NPR News

The deeper we get into our search for the albums everyone can love, the more intriguing our findings become. For example, last week's poll, shows us that a solid majority of you don't care for the Guns N' Roses album Appetite For Destruction, even though it was a huge record when it first dropped in 1987.

A report (pdf) released today by Human Rights Watch accuses the government of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela of consolidating power in the executive branch and using that power to intimidate his opponents.

"The accumulation of power in the executive, the removal of institutional safeguards, and the erosion of human rights guarantees have given the Chávez government free rein to intimidate, censor, and punish Venezuelans who 'offend' the president or obstruct his political aims," the report found.

Following the FDA approval of Truvada — the once-a-day pill that can drastically lower a person's risk of contracting HIV — Audie Cornish talks with Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. They examine the status of HIV prevention efforts in the U.S. today — what progress has been made and the challenges that still ahead. El-Sadr has worked on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment since 1981.

Folk-pop singer-songwriter Damien Jurado has come a long way since he first started self-releasing lo-fi folk recordings on cassette. Jurado has been making music since the early '90s, and he recently released his 10th studio album, Maraqopa — his second produced by best friend and Secretly Canadian labelmate Richard Swift.

Already among the animals that may be added to the list of those protected by the Endangered Species Act, the weasel-like fisher now faces this deadly threat:

Rat poison that illegal marijuana growers put out to protect their crops in California.

Several presidential battleground states are moving quickly to reach agreements with federal officials to access a U.S. immigration database to purge noncitizens from voter rolls.

The states, including some with large Latino populations, are following Florida, which last week reached its own pact with the Department of Homeland Security to use a database that contains information about immigrants who are in the U.S. legally. The states' efforts had initially been blocked by DHS until the agency relented.