President Obama's announcement that he will stick to his timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq; headlines.

At the beginning of his presidency, President Obama pledged to cease combat operations in Iraq by August 31st, 2010. As we near that deadline, Obama seems on track to keep his promise. By the end of this month, combat operations will cease, and only 50,000 support troops will remain in Iraq. By the end of 2011, the president says, they will all come home. 

As the U.S. prepares for a full drawdown of troops in Iraq, we check in with Lubna Naji, a recent graduate of Baghdad Medical School. She says she is less concerned with the withdrawal of troops from her country than the restoration of services like electricity and water supplies. Life there is "barely tolerable," she says.

Yesterday, we discussed how adoptees are not guaranteed access to their birth certificates. The law varies state by state, but adoption rights advocates are taking up the fight. They say that this access is key to understanding their own identities. Meanwhile, groups from the ACLU to Catholic charities want to keep the records sealed in order to protect the privacy of the mother. We hear from listeners, who had a lot to say.

Since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April, 205.8 million gallons of oil have gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the latest estimates by federal scientists. (Imagine a cube filled with oil, where each side is as long as an American football field.) In the months since the explosion, BP has made more than a dozen attempts to stop the flow of oil. Last night BP started a "static kill," a procedure that could permanently seal the well. 

What have scientists learned from this spill?  Can we prevent this from happening again? 

Mitch Miller is best known as the man with the well trimmed moustache and goatee, conducting a chorus of men singing familiar old songs.  Miller hosted "Sing Along With Mitch," in the early '60s. He died yesterday at the age of 99. What many people didn't realize, was how influential a role Miller played in the music industry as a producer.

"He invented the modern pop record," music historian, Elijah Wald says. "He realized that records were not just ways of preserving, but that records were like movies."

We all know we could stand to spend less time on our behinds, but did you know that too much sitting might actually kill you? In a new study published in the journal, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Tatiana Y. Warren, a PhD candidate at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health, found that cardiovascular health deteriorates significantly with increased sitting hours.

Director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Alicia Munnell considers whether its the economy or the individual that needs to change the retirement age; headlines.

65 has been the standard age for retirement in this country since 1935. But that specific age has come into question as states hit economic hardships and more and more people live longer. Lawmakers in about a dozen states are looking to increase the retirement age or modify the way benefits are given out. These states might increase the qualifying retirement age for state employees, despite the fact that public-sector workers already retire, on average, earlier than workers in the private sector. Is this fair? We're looking into what the "right" retirement age is in this new age of longer life span and tighter budgets. 

We want to know from you: Whether you've retired already or are just making plans, what is the retirement age for your household? And if you retired early during the boom years, how has it been going? What's a few extra years? 

New York Times finance reporter, Louise Story explains why Goldman Sachs is choosing not to put money into political advertising, despite the Supreme Court ruling that lessened restrictions. She also takes a closer look at why Fannie Mae stock, while worth little, is still trading heavily. 

Republicans are implementing different strategies in different states to challenge key parts of health care reform, specifically the part says, if you don't have insurance, you must buy it by 2014. In Missouri, there will be a ballot in the primaries today, and in Virginia, a judge has allowed the state's attorney general to file suit in court. 

The proposal for a new Islamic center to be built just two blocks from Ground Zero could move forward, today. New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission will most likely vote against granting protected status to the 152-year-old building, which would allow the proposed center to replace it.

This year marks 50 years of independence for 17 sub-Saharan African countries and, partly to honor this milestone, President Obama is hosting a three-day forum in Washington, D.C. with approximately 120 "young African leaders."  The event kicks off today and ends Thursday.

If you’ve read any of Jennifer Egan’s previous work, you know that her writing style is rarely predictable. In her new book, “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” she takes that unpredictability to a whole new level.