HOLIDAYS WEEKENDS

Voters in Idaho, Utah and Nebraska approved ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid, overcoming roadblocks that had kept an estimated 300,000 people from obtaining coverage.

There are now 33 states that have legalized marijuana to some degree, and recreational pot use is now legal in 10 states, along with Washington, D.C.

It was a night with bragging rights and disappointments — a midterm election in which both parties took some lumps, but could also take some satisfaction. Rancor and wrangling are likely from now on.

A record-breaking year of female candidates and nominees will culminate in a record-breaking number of female legislators on Capitol Hill next year.

Christopher Watts, 33, had gone on television in August to call for the safe return of his wife and children. But the bodies of the three were later discovered dumped in an oil field.

The biggest story of the night is that Democrats took back the House. That will stop President Trump’s agenda in its tracks unless he compromises with the other side.

Politically conservative Catholics criticize Francis for being pro-migrant, anti-capitalist and less rigid in doctrine than predecessors. The cleric sex abuse scandals have emboldened these critics.

The Pentagon wants university researchers to find ways to protect crops in the field using infectious viruses carried by insects. Critics think it looks like bioweapons research.

Democrats made modest inroads on the GOP’s commanding lead in governors’ offices around the country. But did not fare well in marquee races in Florida and Georgia.

The state approved a key ballot initiative that will restore voting rights to citizens who have served sentences for certain crimes.

Lawmakers in at least three states will have less power to draw political boundaries, while automatic and same-day voter registration is coming in other places. New voter ID laws also got approved.

The next Congress will include the first Muslim women, the first Native American women, and the youngest woman ever elected to that body.

Democrats had a big victory — retaking the majority of the House for the first time since 2011. Senate Republicans expanded their Senate majority, with President Trump helping in key red states.

Despite raising more than $60 million and garnering national attention, O’Rourke was unable to overcome the GOP’s hold on the state.

The Republican clerk’s refusal to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples made her a flashpoint for controversy in 2015. Now, Davis has lost to her Democratic opponent.

Placing stickers on the suffragist’s gravestone has become a kind of pilgrimage for voters in Rochester, N.Y. With a record number of women running, the tribute has special significance this year.

Italy joins other western countries seeking to help the woman at the center of a simmering dispute between the government and hard-line religious groups.

You may be looking at early exit polls to see how the political winds are blowing. But exit polls are not very helpful in gauging turnout. And because so many people vote early, they are incomplete.

We asked voters to share their Election Day stories. Here’s what they told us.

The hotel chain has reached a tentative $7.6 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit. Motel 6 employees in multiple locations provided guests’ names to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The train had nobody on it. It was eventually deliberately derailed, creating a dramatic crash scene with huge lengths of crumpled, twisted metal on the desert sand next to the train track.

In court in Germany, Johann Rehbogen is charged with being an accessory in the murders of several hundred Jewish and Polish prisoners at the Stutthof concentration camp in the early 1940s.

A video posted by the U.S. Navy shows the Su-27 roaring alongside the American turboprop plane, “applying its afterburner while conducting a banking turn away.”

The surprising decision to divide the win is an anticlimactic ending for a much-hyped, Olympic-style search. The plan promised up to 50,000 new high-paying jobs and drew 238 bids.

American women are more likely to die from preventable childbirth complications than women in other developed countries. A group of obstetricians says hospitals can do a lot to change this.

The Justice Department has asked the court to decide whether the Trump administration can dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — without waiting for rulings from lower courts.

Did you vote? Did you vote early? Did you wait in line? NPR wants to hear your voting story! Your response could be used in an upcoming NPR story.

After the Pittsburgh mass killing, many are wondering how to turn extremists away from violence and hate. But there is very little research, and even less funding, to make that happen.