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With unemployment at 9.1 percent and the economy as the top issue of the 2012 presidential race, the president faces a tough fight for re-election. Still, he might find some encouragement in the history books. Host Audie Cornish chats with presidential historian Michael Beschloss about Obama's odds for re-election.

New jobs numbers came out Friday, reporting employers added more than 100,000 workers to their payrolls. That's better than many forecasters were expecting, but not good enough for the 14 million Americans who are still out of work. NPR's Scott Horsley reports on what the numbers tell us about the economy and what they mean for President Obama.

The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza has risen to the top of the pack in the GOP presidential race. Herman Cain says the substance of his ideas — including his 9-9-9 tax plan — is propelling his surge. But analysts say he doesn't have the field organization that a winning candidate typically has.

The embryos would not be used for reproduction, but rather for the creation of embryonic stem cells. Many scientists believe that human embryonic stem cells made this way could revolutionize medicine.

The biggest thing on broadcast TV this fall is the NFL. It's beating the shiny new network shows and, get this, 13 of the top 15 broadcasts this fall were NFL games — the other two were Two and a Half Men. The NFL is killing on cable, too. AMC's The Walking Dead shattered records for a cable drama this year, with had an audience of more than 7 million viewers for its premiere. But another cable series that nearly doubles that number week in and week out is ESPN's Monday Night Football, averaging nearly 14 million viewers per game. It's not news that the NFL rocks the other sports in TV ratings, but for the past few years its ratings dominance has spread to all of TV. So why the rise? Are more women watching? Is it because it looks good in HD? Maybe it's because sports are made to be watched live?

Big changes in 2011 — from the Arab Spring to the death of North Korea's dictator — create opportunities for 2012. But change can be scary, even when the regimes to be replaced are unpopular or repressive, because there's never a guarantee the new regime will be better.

For the first time, scientists have estimated the amount of antibiotics pigs, chickens and cows consume globally — and how fast consumption is growing. Which country uses the most drugs on farms?

President Obama nominated Loretta Lynch to be his attorney general last November. Five months later, the full Senate finally voted to confirm her nomination Thursday.

There is a lot of money to be made in bringing underage kids to the U.S. and trying to make them the next Kobe. But what happens to the rest of them?

NPR's Tom Goldman joins host Linda Wertheimer to talk about the NBA playoffs — is a Cleveland championship in the offing? — and Kris Bryant's debut on the diamond with the Chicago Cubs.