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About half of African-American women in the U.S. are obese, compared to 30 percent of white women. Black women not only carry more weight, but they start piling on extra pounds years before their white counterparts. Around age 8 or 9, girls become less active, and the decline is steepest for black girls.

In Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, Jennifer Reese tries her recipes for foods that you might never think to make at home. She walks NPR's Melissa Block through make-your-own marshmallows. Turns out, it's not so hard.

Explosive Eighteen is the 18th in the best-selling series of crime novels featuring Jersey girl Stephanie Plum. Author Janet Evanovich discusses the inspiration for her heroine and how she eavesdrops for ideas.

Ballet's history is not just about choreography and technique — it's also a history of nationalization, the changing ways we view the body, shifting gender norms and class struggles. Historian Jennifer Homans chronicles the art form in a cultural history, Apollo's Angels.

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a national reputation for being tough on crime, but the results of a new federal investigation show that Arpaio and his deputies are the ones who have been breaking law by engaging in racial profiling, among other things.

The National Transportation Safety Board wants states to pass tough new laws banning the use of electronic devices behind the wheel. Some state lawmakers and transportation experts say such a ban could be difficult to enforce and that there's no real evidence yet that existing laws have reduced accident rates.

The National Transportation Safety Board wants states to pass tough new laws banning the use of electronic devices behind the wheel. Some state lawmakers and transportation experts say such a ban could be difficult to enforce and that there's no real evidence yet that existing laws have reduced accident rates.

Patients admitted repeatedly to hospitals can be a big source of revenue and a big quality problem. Soon Medicare will penalize hospitals that readmit too many patients too often. Hospitals are trying some new approaches to care to get ready for the change.

2011 was a terrific year for fiction — both from first-time novelists and much-decorated veterans. Maureen Corrigan's recommendations range from Karen Russell's dazzling debut, to David Foster Wallace's posthumously published novel, to what may be the Sept. 11 novel.

A StateImpact Florida/Miami Herald investigation shows that despite state and federal laws requiring charter schools to give equal access to students with severe disabilities, most charter schools in Florida have few of these students on their roster.