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Mississippi is the most obese state in the nation. That's not something top-ranking state officials like to boast about, so they've decided to take matters into their own hands. A group of state lawmakers has begun an effort to shed hundreds of pounds. It's hoped their weight loss will spur others on.

George Frayne, better known as Commander Cody, has been making music with his band, The Lost Planet Airmen, for decades. But beyond the boogie-woogie, swing, country and rock, there's another side to Frayne: He's also a visual artist. His new book contains pop-art portraits of cultural icons, along with personal anecdotes.

A hard-drinking actor? Hardly a novel phenomenon. But four of the 20th century's greatest actors — Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed — were also possibly its greatest drinkers. In Hellraisers, biographer Robert Sellers tells tales from the intersection of talent and wretched excess.

An excerpt from Mosab Hassan Yousef's book, Son of Hamas.

Cinderella team Cornell took on No. 1 seed Kentucky on Thursday in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. In the end, Cornell couldn't match Kentucky, going down 62-45.

Once the Apple of its day, Polaroid has fallen by the wayside, thanks to digital photography. Now, with a revamped image and an alliance with self-marketing dynamo Lady Gaga, it's trying to be the oldest new trend.

NPR and the Kitchen Sisters are looking for stories from around the world of the hidden lives of girls — and the women they become. Stories of coming of age, rituals and rites of passage, secret identities — of women who crossed a line, blazed a trail or changed the tide. Share your stories with us.

The chief minister of India's most populous state came from humble origins, but Mayawati, as she is known, has not been shy about displaying her wealth. Recently, the show of opulence at a political rally — where she accepted a garland made entirely of money — seems to have gone too far, even by her standards.

Gone are the days when actors brought their own lunches to the set in brown paper bags. It's a full-time job feeding the hundreds — sometimes thousands — of men and women working each day on major films. Susan Stamberg spends a day with craft service — the crew responsible for the snacks that keep moviemakers going during long days of filming.

Jack Rose was a big man who coaxed a big sound from his acoustic guitar. Friends say he was just as vigorous when he wasn't playing, so it came as a shock when Rose died suddenly in December at 38. The last record he completed, Luck in the Valley, comes out next week.