White House in the past, although he was not at today's meeting. Gary Loveman is the CEO of Caesars Entertainment, the worldwide casino company. He's been a member of President Obama's export council, and he's also part of the Fix the Debt campaign. Welcome to the program.

President Obama held his first full dress press conference since his reelection last week and since March of this year on Wednesday.

Melissa Block talks with Carol Leonig of the Washington Post about Jill Kelley, the Tampa Bay socialite whose report of threatening emails to the FBI led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus. Since the scandal broke, much has been made of Kelley's background: how she came to be close personal friends with Petraeus, Gen. John Allen and other top military officials, the lavish parties she and her husband hosted, and their mounting debt and pending foreclosures on properties they own.

President Obama sounds like he's in for a fight over the woman who could be the next secretary of state. Republicans have been blasting U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for the way she characterized the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11.

But the president came to her defense in his news conference Wednesday afternoon.

"When they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me," he told reporters.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington beat out Rep. Tom Price of Georgia for a top leadership post in the House Republican Conference. The race took on broader significance about the direction of the Republican Party going forward. Audie Cornish talks to Martin Kady, congressional editor for Politico.

The Egyptian president has recalled his ambassador to Israel in protest of Israel's airstrikes on the Gaza Strip today, his spokesman said on state television. The strikes have killed at least 10 people including the commander of the military wing of Hamas.

Reporting from Cairo, NPR's Leila Fadel sent this report to our Newscast unit:

Audie Cornish talks with Wired contributing editor Joshua Davis about anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee. McAfee is wanted for questioning in the death of a fellow American ex-pat Gregory Faull in Belize.

Buyers are coming back into the housing market after losing their homes during the financial crisis — returning to homeownership more quickly than lenders have typically allowed.

With millions of families with recent foreclosures on their records, some report that they are having luck buying a house — in some cases within three years.

Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) are asking the White House to respect the voters of Colorado and Washington, who decided that recreational marijuana use should be legal.

In a letter sent to President Obama, they wrote:

Sen.-elect Angus King of Maine, who cruised to victory last week running as an independent, said Wednesday that he will caucus with Senate Democrats.

King's announcement means the Democrats will have in essence a 55-45 seat advantage in the Senate next year.

The Senate's other independent, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, also caucuses with the Democrats.

King was elected last week to replace the retiring moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe.

New details are emerging about how David Petraeus' extramarital affair developed, and when officials — from law enforcement to the White House — first found out about it. Track the story with this interactive timeline, compiled through some digging by The Associated Press and NPR.

Retail sales fell in October, for the first time in several months. Analysts largely blamed the hurricane. If they're right, sales will bounce back this month and the economic recovery will continue (slowly, slowly).

That's the big picture. To get a sense of the small picture — messier, more ambiguous — I visited three small businesses on Cross Bay Boulevard, in Howard Beach, Queens. The storm swept in here and flooded the neighborhood.

In 2009, Susannah Cahalan was a healthy 24-year-old reporter for the New York Post, when she began to experience numbness, paranoia, sensitivity to light and erratic behavior. Grasping for an answer, Cahalan asked herself as it was happening, "Am I just bad at my job — is that why? Is the pressure of it getting to me? Is it a new relationship?"

But Cahalan only got worse — she began to experience seizures, hallucinations, increasingly psychotic behavior and even catatonia. Her symptoms frightened family members and baffled a series of doctors.

President Barack Obama takes questions from reporters at the White House today, in his first press conference since March. NPR's Ken Rudin and political strategists Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman, and Anna Greenberg, a democratic pollster, analyze the President's remarks.

Maine, Maryland, and Washington passed same-sex marriage on the ballot in the 2012 election. Minnesotans struck down a proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Now, people on both sides of the issue are reevaluating their strategies.

Last spring, the global health community got some alarming news about its last, best treatment for malaria. The artemisinin-based drugs were losing their potency at two different places in Southeast Asia: in western Cambodia and along the border between Thailand and Myanmar.

Eight days after his re-election — with the fiscal cliff looming, questions being raised about the deadly attack on the U.S.

We're curious about whether Two-Way readers agree or disagree with Monkey See readers about this "important" issue:

Which is better: cats or dogs?

Your Two-Way hosts know which way we would vote. But we would never, ever try to influence anyone's opinion with stories about the tail-wagging, barking, "I'm so glad to see you!" greetings we get when we arrive home each evening.