All Things Considered

While the news out of Syria focused on the use of chemical weapons and what, if anything, the U.S. should do about it, the war in Syria continues daily. Host Jacki Lyden talks with NPR's Kelly McEvers about the latest developments.

James Fallows, national correspondent with The Atlantic, talks to host Jacki Lyden about the effects of federal budget cuts, the return of the Dreamliner passenger jet and the latest news from Syria.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner was supposed to be a game changing new aircraft, but battery problems grounded the fleet, costing Boeing an estimated $600 million. Now the Federal Aviation Administration has approved a fix to the battery issue, and the first Dreamliner will return to the skies this weekend in Africa. Ethiopian Airlines is relaunching the "continent's first" Dreamliner in its effort to distinguish itself in the increasingly competitive, increasingly crowded African aerospace market.

Audie Cornish talks to regular political commentators E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution, and David Brooks of The New York Times. They discuss Syria, the immigration reform bill and the opening of George W. Bush's Presidential Center.

The U.S. Navy is planning to expand training exercises off California and Hawaii, citing the need for military readiness. That's raising concerns about threatened whales and marine mammals, because sonar is known harm and, in some cases, kill them. The state of California is fighting the Navy's plan.

The failure of the FBI and the CIA to keep track of Tamerlan Dsarnaev in the months preceding the Boston Marathon bombing has prompted criticism that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials ignored important warning signs. The case is reminiscent of criticism leveled at counterterrorism officials after Army Maj. Nidal Hasan's shooting rampage at Fort Hood Texas in November 2009 and after the al-Qaida-directed attempt to blow up a civilian airliner on Christmas Day of that year. In both cases, counterterrorism officials subsequently acknowledged that mistakes had been made. Whether authorities missed important evidence of Dsarnaev's intentions, however, is far less clear. Veteran intelligence officers say resource and legal constraints make it very difficult to follow suspicious individuals closely unless their behavior is genuinely alarming.

Robert Siegel talks to Boston Globe metro reporter Eric Moskowitz about the man who was carjacked by the Tsarnaev brothers last week. The carjack victim's escape was pivotal to tracking the suspects down, and may have stopped them from launching another attack in New York City.