NPR News

On the western edge of Phoenix, it's easy to find vast tracts of empty land once prepped for two-by-fours and work crews. Utility stanchions emerge like errant whiskers from the desert floor.

This is the land of zombie subdivisions. Some experts believe up to 1 million dirt lots in central Arizona were in some stage of approval for new homes when the market crashed.

"It's tragic," says Realtor Greg Swann. "It's heartbreaking."

Urban planners are floating a radical solution for areas like this. It's known as "smart decline."

In 2011, IBM's stock rose more than tech hotshots Google and Apple. IBM is 100 years old, but it has totally remade its business for the 21st century.

"There is no such thing as an IBM PC," declares IBM managing partner Adam Klaber. More than 83 percent of their business is now services and software. The NYPD hired IBM to track crime. Telecom Bharti Airtel wanted to build wireless coverage in 16 African countries, so they went to IBM.

Oh, and which supercomputer became Jeopardy champion in 2011? IBM's Watson.

Opposition to the administration's overhaul of health care has almost become an article of faith with every Republican running for president.

Candidates promise to repeal the law and its less-than-popular requirement for most Americans to either have health insurance or to pay a penalty starting in 2014.

2011 has been a momentous year in the 30-year-old AIDS pandemic.

The big breakthrough was the discovery that antiviral drugs can prevent someone who's infected with HIV from passing the virus to others. It's nearly 100 percent effective. That led President Obama to declare earlier this month that the U.S. will expand HIV treatment in hard-hit countries by 50 percent.