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The 113th Congress has come to be defined more by what it failed to do than what it did. But the two warring parties controlling either end of Capitol Hill managed to accomplish a few things in 2013.

Only a rare few people have the ability to remember everything that happened in their lives. But that gift can seem like a curse, they say, keeping them marooned in the past and unable to enjoy the present. Forgetting, it seems, can be a good thing.

Mountain lions are slowly making a comeback, but they live at constant risk of getting hit by cars or shot. In Santa Cruz, Calif., one project tracks how the lions live — and it's already helping to protect the big cats nationwide.

NPR's Jason Beaubien and David Gilkey have covered calamities all over the globe. But the recent aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines was particularly daunting. Jason describes the extreme challenges they faced.

Beyond drastically curtailing a safety-net for jobless workers, allowing the benefits to expire sets up a major political fight for the coming new year.

David Edelstein says it was a "miraculous year" for movies. David Bianculli says two Netflix shows this year changed the game. Maureen Corrigan says it's just a fluke that 9 of the 11 titles she picked were written by female authors. And Ken Tucker picks his 10 favorite albums.

Jews, Muslims and tourists just trying to avoid sunburn all have their own distinct headwear in Jerusalem. NPR's Emily Harris takes us on a shopping tour in the Holy Land.

Nearly 29,000 homes in Michigan still have no electricity — down from 200,000 after last week's ice storms. And more snow expected in New England could raise the number of those in the region without power.

In April, we heard from combat veteran Tomas Young, who had suffered a gunshot to the spine in Iraq in 2004. His condition had degraded to the point that he chose to end his care and wait to die. But since then, Young had a change of heart. "I just came to the conclusion that I wanted some more time with my wife," he says.

This year was lauded by many news outlets as an incredible year for black films. CNN heralded "Hollywood's African-American Renaissance;" The New York Times called 2013 a "a breakout year for black films." Shani Hilton, deputy editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, talks to NPR's Arun Rath about why she think those assertions are overstated.