At 54, Don Verrilli Jr. stands tall and calm in the Supreme Court chamber, his salt and pepper mustache the only thing about him that bristles. His deep, baritone voice suggests to the justices that he is the essence of reasonableness. There are no histrionics. Indeed, if he gets backed into a corner, his voice just gets deeper. Only the occasional, needless throat-clearing betrays any nerves at all.

A New Hampshire man who claimed last year that for a fee of $135 he would arrange to have your dog walked if the Rapture did indeed begin last May 21 and you got taken up to heaven, is now saying that his business venture was a hoax.

Allegations of phone hacking and bribery brought down Rupert Murdoch's tabloid News of the World. Criminal and parliamentary investigations are now under way in the U.K., and dozens of journalists and top executives from Murdoch's paper have been arrested.

Scotland Yard has been investigating the scandal, but several police officials from that iconic institution have also been implicated; they're accused of accepting bribes from reporters at Murdoch's papers.

Next week, KALW will bring you NPR's special coverage as the Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of  the Affordable Care Act, Monday through Wednesday at 6pm.

Hosted by Jennifer Ludden, NPR's special coverage will feature audio highlights from the day's arguments, and analysis from NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg and health policy correspondent Julie Rovner.

Next week, KALW will bring you NPR's special coverage as the Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of  the Affordable Care Act, Monday through Wednesday at 6pm.

NPR's coverage will be hosted by Jennifer Ludden and feature NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg and health policy correspondent Julie Rovner, as well as audio of each day's arguments from the court.  

If you haven't seen it yet, you probably will soon if you're watching the cable news networks:

Dear Open Letter Writers,

Are you open to the idea that the open letter has become the victim of its own success?

Administrators at Vanderbilt University are beginning to enforce a long-held nondiscrimination policy for student groups. The policy is forcing a dilemma for faith-based organizations: Either drop requirements that their leaders hold certain beliefs, or forfeit school funding and move off campus.

Members of Christian student groups say Vanderbilt's nondiscrimination policy has them feeling more like victims of discrimination. They include the school's star quarterback, junior Jordan Rogers.

IPAB sounds like a new Apple product, but it's actually a controversial board that is at the heart of House Republicans' efforts to upend the 2010 federal health law.

The Independent Payment Advisory Board, created by the health law, is supposed to help hold down costs in Medicare, the federal health program for seniors and the disabled.

If you were young in the 1960s or '70s and like many of us didn't live around New York City, the first bagel you ever saw and enjoyed was probably a Lender's.

So it's with a sense of sadness and nostalgia that we pass along this, from The Associated Press: