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Mitt Romney spoke at a shuttered factory in Lorain County, Ohio, Thursday. He was giving a response to President Obama, who spoke in the same county a day before. Romney blamed the president for failing to turn around the economy and re-open the factory. Ari Shapiro tells Melissa Block Ohio is once again expected to be a battleground state.

One day after President Obama delivered a speech on the U.S. economy in Lorain County, Ohio, Mitt Romney went there Thursday to respond to the president. Romney is chasing the president to accuse the incumbent of failing to live up to his campaign promises.

Longtime Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch faced a contentious and much-watched state convention Saturday, two years after fellow Republican Bob Bennett was ousted from office at the same event for not being conservative enough. NPR's Howard Berkes reports.

Terrence Jennings has earned one of two spots for American men to compete in taekwondo in the Summer Olympics. He recently paid a visit to the martial arts school that helped him get started in the sport. But Jennings, 25, says that a certain group of animated reptiles also played a role in his career.

In a little more than 10 years, the total amount of student loan debt in this country has doubled to more than $1 trillion. While soaring student debt won't likely start another banking crisis, the problem could slowly drag down future economic growth.

At the same time gasoline prices are soaring, the cost of electricity is falling. The reason? Cheap and plentiful natural gas. A utility in Massachusetts has just sliced rates by 34 percent. Coming out of a recession, the lower electricity prices are quietly boosting the economy and providing some welcome savings to businesses and families.

The number of Americans who call themselves independents is at a record high. But they're not the huge, impressionable bloc of swing voters you might think.

The NCAA men's basketball tournament is down to its Final Four teams, and they are four famous basketball programs. The women's Final Four starts Sunday night in Denver, with another quartet of traditional powerhouse. Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Tom Goldman about the games.

Norwegian scientists say as many as 1 in every 4 cases of breast cancer doesn't need to be found because it would never have caused symptoms or death. They also question a fundamental justification of mammography: that it finds more cancers when they're early and more curable.

The northeast coast of Japan has an older population, fewer jobs and more tsunamis than the rest of the country. The regional economy had been declining long before last year's disaster. Many people say in order to survive, the region needs to remake itself.