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The Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of the year, along with the payroll tax break; the nation's borrowing authority bumps against its limit; and huge mandatory spending cuts — half targeting defense — are set to kick in. All this could trigger another recession, but Congress is unlikely to do much about it until after November's election.

Not sure what to read? NPR's Susan Stamberg asked three booksellers to share their top five picks for the books you shouldn't miss — tales of con artists, grade-school spies, refugees and ranchers.

A mass tax revolt is under way in Ireland, and hundreds of thousands of people have resolved to break the law and refuse to pay a newly-introduced levy on households. The tax is $125 a year, but protesters say it could lead to larger property taxes in the future.

The sophistication of congressional speech-making is on the decline, according to the open government group the Sunlight Foundation. Since 2005, the average grade level at which members of Congress speak has fallen by almost a full grade.

The former lead guitarist of the legendary band Guns N' Roses is a musician with a sound and look all his own. After all the success — and vice — Slash says he's still a work in progress.

The conference finals are underway in the National Hockey League playoffs. In the East, the New York Rangers will face the New Jersey Devils Monday. In the West, the Los Angeles Kings have won Game 1 — beating the Phoenix Coyotes 4-2.

You may think of surfers as slackers. But in Santa Cruz, Calif., they're city council members and business owners. And they're also conservationists — who just got their piece of the central California coast named a World Surfing Reserve.

It's graduation season at colleges and universities around the country. We hear selections of commencement addresses culled from decades past.

Famous for his collaborations with Miles Davis, Evans brought orchestral colors and textures to jazz, and was a pioneer of the "cool" sound.

The first high-speed Amtrak trains outside of the Northeast Corridor are racing through parts of Michigan at 110 mph. But President Obama's ambitious high-speed rail initiative is otherwise in a slowdown mode, since lawmakers and some governors have not embraced the program.