NPR Topics: Story of the Day Podcast

Some three decades after the Warren Commission's report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a board was established that declassified thousands of documents. Congress hoped it would clear up lingering conspiracy theories, but it didn't.

Steinway & Sons has made all of its cast-iron plates at the O.S. Kelly Foundry in Springfield, Ohio, since 1938. The plate tightly holds the steel wire strings that make the vibrations that become music. Just two men create and pour the molten mixture that cools into the cast-iron heart of a piano.

Houston's Mission Control is still talking to the astronauts circling the globe in the International Space Station. But most other phone lines are down, and NASA says the shutdown could deter launches of other spacecraft and slow repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope if something goes wrong.

Most charities get money from donors and spend it on things they think will help people — schools, medicine, farm animals. GiveDirectly just gives money away. And that poses a challenge to the more traditional charities.

Mothers with the "sensitive" version of a gene became more likely to strike or scream at their children during the Great Recession, researchers say. But as a complete economic collapse became less likely, the moms relaxed. Those with the "insensitive" version didn't change their behavior.

Russia has become a relations nightmare for the United States, and its offer of temporary asylum to the NSA leaker and fugitive is only the tip of the iceberg.

Summer nights — for a small few in the South — are a time for wading through yucky ponds with a flashlight in one hand and a frog gig in the other. It's a good way to pass the time, hang out with friends, and find some yummy frog legs for a cookout later in the summer.

A couple of guys with serious investment banking experience are moving into the marijuana business. They've launched the first multimillion-dollar private equity fund devoted entirely to what they call the "cannabis space." They're buying companies that provide pot-related goods and services.

An Oxford-trained theologian named Jason Heap, who doesn't believe in God, wants to become the first humanist chaplain in the U.S. Navy. That's sparked a backlash, though there are 13,000 active duty service members who identify as atheists or agnostics.

Georgia, like many other states, protects the identity of companies that make drugs used in executions. The lawyer of a death row inmate says not being able to verify the effectiveness of the drug violates his client's right "to be free from cruel and unusual punishment."

Many forests in the American West have evolved with fire, and actually benefit from the occasional wildfire. But researchers are finding that trees that once would survive and thrive with small fires are now losing their ability to do so.

Artist Faith Ringgold is best known for her story quilts which depict scenes of African-American life. But a new exhibit highlights the provocative paintings she made 20 years earlier — documenting the racial and political tumult of the 1960s.

The drug war was in full swing in the '80s, and cocaine was practically everywhere. But use of the drug has fallen by almost half since 2006, and production is also down significantly. So how did the U.S. kick the habit? Experts say cocaine has lost its luster — oh, and policy may have made a difference, too.

The domestic auto industry has been making a strong comeback, but that recovery hasn't necessarily benefited beleaguered Detroit. There's only one auto plant still doing high-volume production inside the city limits, and much of the Big Three's manufacturing has shifted away from Michigan.

Biologists have discovered they can track hard-to-see species in streams, ponds and even the ocean by sampling the water for DNA. Scientists say the technique is an important conservation tool: So far, it's been used to track declining giant salamanders and even locate a rare whale.