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Overall, baby boomers are optimistic about their health and future, according to a 2012 survey by The National Council on Aging, United Health Care and USA Today. But many are unsure about how to pay for long-term care, medical bills and other health costs.

Oksana Marafioti spent her childhood touring the Soviet Union with the family band. She is a Gypsy — from an ethnic group dispersed throughout Europe and linked by a language called Roma, or Romani.

In their travels — from the deserts of Mongolia to the Siberian tundra — her family endured intense racism.

"In the USSR ... people would just ... spit on you or hit you as soon as you said you were a Gypsy," she tells NPR's John Donvan.

The government of Bahrain, today, handed down a three-year jail sentence for prominent activist Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Center For Human Rights.

Rajab, reports The Guardian, was already serving a three month sentence for posting for his anti-government comments on Twitter. The government said the three-year sentence is a result of his participation in an "illegal demonstration."

Three days after the shooting death of a constable in College Station, Texas, there's word that two sheriff's deputies in Louisiana's St. John the Baptist Parish were killed this morning and another two were wounded in what appear to be connected shootings.

For the past year Yahaira Perez has led a group called Proyecto Mariposa, or Project Butterfly, that helps provide life skills to Latina girls and their mothers while ensuring they do not forget their Latin roots.

Proyecto Mariposa is made up of 16 mothers and their daughters, ages 2 to 13. They meet weekly at a church in Columbus to make crafts, read in Spanish and receive guidance on issues such as personal health and proper nutrition.

Yahaira, who moved from Puerto Rico to attend The Ohio State University, has gotten many people involved — including her family.

A little over 10 years ago, a friend with a small record company in England called me and asked if I wanted to do liner notes for an album he was re-releasing. When he told me it was the Autosalvage album, I flipped. Of course I did!

Massive crowds of young people showed up in cities across the country Wednesday. Some undocumented immigrants can now apply for temporary legal status. In Chicago, overwhelmed organizers turned away potential applicants. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks with the Chicago Tribune's Antonio Olivo and 23 year-old undocumented immigrant, Evelyn Rivera.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is struggling to deal with rebels operating in the eastern part of the country. It's alleged that some rebels are being backed by the Rwandan government. Guest host Jacki Lyden speaks to Reuter's Kinshasa correspondent, Jonny Hogg, about tensions that can threaten regional stability and renew an old rivalry.

Counselors have long cautioned about the downsides of genetic testing for Alzheimer's disease.

For one thing, the current genetic tests for late-onset Alzheimer's — the type that develops after age 60 and is responsible for more than 90 percent of cases — only indicate a probability of getting the disease. It's not definitive. And consumers' ability to buy life insurance or long-term care coverage could be jeopardized by the results.

If lately you've noticed the farmers' market flooded with signs that say "donut," "cling," "whiteflesh" and "freestone," you won't be surprised to learn that August is National Peach Month. Though the juicy fruits pack the produce aisles now, in a few short months a good peach might be hard to find.

Many fruits, though harvested in other parts of the world, are available in the United States all year long. So why are peaches so seasonal, and in the winter, either difficult to find or hard as a rock?

Now that Ecuador has said it will give WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asylum as he seeks to avoid being extradited from Great Britain to Sweden by hiding out in Ecuador's London embassy, news outlets are looking at the complicated legal issues involved in cases such as his.

Here are some things we've found fascinating in the coverage:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted asylum by Ecuador, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño just announced in Quito.

Now, the question becomes whether Great Britain will allow Assange to leave Ecuador's embassy in London so that he can travel to the South American nation that is offering him refuge.

"You've got a bad case of deconditioning," the doctor says.

Actually, it would be the rare doctor who would say that to anyone. And though it might sound like something to do with hair, in fact, deconditioning is a familiar and more profound problem: the decidedly unnatural state of being physically inactive.

There were 366,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, up by 2,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration says.

So what we said last week applies again:

The crash of an International Security Assistance Force helicopter in southern Afghanistan today killed 11 people who were on board, according to the NATO command in Kabul.

It has posted a statement saying:

Thursday's attack on a Pakistani air base near Islamabad by heavily armed militants, which security forces were able to repel, has been followed by the news that gunmen executed about 20 Shiite Muslims today in northern Pakistan.

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Good morning. I'm David Greene. You may have heard about NASA's Curiosity mission to Mars. Well, I bet you didn't know it had a backbeat.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE'RE NASA AND WE KNOW IT (MARS CURIOSITY)")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Singing) Crane, lower that rover. Crane, lower that rover. Crane, lower, that rover.

GREENE: Yes, this popped up on a YouTube channel called Satire. It's to the tune of LMFAO's song (Singing) "Sexy and I Know It." The cast in this video dressed in NASA garb, kicking at the console.

Update at 11:35 a.m. ET. Charges Filed:

The man arrested for opening fire at the Washington, D.C., offices of the Family Research Council on Wednesday faces charges of "assault with intent to kill" and illegal transportation of a gun and ammunition. He has not been charged with attempting a terrorist act.

In a statement emailed a short time ago to reporters, the Justice Department says:

I work for a company called Conservation Fisheries. It's a 20-year-old nonprofit based in Knoxville that focuses on the conservation of rare freshwater fish, such as chubs, darters, madtoms and minnows.

Pitcher Felix Hernandez retired all 27 batters in order Wednesday. It was the first perfect game in Mariners' history, and it was the third perfect game this year.

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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

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When Mitt Romney put Paul Ryan on the ticket, it had the potential to reset the presidential race - that is, offer a choice between two radically different visions of government, in a campaign seemingly stuck in tit-for-tat attacks over the economy. So far, though, the campaigns have a somewhat different fight on their hands. NPR's Mara Liasson reports.

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And health officials around the country are raising warnings about West Nile Virus. The U.S. is seeing the worst outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness since it was first detected in 1999. So far this year, 26 people have died, and about half of the country's 700 cases are in Texas - most of them in Dallas County. This week, for the first time in almost half a century, the county will begin aerial spraying to kill mosquitoes. B.J. Austin of member station KERA has the story.

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In the latest twist to the WikiLeaks story, its founder Julian Assange has been granted political asylum by the South American nation of Ecuador. Ecuador's foreign minister made the announcement this morning, speaking through a translator.

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It has been just over a week now since Curiosity, the NASA Mars rover, made its successful landing on the Red Planet. Curiosity is by far the most technologically advanced rover to reach the surface of Mars so far, and it's already begun sending back some pretty compelling, high-resolution photographs of the planet's surface. To talk about space and the importance of this mission, we're joined, as we often are, by Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York.

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NPR's business news starts with a subpoena.

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And while the Olympic Games are over and the athletes have all headed home, the competition for athletes to turn their gold into gold by securing valuable endorsements is in full swing.

To talk to us about some of the big sponsorship deals that might be in the works, we're joined by Emily Steel, who covers media and marketing in New York for the Financial Times.

Good morning.

EMILY STEEL: Good morning.