He won his seat by having his name picked out of a hat — an annual tradition for the small town of 22. Mayor Tufts is celebrated in town as a singer, dancer, and fisherman.

Etta May Lopez wanted to stop smoking. She decided she needed to go someplace where she could not buy cigarettes. After slapping a Sacramento sheriff's deputy, she now has 63 days to stop smoking.

Curse words change over time — back in the ninth century you could say the "s" word and no one would be offended. But we always need a set of words that are off-limits, and in her new book, author Melissa Mohr explains how the words that shock us reveal a lot about society's values.

Now that YouTube runs advertising on videos of cover songs, musicians like Tyler Ward are working with agencies to negotiate higher shares of that revenue.

Last summer, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis hosted the first Internet Cat Video Festival. It was so popular it went viral and the show went on the road. Over the weekend, more than 6,000 people turned out at the Oakland Internet Cat Video Festival.

Have Republicans finally succeeded in persuading the public at large that the Benghazi attack wasn't just a tragedy but actually a huge scandal? Another big problem for the Obama administration was revealed last week:the IRS was paying special attention to conservative political groups.

Certain Jeep Grand Cherokees and Commanders are being recalled because the transmission could shift by itself — from park into neutral — with no warning to the driver. The source of the problem: cracks in the circuit board that can cause a faulty signal on start up.

Steve Inskeep talks to Declan Walsh, a correspondent with The New York Times, about his experience covering Pakistan for nearly a decade, and his ejection from the country over the weekend. The Pakistani government canceled Walsh's visa just as the campaign was ending.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an investigation in the hottest sector of Washington's influence industry: political intelligence. It's the business of collecting highly detailed information from Congress and the regulatory agencies, and using it to make money on Wall Street.

David Greene speaks with Jessica Buchanan and her husband Erik Landemalm about their book Impossible Odds. It's the story of Jessica's abduction, along with a fellow aid worker, by Somali pirates in 2011. In the first of the two-part interview, we hear how Jessica was abducted, and how she refused to fall into despair while in captivity.

In Pakistan, two-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is quickly moving to form a central government for a third time in this volatile country. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League has amassed a commanding lead in unofficial returns from Saturday's election.

Arizona has passed a law making it illegal for cities to destroy guns bought in buy-back programs. The new law kicks in this summer, and requires cities to sell the guns that are turned in.

Giant financial data company Bloomberg is acknowledging that some of its subscribers were tracked by the company's reporters. The reporters were allowed to see what kind of information the subscribers were looking at and how long it had been since they logged on. The tracking came to light after Goldman Sachs Raised questions about the practice. Over the weekend, the Federal Reserve said it is looking into whether its employees were tracked as well.

It's been a week since three women kidnapped more than a decade ago escaped from a house in Cleveland. Residents are trying to come to terms that the missing women had been living near them the whole time.

The results from Pakistan's parliamentary elections, which were held over the weekend are still unofficial. But state TV estimates former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his party close to a majority in the national assembly.

Steve Inskeep talks to regular contributor Cokie Roberts about what's ahead this week in politics.

David Greene speaks with Jessica Buchanan and her husband Erik Landemalm about their book "Impossible Odds." It's the story of Jessica's abduction, along with a fellow aid worker, by Somali pirates in 2011. In the first of the two-part interview, we hear how Jessica was abducted, and how she refused to fall into despair while in captivity.

Arizona has passed a law making it illegal for cities to destroy guns bought in buy-back programs. The new law kicks in this summer, and requires cities to sell the guns that are turned in. NPR's Ted Robbins was at a recent buy back in Phoenix and brings us this update.

Host has the Last Word in business.

The giant financial data company Bloomberg is acknowledging that some of its subscribers were tracked by the company's reporters. The reporters were allowed to see what kind of information the subscribers were looking at and how long it had been since they logged on. The tracking came to light after Goldman Sachs complained about the practice. Over the weekend the Federal Reserve said is looking into whether its employees were tracked as well.