National

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he doesn't smoke crack cocaine and isn't an addict, in response to a video that surfaced recently purporting to show him using the illegal drug.

Last week Ford called the cellphone video obtained by The Toronto Star "ridiculous" and blamed the newspaper for "going after me."

Friday's comments from Ford were more emphatic.

In the days since a tornado ripped through Moore, Okla., talk of constructing safe rooms in public schools has become commonplace.

In southwest Missouri, officials have built a few of them already, and they are seeking funding to build more.

'A Sense Of Peace'

Karina O'Connell is preparing dinner tonight under the pavilion at Phelps Grove Park in Springfield, Mo., where she's eating with her 9-year-old twin sons, Samuel and John Patrick.

They were just little girls when they were killed in 1963, in what came to be known as the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing. And now Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley have been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, nearly 50 years after the attack in Birmingham, Ala.

President Obama signed the legislation Friday to award the girls — all of them 14, except for McNair, who was 11 — with the highest honor Congress can bestow upon a civilian.

President Obama delivered the commencement address at Annapolis on Friday, challenging the U.S. Naval Academy graduates to help redefine national defense in the 21st century.

In Oklahoma on Friday, state emergency officials said Monday's tornado destroyed 1,150 homes. An unknown number of structures were damaged. The state has registered more than 1,800 insurance adjusters.

Melissa Block talks with Timothy Marshall, a civil engineer and meteorologist who has been tracking tornado damage in Moore, Okla., over the past 15 years.

Citi Bike, the country's largest urban bike-sharing system, will soon be rolling in New York City after almost a year of delays. The idea has worked elsewhere, including Paris, Washington, D.C., and Montreal. But critics wonder if it's safe to add tens of thousands of new cyclists to the crowded streets of New York.

Robert Siegel talks with Adam Davidson from Planet Money team about this week's cluster of positive data on the health of the U.S. housing market. Davidson says the strength of the housing sector is now irrefutable, even though a broader economic recovery is still years away.