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The characteristics of gun violence in the U.S. are largely unknown because key federal health agencies have been banned from conducting such research since the mid-1990s.

President Obama, however, wants to change that.

President Obama's choice to take over at the Department of the Interior comes from the business world. Sally Jewell is the CEO of outdoor equipment supplier REI.

"For Sally, the toughest part of this job will probably be sitting behind a desk," the president said when introducing his nominee Wednesday. "I suspect she'll want to get out of the office quite a bit."

Before Jewell took the reins at REI, she worked in the financial industry at Washington Mutual. Before that, she was an engineer in the oil business, with Mobil.

Sometime in the mid-1960s — no one's really sure when — Lena Hughes walked into a recording studio, probably in Arkansas. What we do know is that she recorded 11 tunes on the guitar.

"It's kind of like listening to 1880," folklorist Howard Marshall says. "You kind of get a wonderful, ancient vibration."

Marshall wrote a book about traditional music in Missouri, called Play Me Something Quick and Devilish.

Update at 8:06 p.m. ET. Card Sells For $80,000

The nearly 150-year-old Brooklyn Atlantics baseball card that was was discovered late last year in a photo album bought at a yard sale has sold for $80,000 — $92,000 if you count the auction house's buyer's premium.

Areas from New York to Maine could be in store for a record-breaking nor'Easter, this weekend.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the forecast is tricky, but "the coming storm looks to be as close to a meteorologist's worst nightmare as can be imagined."

The paper continues:

Police in Texas have charged Eddie Ray Routh, a 25-year-old U.S. Marine reservist, with capital murder. Arrest records indicate that Routh had been twice taken to a mental hospital in recent months, and had told police he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

What could go wrong?

The uncertainty surrounding the Pentagon's budget means it will not deploy a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced today.

NPR's Tom Bowman reports that Panetta is also proposing pay cuts for troops. Tom filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"The recommendation by Secretary Panetta mean that those in uniform could get a 1 percent pay hike next year, instead of 1.7 percent. But a final decision would rest with Congress.

The vice president of the soccer club AC Milan, who is also Silvio Berlusconi's younger brother, has unleashed another racism scandal.

During a political rally, Paolo Berlusconi referred to one of his players, Mario Balotelli, by using the "N" word.