Alarmed by the high suicide rate among veterans, a Louisville man is raising funds for struggling military families.  Iraq war veteran Troy Yokum has walked from Kentucky to the Pacific Ocean and back.  Yokum arrived today on the step of the US Capitol in Washington DC.

You don't get to be chairman of a major congressional committee like the House Budget Committee if you're the type to shrink from a challenge and Rep. Paul Ryan certainly doesn't appear to be that.

His current challenge, of course, is a daunting one, to convince fellow Republicans that his plan to privatize Medicare won't be as toxic to their 2012 electoral hopes as Democrats gleefully insist it will be, especially if they have anything to say about it.

^{Before and after photos of Joplin, Mo., have been floating around the Internet since the tornado swept through on Sunday — and one of the more striking comparisons is attributed to Aaron Fuhrman. We reached out to him and he shared several more photos, as well as his story.}

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MICHELE NORRIS, host:

And we're going to stay on the topic of Arizona. A new word is about to enter the political lexicon: Sarah-zona. The Arizona Republic newspaper reported recently that Sarah Palin and her husband Todd may have purchased an 8,000-square-foot house in Scottsdale, fueling speculation that the former Alaska Governor might use the Southwestern state as a base for a presidential campaign.

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MICHELE NORRIS, host:

It's been a tough week for Congressman Paul Ryan. He wrote the House Republican's budget, including the plan that would eventually privatize Medicare. Ryan's plan played a big part in a special election in upstate New York this week, an election that flipped the seat from Republican to Democrat. Then yesterday, a majority of the Senate, including five Republicans, voted to kill the Ryan budget.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

And I'm Michele Norris.

This summer, we'll be launching a series on women and childbirth. We'll bring you stories from China, Egypt, France and, of course, from all over the United States. And we'll be reporting on everything from the latest science to cultural trends, to the many challenges that pregnant women face around the world.

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MICHELE NORRIS, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

Brazil's public education system handles 50 million students but, according to many, not very well. Private initiatives funded by thousands of Brazilian businesses have created a parallel education system.

The Dallas Mavericks are headed to the NBA Finals, thanks to their 4-1 series victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Throughout the series, the Thunder were young and athletic — the Mavs, old and ultimately successful.

Writer Gary Shteyngart recently won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction. The 11-year-old award was named for British author P.G. Wodehouse and has been awarded to Brits — until this year when it was given to a self-proclaimed Russian-Jewish nebbish from New York. Shteyngart won for his third work of fiction, Super Sad True Love Story, and he will be given a pig named after the novel as a part of the prize. Shteyngart told Robert Siegel, "This is what I've been writing for all my life.