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NPR Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving shares this week what he found among the scholarly books on his father's book shelf as part of our take on NPR Books' PG-13 series.

The court weighed in on the fight over the rights of public employee unions Thursday, dealing unions another major defeat. The case dealt with nonmember fees for special political funds, but it could set the stage for scrutinizing regular union dues for nonmembers, which courts have supported for decades.

Word warrior John Chaneski teaches us what a "letter bank" is, and asks contestants to make new words out of the letters given. You could say the winner of this round will be able to "KNAB A BANANA."

The Tesla electric car company has high hopes for its new Model S sedan. The five-seater, which hits the streets today, is priced around half what the previous Tesla model, the exclusive Roadster, costs. The EPA rates its range at 265 miles.

A scientific journal has finally published the details of how to make mutant forms of bird flu. These viruses were created last year by a lab that's trying to stay ahead of a possible flu pandemic, so that the world can get ready. But the work is highly controversial. The government is grappling with how to manage the risks of this kind of research without blocking scientific progress.

The Senate has passed an amendment that would cut off public funding for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominating conventions. The funding has been coming from U.S. taxpayers who check the $3 box on their federal tax returns.

It's been another tumultuous week in Syria. NPR's Deborah Amos was reporting from inside Syria earlier this week but she's back in Lebanon now. She says what surprised her most while she was in Damascus, is that more people are speaking out against President Assad's government.

Warren Houghton accidentally dropped his wallet and baseball glove inside a wall in a one-room schoolhouse in Cornish, New Hampshire. Sixty-seven years later, construction workers found the wallet and glove, and shipped them to the owner.

Deb Thompson went to a Minnesota Goodwill looking for a deal and some bling. She got both: a pair of gem-studded pants for $3.99. And in one of the pockets, a diamond ring worth at least $5,000. Thompson is trying to locate the owner.

Educator John Hunter puts all the problems of the world on a 4'x5' plywood board — and lets his fourth-graders solve them. He explains how his World Peace Game engages schoolkids and why the complex lessons it teaches go further than classroom lectures can.