NPR Topics: Story of the Day Podcast

As businesses face more complex regulations and heightened scrutiny by prosecutors, companies are turning to investigative firms to help keep watch over their employees. The idea behind the "corporate monitoring" business is to nip misconduct in the bud before law enforcement catches a whiff of it.

Steubenville, Ohio, is divided over the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl. Two high school football players have been charged, but images spread via social media have sharply divided the town. Some argue that other players were also involved and have accused local authorities of a cover-up.

With most of the more than 5 million people with Alzheimer's cared for at home, the nation's largest provider of nonmedical senior home care now offers free training workshops for family caregivers. Caregivers are taught how to make use of long-term memories and to recognize what triggers anxiety.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has approved regulations requiring clinics where abortions are performed to meet the same building codes as new hospitals. Abortion-rights groups say the regulations are unnecessary, but abortion-rights opponents say they're the only way to ensure that clinics are safe.

The Massachusetts Republican left Congress this week after losing in a contentious race to Democrat Elizabeth Warren. But if John Kerry is confirmed as the next secretary of state, Scott Brown could be back on the campaign trail in weeks.

President Obama handily won re-election, but Congress remains fairly unchanged. Will the status quo prevail during his second term? Or will he follow through on promises that got progressives excited about him in 2008?

It's miraculous to see: Press a button, make anything you want. But will it transform the economy?

The Jersey shore is a part of the region's culture that inspires nostalgia. But post-Superstorm Sandy, there are questions about how to rebuild the places special to many and who should pay. "Is it going to look like what people remember from their childhoods? The answer is no," one mayor says.

Neda Ulaby looks at the current landscape of gay characters on television, from the highest brows of Downton Abbey to the surprisingly welcoming world of reality shows.

A colossal monument of Lakota warrior Chief Crazy Horse in South Dakota is 64 years in the making. Problems in the underlying rock are forcing the sculptors to deviate from the original model. But the family carving the monument says it will carry on even if it takes another lifetime to finish.

It's unlikely 2013 will be the year that jet packs make it big, but the coming year could bring us a host of other new technology trends and products, like 3-D printers for consumers, even smarter smartphones, and more connected devices like glasses and cars.

As a new class of million-dollar political donors rises, conservatives are fighting for continued secrecy around their contributions. Strategist Karl Rove is citing a 1950s Supreme Court case that protected NAACP members, arguing that conservative donors are also being subjected to intimidation.

On Dec. 31, 1862, African-Americans and abolitionists waited for word — via telegraph, newspaper or word of mouth — that the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. A New Year's Eve tradition marks the anniversary of President Lincoln's actions to end slavery.

In North Korea, profound social change is happening beyond the view of the outside world. The pressure of national ideology has forced women to become the primary breadwinners in many households — dramatically redrawing gender roles in the process.

The probability that an individual will experience a school shooting may be low. But when the improbable happens to you, where do you find comfort?