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Credit card companies' practice of charging excessive interest rates hurts consumers — and it should be illegal, says financial historian Charles Geisst. The author of a new book about consumer debt, Geisst says one small change helped to shift attitudes about debt: what we call it.

Warmer air temperatures have triggered the collapse of an enormous ice shelf along the coast of Antarctica, scientists say.

Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., respected as one of the nation's lead scholars, was arrested last week on his porch in Cambridge, Mass., after authorities mistook him for reported a burglar, described to police as a black male. But although Gates presented identification as a resident of the home, he was still taken into custody. Charles Ogletree, Gates' attorney, discusses the case and why his client believes he was racially profiled.

Did President Obama overstep his bounds when he stepped into the debate over Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s altercation with police at Gates' Cambridge, Mass., home? NPR news analyst Juan Williams tells host Scott Simon that Obama's handling of the controversy has hurt the president in the eyes of the nation.

The final details of the government program that encourages people to trade in older, gas-guzzling cars for more fuel-efficient ones will be released Friday. But car dealers have been using the program to sell cars for weeks.

This week, Starbucks opened a remodeled café, and a key ingredient was missing. Not Caffe Verona Blend or Iced Grande Lattes, but the name — a name that may now be better known in the U.S. than any car company. Host Scott Simon talks with ad critic Barbara Lippert of AdWeek magazine about why the company is trying this new strategy.

The Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up Thursday its questioning of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Republican senators asked Sotomayor again whether she would rule on cases based on her beliefs, and she assured them she would apply the law and court precedent.

President Obama is taking his argument for a health care overhaul to the American people this week. Obama hosted Thursday a town hall-style meeting in Cleveland. In Washington, however, the fate of an overhaul is uncertain. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said there will not be a vote on health care before the August recess.

President Obama has said health care will top his agenda for the next several weeks in hopes of getting a bill through each house of Congress by the august recess. Although he praised lawmakers Wednesday for moving forward on health care overhaul, there is still a long way to go.

FBI agents fanned out across northern New Jersey today and made arrests in a corruption investigation that includes two mayors. Officials say politics and religion were used to cloak crimes and enrich the suspects.