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NASA has decided to take advantage of the next landing opportunity on Mars and put two robotic rovers on the planet's surface. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports on what will be the the first-ever "twin-rover" expedition to explore the surface, and the first touchdown since last December's crash landing of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander mission.

Janet Babin of member station WCPN reports that scientists at a small company in Ohio have come up with what they see as a solution to a growing problem in many U.S. lakes. Eurasian water milfoil is a weed that grows so large and fast that it clogs the water and makes boating difficult. The company is using a tiny beetle which feeds on the weed to control it.

Alan Cheuse reviews Alice Lichtenstein's first novel called, Genius of the World, about an American family in turmoil. The publisher is Zoland.

NPR's David Welna reports as Chicago works to improve its public housing some suburban mayors fear the city's just transferring the problems and people into their struggling neighborhoods. Chicago is tearing down its high-rise public housing and the residents are reconcentrating in predominantly black suburbs. Not so fast, say the suburbs.

Hadassah Lieberman went home today to Gardner, Massachusetts, the town where her family made a new life after surviving the Holocaust in Europe. Arriving at Elm Street School, she got a celebrity's welcome as the wife of the man the Democratic Party will nominate next week for vice president. NPR's Tovia Smith reports.

NPR'S Jack Speer reports the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a new rule today that should give individual investors better access to timely information. The SEC's new rule will require companies to publicly disclose important information at the same time it is shared with the analysts and brokerage firms on Wall Street. Brokerage firms remain opposed. They say the new rule will have a "chilling" effect on communication.

Researching family history, short-story writer Desiree Cooper turns to classified ads from the 1700s which describe runaway slaves. She wonders if the man who fled wearing a blue suit and carrying a fiddle might be a distant relative.

Noah speaks with Coast Guard Commander Rick Ferraro about the search for the ship that dumped oil off of Florida's southern coast. It's the area's worst spill in at least a decade. Since Tuesday, investigators from the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been tracking down vessels that were in the area at the time the spill occurred. Ferraro says oil samples from all of the known vessels have been collected, and a lab is comparing those samples with oil from the slick.

Noah talks with Sam Norris a biologist with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and a former president of the West Virginia Mycological Association. He says it's been an unusually good year for mushrooms due almost daily warm rains in the highlands of West Virginia. They've collected large amounts and rare varieties including one mushroom which changes to the color blue when picked.

The famous North Beach bookstore founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti is about to be named a historic landmark in San Francisco. From member station KQED, Cy Musiker reports.