National

The auditorium at James Blake High School in Silver Spring, Md., is packed when Cy Maramangalam strolls onstage, sporting jeans and a shaved head.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The discovery of the three women in Cleveland has overshadowed another story here in Washington about an 83-year-old woman found dead yesterday near Reagan National Airport. Victoria Kong suffered short term memory loss. She arrived at the airport Friday on a flight, but went missing after wandering off on foot. The stories, taken together, paint a broad and varied picture of what it means to be missing in America and the two cases sent us looking at the latest missing persons numbers.

The first rule of cake club is: You ONLY talk about cake.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. The recession and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico hit New Orleans hard, and that was after Katrina. The population has yet to return to pre-hurricane levels. Some houses lie empty, some properties abandoned, and the city continues to suffer from crime and unemployment.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. In Cleveland last night, a dramatic call for help.

(SOUNDBITE OF 911 CALL)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Cleveland 911. Do you need...?

AMANDA BERRY: I need police. Help me. I'm Amanda Berry.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Do you need police, fire or ambulance?

BERRY: I need police.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: OK, and what's going on there?

BERRY: I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here, I'm free now.

The four women who survived a fire that erupted in a moving limousine Saturday did so by squeezing through a narrow partition window between the passenger cabin and the driver's area. As we reported Monday, the tragedy claimed the lives of five other women on a bridge over San Francisco Bay.

Thousands of American students and their parents have survived college admission season. Host Michel Martin is joined by the regular moms contributors who dole out advice on how to how to prepare your children emotionally, academically and financially to succeed in college.

Charles Ramsey helped save three missing women from a home in Cleveland, Ohio. But he said something interesting about why he answered their call for help. Host Michel Martin explores what Ramsey's comments may say about race in America.

There's controversy about what to do with the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. But what happened to the bodies of other similar figures in recent history like Adam Lanza or the Virginia Tech shooter? Host Michel Martin finds out.

When the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs held a hearing recently, members expressed concern that veterans might not qualify for subsidies for the new health insurance marketplaces if they were enrolled in VA health coverage.