NPR News

Update on Nov. 13 at 5:43 p.m. ET. The man who accused Kevin Clash of having sex with him while he was underage has recanted his testimony. We've added a separate blog with the details.

Our Original Post Continues:

The fallout from the Lance Armstrong doping scandal continues: Today, Livestrong announced the cyclist had cut all formal ties with the cancer charity.

AP reports:

"Armstrong resigned from the board of directors for Livestrong on Nov. 4. He had previously resigned as chairman from the charity he founded Oct. 17 but had kept a seat on the board. ...

The 2012 election was the first since the Supreme Court's ruling on Citizens United and the most expensive in U.S. history. But not much changed. Host Michel Martin discusses the impact of unlimited cash with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Van Jones has become a leading voice on the progressive left. That only happened after a short stint as the Obama administration's Green Jobs czar. Jones is now the co-founder of the policy group, Rebuild the Dream. He talks with host Michel Martin about what progressives should expect — and demand — in a second Obama term.

Some of the latest news on the conflict in Syria:

-- Israel Fires Back. "Israeli troops fired tank shells into Syria on Monday in retaliation for a mortar round that struck near an army post in the Golan Heights, scoring 'direct hits' on the source of the fire, the [Israeli] army said." (Al-Jazeera)

Paula Broadwell, the woman whose extramarital affair with retired Gen. David Petraeus led to his resignation Friday from the post of CIA director, is a major in the Army Reserve who specializes in counterterrorism issues. She's also the author of All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, a biography of the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

Skyfall, the 23rd canonical James Bond movie, came out in the U.S. this weekend. I am pleased to reaffirm what you've already read about it if you care at all about James Bond movies: The film is good and occasionally great, restoring the character to his rightful station as the grandest of screen spies — or at least the one most likely to take time to introduce himself to the targets of his spycraft by his last, then his first-and-last, names. I assume he formed this habit after people began showing a quite sensible reluctance to accept his business card.

Good morning.

Our early posts:

-- For Veterans Day: We Pause To Read 'In Flanders Fields'.

-- Petraeus Affair: Lawmakers Want To Know Why They Weren't Told.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Phase II of this story has begun:

"Lawmakers Want Probe Of Petraeus Investigation," is The Washington Post's main headline this morning in its followup on Friday's stunning news about the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne, with news from the world of Oz.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE WIZARD OF OZ")

JUDY GARLAND: (As Dorothy) There's no place like home.

Good morning.

At Arlington National Cemetery on Sunday, President Obama expressed the nation's gratitude to its veterans.

"Whenever America has come under attack, you've risen to her defense," he said. "Whenever our freedoms have come under assault, you've responded with resolve. Time and again, at home and abroad, you and your families have sacrificed to protect that powerful promise that all of us hold so dear –- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The city of Long Beach, on Long Island's Nassau County was one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy, with entire neighborhoods ravaged by floods and wind. It seemed unlikely that the high school's football team would get to finish its season. But the Long Beach Marines saw action over the weekend.

Beginning next summer, federal rules will require pilots to have six times more flight time to get hired, and will then also require airlines to give pilots more rest between flights. This will increase the number of pilots airlines need, just as thousands of senior pilots reach the mandatory retirement age of 65.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And our last word in business today is: "Brown Sugar."

We know Mick Jagger was the man who wrote the lyrics behind dozens of hit songs by the Rolling Stones, but especially given those songs, it's something of a surprise that he could compose a sweet love letter. One of his many lovers - and thought to be the inspiration behind the song "Brown Sugar" - has those letters and is making them public, for a price.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Let's look now at the impact of some shocking revelations on the other side of the Atlantic. Britain's media has had a pretty rough year. First, the phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of Rupert Murdoch's popular tabloid News of the World. Now the esteemed BBC is in trouble. Over the weekend, the head of the BBC resigned, plunging the world's largest public broadcaster into its second crisis within weeks. NPR's Philip Reeves has more.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

With the election settled, Washington, Wall Street and much of the rest world, it seems, are focused on whether Congress and a reelected president can avoid the fiscal cliff. To tell us what's at stake, we turn now to David Wessel. He's the economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of "Red Ink," a new primer on the federal budget and the deficit.

Officials in Washington are still trying to make sense of the sudden resignation last week of CIA Director David Petraeus. More details are emerging about the extramarital affair that brought Petraeus down. It came to light following an FBI investigation, which was not focused originally on the CIA director but soon led to him.

A second term means some new Cabinet appointments for President Obama, including at the Treasury. After four pretty grueling years, Secretary Timothy Geithner has made it clear he will be leaving Washington.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said last week that Geithner would be staying on through the inauguration. He's also expected to be a "key participant" in "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

In 1979, when Jim Stigler was still a graduate student at the University of Michigan, he went to Japan to research teaching methods and found himself sitting in the back row of a crowded fourth-grade math class.

A "return on investment" is a concept better known to Wall Street than to Washington. But after President Obama and the Democrats won most of the close elections last week there are questions about the seven- and eight-figure "investments" made by dozens of conservative donors.

During the election season, it was pretty common to hear about donors making "investments" in superPACs and other outside groups, rather than a "political contribution," perhaps because the phrase has a sort of taint to it.