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Gore Vidal, novelist, playwright, essayist and social commentator, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. Author Chris Bram remembers his singular personality and enormous social, literary and political impact.

A day after they were turned away by Syrian security forces, U.N. monitors reach the village where 78 people were believed slaughtered on Wednesday.

Host Scott Simon speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tim Weiner, who wrote two books on the security services, about the FBI's role in the investigation into generals David Petraeus and John Allen. Weiner says the one possible crime is the conduct of an FBI agent who brought information to Congress.

The judges are expected to make a decision by late August, and a lot of people outside Texas are interested in the outcome. A number of states have passed voter ID laws, and several await Justice Department "preclearance." If Texas loses, it will almost certainly appeal to the Supreme Court.

Democrats in the Senate have failed to break a Republican filibuster on a bill that would force non-profit social welfare groups advertising in federal campaigns to disclose their donors. Such groups are keeping GOP presidential challenger Mitt Romney competitive in the TV ad campaign against President Obama..

Tea Party activists say the Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act will inspire passion in many conservative circles ahead of the November presidential election.

The "iPad mini" will directly compete with similar tablets made by Amazon and Google. It is the first new product released under the leadership of Tim Cook.

Lawmakers have barely seven weeks to prevent automatic tax hikes as well as mandatory across-the-board spending cuts that could be a blow to the economy. Congressional hearings on the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, meanwhile, will likely be overshadowed by former CIA chief David Petraeus' career-ending extramarital affair.

Republicans claim President Obama's plan to raise taxes on the wealthy will cost the economy 700,000 jobs. Another study from the Congressional Budget Office puts the number of lost jobs as 200,000. But both studies also assume millions of new jobs will be created.

The fur started to fly when Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov told his 1.8 million Instagram followers that his cat is missing. Then the HBO host got involved and turned the saga into Internet catnip.