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More than half a million people are still living in tent camps in Haiti, and tons of quake rubble has yet to be cleared away. But two years after a massive earthquake leveled Haiti's capital and killed hundreds of thousands of people, optimism is beginning to bloom. The nation remains fragile, but reconstruction is picking up and the new government of President Michel Martelly has created a sense of relative stability.

Melissa Block and Audie Cornish read emails from listeners.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

William Janklow, a former Republican governor and congressman from South Dakota, died today at a Sioux Falls hospice center. He was 72 years old. Janklow announced in November he had an inoperable brain tumor.

In Mississippi, criticism continues to stream in after outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour pardoned more than 200 people. Some of those let go include murderers.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Now a snapshot of public health in Haiti two years after the earthquake.

I'm joined by Dr. David Walton of the non-profit group Partners in Health. He's directing the construction of a new hospital about 30 miles north of Port-au-Prince in Mirebalais.

Dr. Walton, welcome to the program.

DR. DAVID WALTON: Thank so much for having me.

BLOCK: Sounds like a big hospital that you're in the process of building; 320 beds, 180,000 square feet. What are your hopes for that hospital?