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Lawmakers have spent much of this year struggling to reach a deal that could get budget deficits under control. But the problem has been developing for at least a decade. In 2000, there was a $200 billion surplus.

Magpies and crows are well-known for their habit of collecting odds and ends in their nests. Not so very different, the thinking goes, from the way medieval cooks assembled ingredients for their pies.

Even as Congress' deficit-reduction supercommittee ran into a dead end this week, the resulting mandatory spending cuts were immediately targeted by interest groups and sympathetic lawmakers. No interest group stands to lose more than the defense industry.

Gov. Rick Scott has a new focus on the "River of Grass." His promise to work on restoration is welcome news to environmentalists and other concerned with the Everglades' future. Still, many are skeptical, given the big cuts to Everglades programs during the Republican's first year in office.

From comfort food to foraging to food trucks, we take a look at and round up the latest food trend lists for 2011 and 2012.

Barcelona and Real Madrid are two of the best soccer teams in the world. They're also bitter rivals, and when they met Saturday in the showcase El Clasico match-up, fans around the world turned out to watch the game. Reporter Jesse Hardman joined soccer enthusiasts at New York's Spanish Benevolent Society.

California software developer Octavio Good and his team won $50,000 for reassembling shredded documents. Host Audie Cornish talks to Good about the Pentagon-sponsored contest.

With the help of Vermont's governor, folk artist Bo Muller-Moore is contesting charges of trademark infringement from Chick-fil-A. The fast-food chain says Muller-Moore's "Eat More Kale" T-shirts too closely resemble its own "Eat Mor Chikin" ad campaign.

The International Monetary Fund used to bail out deadbeat nations in Latin America. Now, in a role reversal, the IMF's new director, Christine Lagarde, is seeking the region's help in containing Europe's worsening debt crisis. Officials in Brazil, now the world's seventh-biggest economy, say they're putting together an IMF loan. And Lagarde says the whole region can provide Europe with lessons on how to manage the economy.

Early results indicate that the incoming Parliament is likely to be dominated by Islamists. But two leading Islamist blocs — the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists — have little in common and are doing their best to undermine each other.