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Update at 2:13 p.m. ET. Life In Prison:

Jared Loughner, the 24-year-old who pleaded guilty to killing six people and wounding 13 others during a shooting spree at a congressional meet-and-greet in Tucson, Ariz., will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Loughner was sentenced today as a U.S. District Court in Tucson, Ariz.

Before the judge handed down his punishment, victims and their families addressed Loughner and the court.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

President Obama wins a second term. Democrats flip a handful of seats in both the House and the Senate, and Republicans begin a new round of soul-searching.

SIEGEL: It's only Wednesday but we have more than enough to talk about with our Friday regulars, EJ Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution and David Brooks of The New York Times. Welcome to both of you.

This presidential election attracted $1.5 billion in outside spending — TV ads, robocalls and other political activity by groups created to take advantage of the new rules of campaign finance law.

On the day after the voting, the track record of the groups, most of them conservative, is open to question.

Tuesday night was a rough one for Karl Rove. The GOP guru is the guiding light and chief fundraiser for the biggest outside spender: the twin groups American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS.

With most of the elections settled, the winners must now determine how they will deal with the impending "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax increases that happen in two months. David Welna reports.

In historic moves, Colorado and Washington state voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana on Tuesday. Its sale will be regulated and taxed, with some of the money going for drug education.

We report on the morning after the election in Ohio, a pivotal swing state in the presidential election.

Robert Siegel talks with Debbie Elliott as polls close in Florida.

Melissa Block talks to Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center about early exit poll results.