Story of the Day

Twenty years ago, federal agents clashed with David Koresh's Branch Davidian community near Waco, Texas. The standoff ended with a raid and fire in which some 80 children, women and men perished. It's remembered as one of the darkest chapters in American law enforcement.

Relatively few people have enrolled in new health insurance plans since the Affordable Care Act exchanges launched this month. But some health care experts say it's early days yet — and that getting the right proportion of healthy, young new enrollees is just as important as how quickly people sign up.

A year after the storm, some families in New York City's hardest-hit neighborhoods have managed to rebuild their homes and their lives. Some are waiting to find out more about new building codes and flood insurance rates. And others are ready to sell their flood-damaged properties and move on.

Homebuilders are finding there's a post-recession demand for bigger houses, and it's partly thanks to boomerang kids who can't find jobs and aging parents who can't afford to live alone anymore.

NPR's Melissa Block speaks with director Peter Miller about his recent documentary, A.K.A. Doc Pomus, about the obscure songwriter behind Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas," The Drifters' "This Magic Moment" and many more pop hits.

One of the big questions now is what will happen if the federal health insurance website can't be fixed soon. Will the government penalize people for not having insurance if they couldn't realistically buy it?

A team led by Emily Thompson, a history professor at Princeton, has matched noise complaints from New York City in the Roaring '20s with the actual street sounds of the day.

When Congress voted to end the shutdown, the measure also included $2 billion for a troubled lock and dam project on the Ohio River. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a supporter of the project, has been attacked by hard-line conservatives who call it pork-barrel spending, but he says he didn't put it in the bill.

Conventional wisdom about early human evolution is that several species arose in Africa. But a skull found in the former Soviet state of Georgia could upend this idea. The discovery suggests that there may have been more variety in a single species than previously suspected.

The electric car company saw its stock fall this week after a video of its Model S ablaze went viral. But car analysts say the new car on the block should expect to get extra scrutiny. Consumers are watching closely to see if Tesla really is the wave of the future.