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Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin talks to Kael Weston about the closing of the first Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan. PRTs are humanitarian missions run by military troops and civilians that built roads and schools. Weston spent seven years as a diplomat for the State Department, and says the teams have a mixed legacy.

Prosperity in Mount Hope, W.Va., faded along with the local coal industry. Residents are hopeful that a Boy Scout camp atop a nearby mountain, slated to open in July, will attract new residents, visitors and dollars to the town. But others are worried any new wealth will remain on the mountaintop.

About 50 years ago, the native Alaskans were forced to leave their ancestral home on King Island, in the Bering Sea. Now, an Anchorage poet has crowdsourced enough money to bring a group of former King Islanders and their descendants back for a visit.

In the 50 years since the Kennedy assassination, Texas has become bigger, richer and more influential politically. Its economic model has not made everyone winners, but it's been attractive enough to draw millions of newcomers.

The story of the woman famously referred to as a "welfare queen" in Ronald Reagan's 1976 campaign is far more bizarre and unsettling than the stereotype she became the emblem for, as a stellar long read from Slate reveals.

Teachers unions were once a dominant force in American politics and education policy. While still major players, they are rapidly losing strength and having a harder time finding reliable allies.

Mary Louise Kelly used to cover national security for NPR, but lately she's turned her attention to fiction. Her new novel, Anonymous Sources, draws on Kelly's own reporting experiences, including things she couldn't say when she was a journalist.

Gays often lack the kind of support from adult children or other family members that prevents people from sliding into homelessness. In San Francisco, they are twice as likely to be homeless as straights, indicative of a problem in major cities nationwide.

The deadly shooting on the set of Rust has workers in Hollywood pushing — again — for broader safety rules. But a fragmented industry and a history of complacent leadership have stood in their way.

The simple question of whether the U.S. should stay or go was not simple at all. Now Biden's determination to leave Afghanistan has resulted in a bigger mess than he bargained for.