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Crowning the Duke of Wellington with a traffic cone is a tradition in Glasgow, Scotland. Frustrated officials wanted to raise the 1844 statue to a height that could keep the cones off the duke's head. Removing them costs the city $160 each time. But the effort to elevate the duke was stopped by a petition.

The Obama administration is plugging its health care plan by saying that half of young, single people can buy health coverage for $50 a month or less. A closer look at the claim finds that it's more like a third of single, uninsured, young adults who would get a deal that good.

A road-trip movie from director Alexander Payne (Sideways) follows a man en route to collect a million-dollar prize that probably never was. NPR's Bob Mondello says the black-and-white film is just the latest achievement from a talented filmmaker. (Recommended)

Agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have spent months testing new plastic weapons, and report that the guns can be lethal and hard to detect. The findings come just as a federal law that requires guns to be composed of at least some metal to help people in schools and airports detect them is set to expire.

Unlike the technologies in laptops, smartphones and electric cars, the batteries inside them have been slow to evolve. In Silicon Valley, more than 40 companies are working on finding a battery breakthrough. And they're facing international competition.

Farm programs will likely cost the government less under any new farm bill, but the policy could be bad for the environment. Both House and Senate versions would end a big subsidy, called direct payments, that has paid money to land owners — whether they needed it or not — if they complied with certain conservation regulations. The two chambers' versions of the bill differ on how, or even if, to incent farmers to take care of their land. But both versions would stop funding to keep at least five million acres of land out of production.

Food labels have become battlegrounds. Government regulators, companies and food movement activists have been fighting over what belongs on the label. (GMOs? Trans fats? Claims that bran prevents heart disease?) We asked four big thinkers for their dream food label.

Day after day, workers at Michigan State University care for and feed colonies of evolving bacteria. The original microbes have produced more than 50,000 generations in the 25 years since the experiment began. Despite predictions the bacteria might someday reach a point where they would evolve no more, the results show they keep changing.

Laura Lane was heading to work when her train got stuck. Conductor Paquita Williams was soon walking through the cars, putting passengers at ease in the darkness. Laura was so impressed with how Paquita handled the two-hour ordeal, she wanted to learn more about her.

The Swedish furniture store Ikea is sending a $2.6 million aid package. China is sending aid worth $1.6 million. It first offered $100,000.