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Don't ever email the professor. Never friend the teacher on Facebook. Those are some of the rules A.J. Jacobs learned when he joined the ranks of millions enrolled in massive open online courses, MOOCs. Harvard, MIT and Stanford are among universities offering virtual classes free of charge.

Under current laws, if a background check shows your name is on the national terror watch list, you can still purchase a gun. Government data show that people on terrorism watch lists were able to buy guns or explosives after a background check more than 1,300 times between 2004 and 2010.

Corn production was down last year thanks to drought. This year, conditions are too cold and wet for farmers to plant the crop. Without a break in the clouds pretty soon, there may be another shortage of the crop at harvest time.

Apple says it will pay out $100 billion to its shareholders in stock buy backs and increased dividends by the end of 2015. On Tuesday, the company announced its first profit decline in a decade. Slowing sales of the Apple iPhone are blamed for the disappointing profit results.

In Boston on Tuesday, residents and business owners on Boylston Street were allowed to return for the first time since last week's bombings. They returned to stores with windows blown out, restaurants with the remains of uneaten meals still sitting on tables and barricades to keep the public away from the scene.

The quality of the air in southwest Michigan took a hit last year. But a new report by the American Lung Association suggests that, in general, Michigan’s…

The White House says it still needs to corroborate information it has received that suggests Syria's government has used chemical weapons. That act would cross a "red line" drawn by President Obama. At that point, the question becomes: What might the U.S. do in response? The Pentagon is already planning.

As college recruiting continues to be a challenge, many schools hope a run at a national title in football or basketball can get prospective students to check out their campus. But for a small private school in the Midwest, an unprecedented domination of another competition may be what sets them apart. Bradley University has won more national titles in speech competitions than UCLA, Kentucky and Duke combined have in basketball.

Tell Me More is celebrating National Poetry Month by hearing poetic tweets from listeners for the 'Muses and Metaphor' series. Today's poems come from Susan Crane of Longmont, Colorado and Phil Boiarski of Galloway, Ohio.

The long day in Boston left many residents stuck in their homes watching TV. Some chose to congregate, and NPR's Chris Arnold went to a "lock-down party" Friday night, and spoke to happy residents after the capture of the second suspect.