NPR News

From San Francisco to Washington, D.C., e-scooters and dockless bikes have become the latest transportation trend to grip urban spaces — and local governments are struggling to keep up.

The concept is simple: Riders download an app, find and unlock a scooter or bike, and leave it when they're done. Many cost as little as $1, and fans of the services tout them as faster, easier, and greener ways to get where they're going.

The day was June 4, 1924. A dark-haired girl, just 17 years old, was admitted to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded. She became colony inmate 1692. The superintendent of the colony examined her. He declared her healthy, free of syphilis, able to read, write, and keep herself tidy. And then he classified her as "feeble-minded of the lowest grade, moron class."

Former President George H.W. Bush, whose wife, Barbara, died just last week, has been admitted to a Houston hospital for an infection that has spread to his blood.

"He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering," Bush family spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement. "We will issue additional updates as events warrant."

Killer robots have been a staple of TV and movies for decades, from Westworld to The Terminator series. But in the real world, killer robots are officially known as "autonomous weapons."

At the Pentagon, Paul Scharre helped create the U.S. policy for such weapons. In his new book, Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, Scharre discusses the state of these weapons today.

The killing of four people at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tenn., early Sunday morning is exposing the frequent breakdown among law enforcement agencies that regulate gun ownership.

A man who had his firearms license revoked in Illinois, after being arrested by the U.S. Secret Service at the White House last July, may have broken no laws by having guns — including an AR-15 — when he moved to Tennessee late last year.

This story was co-published with ProPublica.

Doctors would see new mothers sooner and more frequently, and insurers would cover the increased visits, under sweeping new recommendations from the organization that sets standards of care for obstetrician-gynecologists in the U.S.