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In a recent column, Ben Zimmer wrote, "Is there any word currently more contested in our culture than marriage?" As the debate about same-sex marriage continues, he examines the definition of marriage and the ways advocates and opponents of same-sex unions use language to advance their positions.

Each month, NPR's All Things Considered invites a poet into the newsroom to see how the show comes together and to write an original poem about the news. This month, our NewsPoet is Robert Pinsky. Want to write your own poem about the day's news? You can put them in the comments below.

A ruling by the country's high court threw the country into disarray, days before a historic presidential election.

The idea of an "affordable manicure" was once an oxymoron. That's before Vietnamese immigrants arrived in the U.S. and cornered the market for inexpensive nail-care salons. The industry has offered a path to self-sufficiency for many Vietnamese-Americans in California and around the nation.

Getting people screened for colon cancer is a challenge, especially in rural Alaska. So doctors are developing DNA-based tests to catch colon cancer early and less invasively. They hope the new tests will eventually replace or reduce colonoscopies.

Making a good life as a bank robber would be hard and the yearly salary would be pretty average.

The eerie stencil paintings of human hands in Spanish caves might not be from humans at all. New dating methods of the paintings suggest some of the cave art could have been drawn by Neanderthals.

Some car companies have adopted "three crew" work schedules, forgoing regular graveyard shifts and the traditional three shifts a day. It's a highly efficient way to get more out of workers, machines and factories, but it can also wreak havoc with employees' sleep needs and home lives.

There was meaning in the places President Obama and Mitt Romney chose for their dueling speeches on Thursday. The president was at a community college in heavily Democratic Cleveland. The Republican visited a small business in Cincinnati, a G.O.P. stronghold.

Amid a funding crunch, legal aid programs that help poor people with civil disputes — like evictions and child custody cases — are laying off workers or even closing their doors. At one Baltimore office, lawyers say the number of people needing help has gone through the roof in recent years.