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Public health experts have gotten better at detecting new diseases and figuring out their cause since the SARS outbreak nearly 10 years ago. Advances in communications and genetics mean information about new microbes is more accessible.

Voters who tune in to the debates Wednesday night will likely hear conflicting interpretations of history. What truly happened in the past is the subject of an ongoing, loud debate in politics. Steve Inskeep delves into this topic with college professor Timothy Messer-Kruse, who attempted to make a small edit on the Wikipedia page for the 1886 Haymarket Square riot in Chicago.

The national bank settlement over robo signing takes effect Wednesday. And the California monitor for the settlement says the most notable complaint her office gets is for "dual-tracking." That's when homeowners are on track to be foreclosed on while trying to get a mortgage modification.

U.S. auto sales last month were the best they've been in more than four years, according to numbers compiled by an industry group. Toyota led the way with more than a 40 percent jump from a year ago. Experts give credit for the boost in sales to cheap financing for car loans, and growing consumer confidence.

The latest poll by NPR and its bipartisan polling team shows President Obama with a 7-point lead among likely voters nationally and a 6-point lead in the dozen battleground states where both campaigns are spending most of their time and money. But battleground voters were also more downbeat about the direction of the country.

With young people among the hardest hit by the down economy, NPR wondered what millennials want from tonight's debate. The head of a group of college Republicans poses theoretical questions for President Obama. The president of a chapter of college Democrats fashions questions for Mitt Romney.

The Utah school's dress code said dresses should not be too short, with hems hitting "at or near knee length." So many people were denied entry to the dance it became a disaster. The principal has now apologized for what's being called the "homecoming spirit massacre."

The nonpartisan group Free Press is calling on stations to do just that. At the very least, the group says, stations should fact check more. A new study by the group found that stations almost never reject third-party and superPAC ads — and few of them were engaging in serious fact checking.

Some farmers growing shrimp in Midwestern ponds say they do it for love, not money. Despite recent advances in feed and efforts by several states to make shrimp-farming here a viable business, it's still fraught with too much economic risk to attract many growers.

A Pennsylvania judge Tuesday blocked the state from moving forward with changes to its voter ID law until after the presidential election. This news comes just days after some suspicious voter registration activity in states like Florida, North Carolina and Nevada. Host Michel Martin discusses voter issues across the country with two reporters.