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English is definitely changing, but whether it's declining or evolving depends on who — ahem, whom — you ask. Writer Robert Lane Greene recommends three books about what it means to speak and write "well" — when the definition of "well" is a moving target.

In her book Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank, Randi Hutter Epstein describes doctors who made great medical advances, but who had surprising flaws. Dr. J. Marion Sims, who is credited with curing vaginal fistulas, practiced on slave women, "stitching them up over and over and over again."

Crews in Colorado are struggling to get the upper hand on the massive High Park wildfire that's destroyed more homes and property than any blaze in the state's history. With Colorado and the rest of the drought-plagued Southwest coming off a winter with record low snowpack, officials are braced for more fires. But previous forest management techniques could be partly to blame for the severe fires.

In West, Texas, the site of that huge explosion at a fertilizer plant, authorities still will not say how many people are believed dead. Plus, they have not given any indication about what caused the fire that was burning at the plant before the blast.

As he moves on from Africa to take up his next posting in Mexico, NPR's Eyder Peralta has one last love letter to a favorite part of Nairobi, Kenya: roadside plant nurseries.

The Grand Canyon is home to incredible natural beauty. And this summer, a norovirus outbreak. The stomach bug sickened hundreds of rafters and hikers ... and prompted the CDC to take a look at it.

Novelist Salman Rushdie suffered damage to his liver, nerves and an eye when he was attacked at a speaking event in western New York state Friday, according to his agent. He is on a ventilator.

The deaths of 13 South African soldiers in the mutinous Central African Republic has opposition politicians asking why South African troops were there. The ruling ANC has denied it has any business in the Central African Republic — which is rich in natural resources, including diamonds and uranium.

A recent attempted attack on an FBI office has raised concern about violent far-right rhetoric, but assessing the exact nature of the threat presents new challenges.

The Labor Department reports Tuesday on consumer prices for January. Inflation looks better when compared to prices from a year ago. But looking at prices from a month ago, it is less encouraging.