Morning Cram

From NPR: Compromise is suddenly the watchword in Washington, as negotiations over taxes, spending and entitlements begin in advance of another self-imposed deadline, popularly known as the "fiscal cliff." Automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts are slated for the first of the year, unless the president and Congress take action. Leaders on both sides say they are willing to meet in the middle, but that makes their constituents worry about what any compromise will cost them.

From NPR: Members of Congress are asking why the FBI and Justice Department didn't tell them earlier about an investigation into CIA Director David Petraeus. But the legal authority for reporting such sensitive information to lawmakers is murky.

From NPR: Jin Li is a professor at Brown University who compares the learning beliefs of Asian and U.S. children. She says that to understand why these two cultures view struggle so differently, it's good to step back and examine how they think about where academic excellence comes from.

From NPR: Far from the political theater of China's Communist Party Congress in Beijing this week is a cave that the country's next leader once called home. Just 15 at the time, Xi Jinping was sent by his family in Beijing to the remote rural village Liangjiahe in the hills of Shaanxi Province, hundreds of miles away, where for seven years he lived in a cave scooped out of the yellow loess hillsides.