Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news begins with a bleaker forecast from the Fed. Just when we were beginning to hear some more positive economic news, the Federal Reserve reminds us not to get too excited. It's predicting slower growth and less improvement in the unemployment rate through 2013 than previously expected. This news comes after a two-day meeting of the Fed's policy-making committee, in which it decided against taking new measures to stimulate the economy for now.

The battle for control of Wake County Schools in Raleigh, N.C., is at stake in a special runoff election set for next week. This small race is attracting national attention, and big money. The race has become a political hot spot that could help determine much larger elections in the state.

In the coming months, the Obama administration will decide whether to approve the Keystone pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Canada through the U.S. down to the Gulf of Mexico.

Environmental advocates will try to encircle the White House on Sunday in a show of solidarity against the project. Steady protests have made this one of the most high-profile environmental decisions of the Obama presidency.

White House spokesman Jay Carney often tries to distance the president from the decision-making process over the pipeline.

Students are borrowing more money to pay for college than ever before. New data shows that students who graduated in 2010 carried 5 percent more debt than in the previous year. And education debt is expect to grow in the coming years, as students struggle to pay higher tuition costs.

In a significant step in China's plan to build a space station, two of the country's spacecraft docked while orbiting Earth.

MSNBC reports:

After a two-day orbital chase, the Shenzhou 8 spacecraftlatched onto a prototype space lab module called Tiangong 1 at 1:30 p.m. ET (1:30 a.m. local time Thursday in China). Ten minutes later, the docking was complete.

Wed 11/2 7p: Blues Award winner and multiple Grammy nominee, Maria Muldaur, talks with Mary Oishi.

Thu. 11/24 8a: Where does our food come from? Since we pay close attention to so many aspects of food in the holiday season, host Majora Carter visits the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area, where Cheryl Rogowski, a fourth-generation farmer, grows 200 varieties of fruits and vegetables.

A former New Orleans police lieutenant has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for his role in a cover-up of deadly police shootings after Hurricane Katrina.

Michael Lohman faced a maximum of five years in prison after pleading guilty last year to conspiring to obstruct justice. Noting that Lohman cooperated in their case, prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle to limit his prison time to two years.

Lemelle rejected that recommendation, ordering Lohman to begin a four-year sentence on Jan. 2.

Thur. 11/24 9a: Help is on the way for Thanksgiving cooks, kitchen helpers and dinner guests on this, the biggest cooking day of the year.