NPR News

Smoking marijuana has just got to be bad for the lungs, since it's been made abundantly clear that cigarettes wreak havoc. Or so it would seem.

But the record on marijuana and lung health has been confusing at best. The latest study is typical: It shows that pot smokers' lung function actually improves, at least if they're not smoking a lot.

There is no escaping artificial flavor. It's everywhere, and the people who invent it argue that it will enhance your experience of a food — making it more tropical, more floral, or more bitter, in a good way.

Europe's debt crisis is a huge threat to the U.S. economy. Or is it?

For many months, economists have been warning that Europe's debt troubles could spiral into a massive recession that drags down U.S. growth.

But some analysts say those fears may be wildly exaggerated. The U.S. economy has been "decoupling" from Europe for some time, and wouldn't be significantly harmed by any recession taking shape over there, they argue.

The debate over a math problem at a Georgia elementary school intensified today with parents protesting and the Georgia NAACP calling for the teacher who wrote the math problem to be fired.

At issue is a third-grade worksheet that included references to slaves filling baskets with cotton and this question: "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week? Two weeks?"

If campaigning for Republican presidential candidates in New Hampshire sounds like hard work, try going door-to-door before the primary — for Jesus. Ike Sriskandarajah of TurnStyleNews.com, a production of Youth Radio, spoke with two Mormon missionaries in Exeter, N.H., to hear how they ride the line between proselytizing and politics.

As Sriskandarajah reports on All Things Considered Tuesday, most canvassers wear candidates' buttons and carry campaign signs.

Health care reform is no laughing matter, but MIT economist Jonathan Gruber's new comic book on the subject aims to communicate some pretty complicated policy details in a way that, if not exactly side-splitting, is at least engaging.

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

More than half of states had forced sterilization programs at one time, but few were as aggressive as North Carolina's. Some 7,600 men, women and children were sterilized by that state's eugenics board up to the mid 1970s. Sterilization was seen as a way to control welfare costs and improve the caliber of the population. Well, today, a task force in North Carolina took a step toward becoming the only state to offer compensation to eugenics victims.

From member station WFAE, Julie Rose has the story.

Dirty words are once again front and center at the Supreme Court, which is considering a challenge to a regulation that allows the Federal Communications Commission to punish broadcasters for the fleeting use of vulgar language.

The Army has spent billions of dollars in the past 15 years on an ambitious program to develop a universal radio. It was called the Joint Tactical Radio System, or "JTRS." But now the Army has scrapped most of that program. Melissa Block talks to military writer David Axe about its failure.

Melissa Block talks to NPR's Ari Shapiro, who is covering the campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney is the frontrunner in polls leading up to Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.