National

Dennis McLaughlin interviewed his mom, Theresa, to thank her for how she raised him. Born in 1948 with spina bifida, he was missing several vertebrae and was unable to use his legs. Theresa was a single mom, working in a paper mill near Portland, Maine.

"When you were 1 year old, your grandfather McLaughlin built you a little wheelchair," Theresa says, "built it out of wood that he had and wheels from a tricycle, and you got around in that very, very well."

Two police officers in the Southern California town of Fullerton have been ordered to stand trial for the death of Kelly Thomas, a mentally ill homeless man.

Thomas died in July 2011 from injuries sustained during a violent arrest by six Fullerton officers.

The night of the arrest, Fullerton police officer Manual Ramos approached Thomas, then 37, while responding to a call that someone had been peering into cars at the town's bus depot.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

At that fundraiser tonight, President Obama is sure to get enthusiastic applause for his announcement yesterday that he supports same-sex marriage. The president's shift in his public stance mirrors a rapid change nationwide. These days a plurality of Americans say same-sex marriage should be legal. And in the past decade or so, that support has ticked upward steadily, a steep rise for an issue that was, even in the mid-'90s, opposed by a broad majority.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Rural post offices have been given a reprieve. Thousands were slated for closure, but after loud objections, yesterday the Postmaster General said they will survive, though with shorter hours.

In tiny Kerrick, Minnesota, population about 60, Debra Stadin organized a petition drive to keep her post office open. Her daughter works there, and Ms. Stadin says it serves a broader community than just Kerrick.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson joins us now to talk about the politics of gay marriage and the president's personal support for it. And, Mara, let's stay with Mitt Romney for just a second. Do you think that the president's message yesterday creates opportunity or challenges for Romney going into the election year?

Who's really hooked on tanning beds?

Odds are she's young, white and lives in the Midwest.

Figures just published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report paint a detailed picture of indoor tanning habits across the country.

Overall, in 2010 about 5.6 percent of adults used a tanning bed, or other device that blasts UV rays at skin to darken it. Tanning sprays didn't count.

Thousands of people in Windsor, Ontario, say they are being invaded by an obnoxious noise emanating from outside Detroit. They call it the "Windsor Hum," and it's really two sounds — a deep, very low-frequency hum, like a diesel truck idling in your driveway, and a deep, vibrating pulse that you feel more than you hear.

The California sunshine can't hurt. It may help keep teens outdoors where they're less likely to snack, and more likely to move around.

But this isn't the explanation for why teens in the Golden State eat 158 fewer calories a day than kids in other states.

California teens, it turns out, are eating less at school, according to a new study in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. And that little bit less per kid can add up to big calorie savings over time, nutrition experts say.