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The air quality level in China's capital, already famously poor, literally went off the charts on Saturday. Officials are warning people to stay indoors.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is open about how she benefited from affirmative action, how she came to terms with her diabetes and the "out-of-body experience" of being appointed to the high court. Sotomayor spoke with NPR just before the release of her new autobiography.

NPR's Scott Simon muses on momentous news this week — the Baseball Writers Association elected no one to the Hall of Fame. The shutout might be a classic reminder that cheating sometimes brings quick riches, but it can't buy respect.

It's not clear whether a French intelligence agent is dead or alive after a botched rescue attempt in Somalia on Saturday morning. The operation may have dangerous implications for other French hostages being held across Africa.

Jeanne Manford broke ground by speaking up for her son's rights as a gay man in the 1970s. She would go on to found the national support group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, better known as PFLAG. She died this week at the age of 92.

Actress Ann Dowd received huge acclaim for her role in the indie film Compliance. But the studio told her it didn't have money to lobby the Academy for a best supporting actress award for her. So Dowd did something exceedingly rare in Hollywood: She spent $13,000 on her own campaign.

With yet another impasse over the debt ceiling looming, the White House may be forced to mull some strange solutions, but it won't be a $1 trillion coin. Weekends on All Things Considered host Jacki Lyden speaks with James Fallows of The Atlantic about the other options on table.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist was editor of The Atlanta-Journal Constitution in the '60s and urged fellow Southern whites to support the civil rights movement. He died Saturday of complications from cancer.

President Obama's slate of nominees will have to be confirmed by the Senate, but those nominations could be held up by a filibuster threat. Democrats are trying to crack down on what they see as misuse of the filibuster, and it looks like Republicans may be willing to come to a deal.