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With the silent film The Artist in competition for this year's Best Picture Oscar, Bob Mondello has been thinking about the pre-talkie era. As it happens, the last silent film to win for Best Picture has just been released on Blu-ray: the 1927 flying-ace epic Wings.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says U.S. troops hope to begin transitioning from a combat role in Afghanistan to a role that focuses on training Afghan troops instead. The transition could happen sooner than expected — possibly by mid- to late-2013. U.S. troops would still remain in Afghanistan through at least the end of 2014, however. Audie Cornish talks to NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman, who has the latest.

Senate Democrats are calling for a probe into superPAC fundraising. The announcement comes a day after release of the new political action committees' fourth-quarter 2011 fundraising, and after Republican Mitt Romney's Florida primary victory — which was fueled in part by superPAC ads.

The split between the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a breast cancer charity, and Planned Parenthood appears to mark a new chapter in the ongoing abortion war.

The state is part of New England, but many of its football fans pick the N.Y. Giants over the Pats. "Way back when, they were the only game in town," one fan says of the days before the Patriots came to the area in 1960. But feelings run deep on both sides — and nothing reveals that like a Super Bowl.

Weather and tree branches cause 40 percent of U.S. power outages, which get people talking about installing underground lines — but they balk at the price. But analysts say no one's paying attention to how much it really costs to keep repairing aboveground lines, and that should matter.

The host and executive producer of the long-running show died Wednesday morning.

Dozens of abortion restrictions passed in the states during 2011 — nearly a record since the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. This year, anti-abortion groups say they'll focus on bills that would ban abortions at 20 weeks, limit insurance coverage and grant constitutional rights to embryos.

Audie Cornish talks to Mike Inchalik about the late John D. Lowry, a technology innovator whose work restored classic films such as Casablanca and Gone with the Wind to a pristine state for DVD release. Inchalik was Lowry's business partner and friend for 15 years.

The new, multimillion-dollar Democratic push to mobilize voters of color in 2022 includes voter protection and combating disinformation. Republicans had some gains with nonwhite voters in 2020.