"There's a lot of memories here, some good, some bad," says Smith, while reflecting on his years working at the now defunct Solid Energy mine in Pike County. Rich-Joseph Facun for NPR hide caption
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Sarah Witter fractured two bones in her lower left leg while skiing in Vermont last February. She had two operations to repair the damage. The second surgery was needed to replace a metal plate that broke after it was implanted. Matt Baldelli for KHN hide caption
CBS announced on Monday it will not pay out a controversial $120 million severance package to former CEO Leslie Moonves. The company said it had ample reason to fire the disgraced executive for cause. Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images for Showtime hide caption
Manuel flexes at the match on Saturday in Indio, Calif. Texas Isaiah hide caption
Oyster harvests in the Gulf of Mexico have been in decline for decades. Tyler Jones/UF/IFAS Photo by Tyler Jones hide caption
Ret. Sgt. Christopher Kurtz and his wife Heather Kurtz pose for a portrait on the couch in their living room on Dec. 10, 2018. Erica Brechtelsbauer for NPR hide caption
Dutch innovator Boyan Slat poses for a portrait next to the anchors of his plastic collecting system in 2017. The trash collection device deployed to corral plastic litter floating is not capturing any garbage. Peter Dejong/AP hide caption
A U.S. park ranger gives a visitor suggestions of other nearby places he can visit while Joshua Tree National Park was shutdown in 2013. Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Know Your Washington Buzzwords
Holiday decorations adorn the letters on the toll booths at the Holland Tunnel last week in Jersey City. Julio Cortez/AP hide caption
A Facebook posting, released by the House intelligence committee, for a group called "Secured Borders." It and others like it were created by Russian specialists posing as Americans. Jon Elswick/AP hide caption
The "Medicaid Drug Decisions Transparency Act" would require pharmaceutical companies to disclose their payments to pharmacists and others who serve on state Medicaid drug boards — the advisory groups that decide which drugs Medicaid will and won't cover. Gary Waters/Ikon Images/Getty Images hide caption
Sen. Cory Booker Calls For More Transparency In Medicaid Drug Decisions
The Center for Public Integrity
In the story "The Mole and the Sun," Mole's mother is sick. A medical seer tells him she will recover if his friend Ya Sun can orbit the earth in the opposite direction that it's rotating. The sobering moral is that you can't go against the rules of nature. Pieter Henket hide caption
Sale Tambaya, a cattle herder in central Nigeria, grazes his cows. After his home state criminalized open grazing in November 2017, he and his family fled with their livestock to a neighboring state where grazing is allowed. Two of his sons died on the journey. Tim McDonnell for NPR hide caption
The German government has agreed to make a one-time payment to Kindertransport survivors, commemorated by a statue in Berlin, Germany. Markus Schreiber/AP hide caption
A Toy Monkey That Escaped Nazi Germany And Reunited A Family
The Goldman Sachs headquarters in Manhattan, as shown on Dec. 17. Malaysia has filed criminal charges against Goldman Sachs and two of its former executives on Monday over their alleged role in the ransacking of a multibillion-dollar state investment fund. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
Dermot Kennedy was voted 2018's Best New Artist by listeners. Daniel King/Courtesy of the Artist hide caption
Google says it will lease office space at three spots in the West Village to create a new campus for thousands of workers in New York City. Here, a pedestrian passes by 345 Hudson Street, one of the buildings Google will be using. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption
The 46P/Wirtanen comet, as seen through a telescope in France on Dec. 3, is currently making an unusually close pass by Earth. It will be visible, if weather allows, until Dec. 22. Nicholas Biver/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
