The Art of Medicine

A new center at Capitol Hill is set to open to the public on December 2. With its $621 million price tag and delays in construction, it has been clouded in controversy.

The crowd reacts to President-elect Obama during his victory speech.

Members of the Green Valley Aquabelles, a synchronized swimming club, practice at the East End Recreation Center.

Walking through historic Polk Place at the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill.

Cement foundations and empty streets are all that remains in parts of the once bustling Lower Ninth Ward.

Journey to a Dark Past Japanese-Americans rally to preserve wartime internment camps

The Madivala street market in the southern part of Bangalore offers a near-limitless variety of produce along a major commuter route. Cud-chewing cows stand placidly among parked cars.

Gen. David Petraeus testifies during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Petraeus called for an open-ended suspension of U.S. troop withdrawals this summer, asserting that an overly rapid withdrawal would jeopardize recent security gains.

Demonstrators converged on cities across the country March 19, 2008, to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. U.S. News photographer Charlie Archambault covered protests in Washington, D.C. Here, participants in the March of the Dead pause near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.

Hillary rally Univer. Toledo on March 3, 2008

John McCain greets supporters at a campaign rally at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, while his wife, Cindy, looks on.

Hartford, Conn.

Hillary Clinton greets a crowd at GFW Aeroservices Inc. in Nashua, N.H.

A Hillary Clinton supporter braves the cold outside a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Huckabee supporters gather to celebrate the former Arkansas governor's victory at the Iowa caucuses.

Construction continuing down the street from Randy and Lacy Sullivan's home, in the Reunion development northeast of downtown Denver, serves as a constant reminder of the competition the father and daughter face as they try to sell their three-bedroom house before the bank forecloses on it.

Mitt Romney participates in a discussion about enforcement of immigration laws at the Carroll Country Club in Carroll, Iowa. Romney has a powerful organization, lots of money, a conservative philosophy, and an engaging personality, so he can't be counted out. Yet the talk lately has focused on two names--Mike Huckabee and Sen. John McCain.

A life-size cut out of Sen. Barack Obama is carried outside Veterans Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa after the Jefferson Jackson dinner.

Veterans Day 2007 marks the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The slabs of polished black granite that make up "the wall" are engraved with the names of more than 58,000 Americans killed or missing in that conflict. Each name was read aloud at the commemoration, a feat that took about 65 hours. Thousands of veterans came to Washington to bear witness, to reminisce, and to heal.

October 22, 2007-Santa Clarita Valley, CA-Firefighters work against fast moving wild fires in the hills of this community an hour's drive north-east of Los Angeles.

Hillary Clinton stands by the presidential limousine in the driveway of the White House in 1998.

People pick through a pile of corn at a farmers market in downtown Dubuque August 12, 2007.

4-year-old Makenna Franks was born with a condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. On Day 5 of her life, she had her first of three planned heart procedures, the first two to keep her alive until she was robust enough for the final one. Six months after having her first surgery, she had her second one. Now it's time for the third.

Russell Sherman aboard the Lady Jane in Glouchester MA. Inside the pilothouse,at the wheel...photos of his mom (the boat is her namesake) and dad and a four leaf clover that his mother found. Scenes around the Glouchester Fishermans Memorial on the waterfront.

John Edwards greets a crowd gathered at Hill House to hear him speak.

Elizabeth Edwards has a chat at the farmers' market in the historic Court Avenue district of Des Moines. Edwards toured the popular market greeting shoppers and vendors.

The briefing room at the White House

Patient hugs a "heart" pillow the day after open-heart surgery. The pillow helps ease the discomfort of coughing, which is vital to keep mucus and fluids from collecting in the lungs, and possibly cause pneumonia.

Less than two months after his knee replacement surgery, Christian Kuerner is in the Hospital for Special Surgery's Leon Root, M.D. Motion Analysis Laboratory so that the movements of his restored knee can be analyzed.

Pfc. Justin Pinna, 19 (left) and Spc. Jordan Brown, 22, listen as Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba USA (Ret.) delivers opening remarks during a ceremony to award the Purple Heart to 20 soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., June 29. Walter Reed held its first ceremony for Purple Hearts awarded in connection with Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in February 2005. Since then, approximately a dozen such ceremonies have been held there.

Senator Obama holds a rally in the town square of Fairfield, Iowa.

Bill and Hillary Clinton march along Main Street during a Fourth of July parade in Clear Lake. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney also took part in the town's festivities.

Scenes from presidential announcement rallies held around SC by Republican presidential hopeful John McCain.

A driver wrestles with slow moving evening traffic on a Los Angeles freeway.

Students embrace as they gather to enter the convocation ceremony at Cassell Coliseum on the campus of Virginia Tech one day after a gunman shot and killed 32 people before turning the gun on himself.

In a remote village in the Kabuye area of southern Rwanda, a coffee farmer stands outside her home. Coffee is Rwanda’s largest export, but it is only in recent years that the country has entered the gourmet coffee market.

Espresso drips into a demitasse cup at Victrola Coffee Roasters. Victrola Coffee Roasters on Capitol Hill, Seattle, prides itself on beautiful lattes and great coffee.

Attendees walk the floor of the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Orlando. The event networks thousands of Christian communicators, from program producers to authors, pastors to engineers, directors to vendors, emphasizing strategy and innovation to tap the power of new media ministry models.

The perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby transfixed the nation's capital, especially those in the media and the White House. The close friend and aide to the vice president now faces prison time after a lengthy court case.

PHOTO ESSAY: Democrats' Gamble. Nevada's caucus is in the pole position. It is an unusual place to entrust the candidacy: with legal gambling and prostitution, and desolate hinterlands. (Jim Lo Scalzo for USN&WR)

PHOTO ESSAY: Vermont's War. The state of Vermont, where nearly three quarters of residents oppose the Iraq war, has the nation's highest per capita death rate in the conflict. (Charlie Archambault for USN&WR)

Workers at the Little Sioux Corn plant in Marcus, Iowa stand by a mound of dried distillers grain, a byproduct of ethanol that can be used as cattle feed.

Protesters walk along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during an immigration rally, one of dozens of rallies held nationwide, April 10, 2006. Protestors called for comprehensive immigration reform that does not criminalize undocumented immigrants.

Alzheimer's has devastating effects on midlife patients. As better diagnostic tests lead to earlier detection, researchers are recognizing that dementia is an equal-opportunity destroyer. (12/1/06)

The Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission led by co-chairs James Baker and Lee Hamilton, issued a blunt and bleak assessment, warning that the situation is "grave and deteriorating." (12/6/06)

Robert Gates, President Bush's choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, telling senators the United States is not winning the war. (12/5/06)

Before the 2006 midterm elections, Sen. John McCain of Arizona spent time in Michigan, New Hampshire, and Tennessee campaigning for fellow Republicans. He told a crowd in Lancaster, N.H. he was "spending every waking moment" helping Republicans get elected. (11/13/2006)

Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has had to overcome being called a carpetbagger and political opportunist, campaigns in the Hudson Valley in New York. (11/13/2006)

Dissatisfaction with Bush administration policy in Iraq and scandals that have plagued the Republican Party drove voters to the polls on Election Day 2006, and some venerable Republicans out of office. (11/7/06)

A behind the scenes look at a president during a controversial war. (11/06/2006)

On a sparkling morning five years ago, America and the world changed. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 altered the country's political landscape, immediately changing the nation's attitude about just how safe we are within our own borders. (9/11/06)

Go behind the scenes of a real-life kidney exchange between strangers. (09/18/2006)

With wide-open presidential fields on both the Democratic and Republican sides for the first time in decades, and the caucuses less than 18 months off, this year's Iowa State Fair took on renewed importance. (8/18/06)

Downtown New Orleans serves as a backdrop to Freret Street at dusk.

People join hands along a levee near Claiborne Avenue in eastern New Orleans to mark the first anniversary of Katrina.

A flock of snow geese numbering 150,000 takes off from the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. They are migrating north to the Arctic tundra where they spend the spring and summer--and where they could come in contact with infected waterfowl from other continents.

The pro-life movements in Mississippi and South Dakota share a common goal: the closing of their state's last remaining abortion clinic. And yet their approaches couldn't appear more different. In Mississippi, pro-lifers have gathered on the streets of Jackson, waving placards and holding a mock funeral procession. In South Dakota, a state short on people but not on roads, the movement relies instead on an extensive collection of billboards. This picture was taken near Agar, S.D.

Antiabortion protesters, many of them members of the religious organization Operation Save America, gathered in Jackson, Miss., in mid-July to call for the closing of that state’s last remaining abortion clinic. (7/21/06)

A dressing is crafted for a patient with hand burns. A thin piece of pigskin (peeking from the end of the finger being wrapped) has been laid over the burn as a temporary graft. Such a graft relieves pain by keeping the raw tissue away from the bandaging; it also helps prevent infection by presenting a barrier to bacteria.

Patient Mickey Lawson points his finger while being prepared for brain surgery at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

Chuppies (the young generation of Chinese yuppies) are poised to become the world's most powerful consumer force within the next 20 years. This generation has known only stability and economic prosperity. (4/25/06)

Yemen, an impoverished Muslim nation on the Arabian Peninsula, became a surprising U.S. ally in the wake of September 11. Photographer David Butow traveled to the country to photograph the land and its people.

Short-track speed skating competitions are fast and spectacular as athletes fight gravity and one another.

This winter, U.S. News & World Report photographer Jim Lo Scalzo drove the length of the U.S.-Mexican border from El Paso, Texas, to San Diego, Calif. He exposed 35mm film in a modified, medium-format camera, which allowed the scenes to spread across the full width of the film. (3/10/06)