September 3, 2010 | CPR · Sales in the outdoor gear industry are up more than 8 percent this year, topping retail sales overall. The industry's strength may be due to its consumers' high incomes, but the recession also has more people heading out into the wilderness.

September 3, 2010 | NPR · As a long Congo River barge journey ends, so, too, does a unique glimpse into the heart of a poor but potentially rich nation grappling with conflict. Despite the hardship, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo draw great inspiration from the inescapable and mighty river.

September 3, 2010 | NPR · This was supposed to be the season the economy heated up, thanks to a wave of public works projects funded by the government's stimulus program. But summer is coming to an end and the recovery has not taken root. Forecasters are expecting another gloomy employment report on Friday.

September 3, 2010 | NPR · Are you really going to have to have a computer chip implanted in your head as part of the new health law? Will the law allow President Obama to create his own private army? While there are outrageous rumors circulating about the health law, some claims are grounded in truth.

September 2, 2010 | NPR · An investigation is under way to determine the cause of an explosion Thursday on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. All 13 people aboard the rig were found floating in the water and rescued. The Coast Guard said initial reports of an oil sheen on the water could not be confirmed.

September 3, 2010 | NPR · George Clooney's latest outing showcases a more internal performance -- as an assassin whose personal life threatens to further complicate an already hard-to-manage career. Kenneth Turan says Anton Corbijn's drama is impeccably composed and beautifully shot -- if a little lacking on the emotional urgency front.

September 2, 2010 | NPR · Neither director Jean-Francois Richet's style nor star Vincent Cassel's swagger falters in Public Enemy Number One, the exhilarating follow-up to Mesrine: Killer Instinct. With its shootouts, prison breaks and wild flights of ego, the saga's second half was sure to be watchable. It's also smart, funny and incisive -- about the criminal and his era. (Recommended)

September 2, 2010 | NPR · Frequently moving and quietly enlightening, the documentary Last Train Home is about love and exploitation, sacrifice and endurance. Director Lixin Fan follows a single Chinese family from 2006 through the financial downturn of 2008. The parents work at garment factories in Guangzhou city; their teenage children live in an impoverished village and see their parents only once a year.

September 2, 2010 | NPR · Director Zhang Yimou takes on the Coen brothers, remaking Blood Simple and setting it in the 17th-century "Chinese outback." Adultery, bloody mishaps and Chinese superstition are just the appetizers in this colorful film.

September 2, 2010 | NPR · Robert Rodriguez directs Machete, featuring a character first introduced in a fake trailer that played during his 2007 exploitation flick Grindhouse..