Parents who have their kids placed in foster care often get a bill to reimburse the state for part of the cost. NPR found that in at least 12 states there are laws that say parents could lose their kids forever if they fail to pay it.

We hear about one family in North Carolina who had a child taken away because of an unpaid bill. And NPR investigative correspondent Joseph Shapiro takes a closer look at the laws behind such cases.

In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.

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In Some States, An Unpaid Foster Care Bill Could Mean Parents Lose Their Kids Forever

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Americans often rank the economy as a number one voting issue. As part of NPR's "We the Voters" series we check back in with four Americans we've been following since the pandemic.

They share how they're faring in a the current economy, and how that might influence the positions they take in the 2024 presidential election.

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How voters from different economic sectors see the 2024 election

The broad outlines of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case have been known for months. 

Hush money payments to a former porn star made in 2016, when Trump was a presidential candidate. Bragg alleges Trump was involved in a scheme to cover up those payments, one that amounted to criminal fraud.

Now we're getting a more detailed outline of their arguments – and Trump's defense.  

We break down the legal case at the center of the political universe.

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Breaking down the legal case at the center of the political universe

For the last 60 years a transportation revolution has largely passed America by. 

Bullet trains were invented in Japan in the early 1960s. Since then, countries all over the world have adopted the technology and constructed sprawling networks of high speed rail lines. 

Despite spending billions of dollars in federal funding, he U.S. lags far behind. But a recent visit from Japan's Prime minister has revived interest in bullet train projects around the country. 

One of those projects is in Texas – a proposed high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas.

NPR's Andrew Limbong speaks with Dallas Morning News mobility and transportation reporter Amber Gaudet about what it will take to get Texas' high-speed rail project completed, and what it could mean for high-speed rail in America.

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The push to deliver high-speed rail to Texas

Civil War, the new A24 film from British director Alex Garland, imagines a scenario that might not seem so far-fetched to some; a contemporary civil war breaking out in the United States.

And while the film has taken heat for little mention of politics, the question of an actual civil war has everything to do with it. 

Amy Cooter is a director of research at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Her work has led her to the question that Garland's movie has put in the minds of both moviegoers and political pundits: Could a second civil war really happen here? 

Cooter joins host Andrew Limbong to discuss the actual threat of current political movements in the U.S., outside of the movie theaters.  

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Is this fictitious civil war closer to reality than we think?

Back in 1999 when Donald Trump was flirting with a presidential run, he was pro-abortion rights.  In an interview on Meet the Press with NBC's Tim Russert, the New York real estate developer said he didn't like abortion, but he wouldn't ban it.

Fast forward almost two decades, and Trump was running for the republican presidential nomination, and he had a very different stance on abortion, even suggesting in an MSNBC town hall meeting that women should be punished for seeking abortions.

Trump ultimately won the presidency with the support of white Evangelical voters, many of whom wanted to see Roe v. Wade overturned.  Six years after he won, the Supreme Court justices Trump appointed helped deliver exactly that.

Now as Trump mounts another run for the White House, abortion rights are on the ballot and winning. And Trump has once again evolved his stance on abortion.  Is it a political calculation?

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In Some States, An Unpaid Foster Care Bill Could Mean Parents Lose Their Kids Forever

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