NPR Topics: Story of the Day Podcast

Many black women in the U.S. have or know someone who has done domestic work. With an expanding black middle class, some find themselves conflicted: To hire help or not?

Elysha O'Brien calls herself a "Mexican white girl." Not just because of her ethnically ambiguous appearance, she says, but also because she can't speak Spanish. Fearing their children would experience discrimination if they spoke Spanish, her parents chose not to teach them their native tongue.

Some single baby boomers are moving into group houses, a college-era solution to their modern needs. Housemates share costs, socialize, and cheer each other on through life's thick and thin.

In Texas, it may be politically unwise to cross the governor, but some politicians and advocates in the poor Rio Grande Valley are starting to speak out in support of expanding Medicaid. Gov. Rick Perry opposes all parts of Obamacare.

There is one place in the country where a law enforcement agency can trace a gun found at a crime scene back to a buyer: the ATF's National Tracing Center in West Virginia. But the tracing process is usually tedious, involving multiple phone calls and searching, by hand, through paper records.

The IRS has admitted it flagged tax-exemption requests from groups with "Tea Party" or "Patriot" in their names starting in 2010. But some liberal groups and journalism organizations say their applications also faced long delays during the same period.

More than 5 million Americans currently have Alzheimer's disease, and the number is only going to increase — in part, due to aging baby boomers. But researchers say increased awareness and early detection is helping patients live with the disease.

Demand increased recently, leading to widespread shortages. An economics textbook would say ammo sellers should have raised prices rather than have empty shelves. But that hasn't happened.

Unlike cardiology and most other fields of medicine, psychiatry still hasn't developed discrete, biological tests for diagnosing illnesses of the mind. That's because the brain "hasn't yielded its secrets yet," one psychiatrist says.

For decades, the role of breadwinner was reserved for men, but today, more than a quarter of American working women earn more than their spouses. That means more fathers are opting to stay home with the kids.