Los Tigres del Norte earned the respect they've generated in the music business and among their fans the hard way: note by note, line by line and mile by mile.

To explain the one of a kind connection to their audience, let me offer a short behind-the-scenes story about covering them for NPR News.

"Assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian was readmitted to the hospital last night because of a recurring kidney condition and pneumonia," his lawyer tells the Detroit Free Press.

Hear how the gift of music appreciates through the generations. We celebrate musical legacies with Gaelic singer Flora MacNeil, whose daughter Maggie MacInnes has inherited her mother's song passion, Maddie Prior and her daughter Rose, and Mary and Frances Black with their Mum.

This episode originally aired the week of May 5.

[Note: Christian radio host Harold Camping (and others) say the Rapture — in which God separates the wicked from the good — will take place this Saturday, with the end of the world to soon follow.]

Here's a simple public health message: If you've prepared for a zombie apocalypse, then you're ready for just about anything.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seized on the idea as a way to get Americans to prepare for more likely natural disasters, ranging from floods to earthquakes.

Since turbid floodwaters drove Debbie Leach from her residence near Vicksburg, Miss., she has struggled to find a place to call home, even a temporary one, as she waits for the Mississippi River to recede and expose what may be left of her personal belongings.

Leach left her mobile home on Eagle Lake, an oxbow on the river that sits right on the Mississippi-Louisiana border, last month when the water level started to rise. Since then, she has bounced from staying with family to a Red Cross shelter.

President Obama delivered his first major address about the Middle East and U.S. policy toward the Arab world since Osama bin Laden's killing and the rise of the "Arab Spring" movement. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery at the State Department on Thursday. Source: Office of the White House press secretary.

While policy makers in Washington and financial centers like New York and London and plain old policy wonks worry about when and even if the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling will be raised, a lot of U.S. voters apparently couldn't care less or are hostile to the idea.

Politico.com examines how House Republicans aren't hearing much in the way of concern from voters in their districts about the debt limit.

An excerpt:

We're just about done with the current I Will if You Will book club selection, The Sandman: Dream Country. Just one story left, "Facade," which deals with the little-seen underside of super-herodom.

Linda's slammed this week, so if it's okay with y'all, let's hold off on that last discussion until next Monday.