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It's hunting season in Canada's British Columbia, but instead of tracking down wild game, hundreds of pickers are on the trail of the precious Matsutake or "pine mushroom," that's in season now. Kelly McEvers reports on the Japanese delicacy that used to cost $300 per pound.

No American has won an Olympic medal in cross country skiing since 1976, but Anchorage skier Kikkan Randall could change that in Vancouver this February. The 26-year-old is now leading a revival for U.S. prospects in the sport.

After vocal GOP opposition to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, three prominent Republican governors recently signed-on to one key element of the law. NPR Political Junkie Ken Rudin and NPR health policy correspondent Julie Rovner explain on the shifting politics of health care.

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/whqr/local-whqr-519670.mp3Bald Head Island, NC – Scientists hope to fit four of Bald Head's nesting…

Apple growers in New England are looking to hard cider as a way to beat dropping prices and foreign competition. The fermented cider was the drink of choice for the nation's founding fathers.

Hurricane Wilma has grown rapidly grew from a tropical storm with 70 mph winds to a Category Five hurricane, the most rapidly strengthening hurricane recorded. It's expected to weaken before possibly making landfall on Florida's west coast over the weekend. Christopher Landsay at the National Hurricane Center in Miami discusses Wilma.

As drought and high temperatures continue to devastate much of the country's corn and soybean crops, the USDA reports that food prices will continue to rise at least into 2013. NPR senior business editor Marilyn Geewax and The Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown discuss the rising cost of food.

Susan Stamberg presents the year's best books, picked by independent booksellers around the country. Selections range from gritty, free-verse fairy tales to ballerina photographs and a grim Southern story about a small town that would rather its ghosts remain at rest.

For nearly 700 years, Billingsgate fish market has stood on the banks of the Thames, and many of its traditions remain. One of those traditions is enshrined in the work of the porters who deliver the fish. City officials wants to scrap a Victorian-era law, under which the porters are licensed, opening their jobs to all-comers. The porters, who are all union members, are furious, and have launched a campaign to save their jobs.

By Megan V. WilliamsWilmington, NC – North Carolina's on-going drought may be providing a silver lining for the state's law enforcement, by slowing down…