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Since 2011, Nevada has been quietly implementing a state exchange. Although the state joined the lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, its governor said Nevada made a decision to build the exchange on their own. Pauline Bartolone looks at how a Republican governor is implementing the federal health care law.

The scandal that forced CIA Director David Petraeus to resign last week just got more complicated. The Pentagon revealed on Tuesday that the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, had email communications with a woman connected to the Petraeus case. The FBI referred the Allen emails to the Defense Department's Inspector General. Melissa Block talks to Tom Bowman.

Many people keep cremated remains in an urn on the mantle or scatter their loved one's ashes over a sacred place.

Now, a company has pioneered a new twist: putting cremated remains into ammunition.

For $850, Holy Smoke will take cremated remains and put them into various types of shotgun shells and bullets for rifle and pistol shooters. The Stockton, Ala., company was started a year ago by two state game wardens.

Skipping breakfast to take a medical test is nobody's idea of fun. And it's one reason why many people never get around to having a cholesterol test.

So it's good news that some doctors are now saying that for most people, a nonfasting cholesterol test will do just fine.

But who gets to take a pass on the unpleasant skip-your-breakfast routine? To find out, Shots called Samia Mora. She's a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Singer-songwriter Ben Schneider is the creative force behind the rhythmically inventive folk-pop band Lord Huron. The band started out as a multimedia solo project, but it now includes Mark Barry on percussion and vocals, Miguel Briseno on bass and percussion, Brett Farkas on guitar and vocals, and Tom Renaud on guitar and vocals.

Burhan Khan can't remember exactly when he fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan. He thinks it was about 30 years ago.

"Because there was war. There was killing, there was murdering, there was firing, and they wanted to kill me, and they wanted to kill my children, so I had to come here," he says.

It was the final phase of the Cold War, and CIA-armed Afghan guerrillas were fighting to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan.

Khan and his family wound up where they are today, in a mud hovel on a patch of wasteland outside Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

John McAfee, the anti-virus software pioneer, is saying that the government of Belize is out to get him.

Authorities in the Central American country said yesterday that McAfee was wanted for questioning in the shooting death of Gregory Faull, another expat living in Belize.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

Transcript

JACKI LYDEN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Jacki Lyden in Washington, sitting in for Neal Conan. Stalking and killing one's prey is one of the world's oldest acts. In modern culture, hunting has been dominated by a stereotype of burly men in camouflage who view the pastime mostly as a sport. But a new, younger generation of hunters has started shooting not as a recreational activity but more as an ethical method of connecting with the source of their sustenance. And more women are entering the sport, changing the shape of the industry, literally.

The five-day Hindu festival Diwali, honors the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi. Vasudha Narayanan, director of the Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions at the University of Florida, discusses the rituals and significance of the festival.

Transcript

JACKI LYDEN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Jacki Lyden in Washington; Neal Conan is away. It's been just more than two months since the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was attacked. Four Americans died there, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Congressional committee hearings resume today, on the handling of the attack.

Weird headline, right? But in case you were wondering, Britain's royal website says:

-- Prince Charles has not asked that seven eggs be boiled for his breakfast, only to eat just the one that pleases him most. He's never done that "at breakfast or any other time."

-- His wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, "gave up smoking many years ago."

For months, demonstrations have been popping up on otherwise quiet residential streets across Spain. The protesters form human chains, forcibly blocking bailiffs from evicting residents who've fallen behind on their mortgages. Sometimes the protests turn violent.

The demonstrations are another sign of just how pinched people are feeling as Spain's economic crisis continues to roil. With Spanish unemployment above 25 percent, hundreds of people have been losing their homes each day.

We told you yesterday about a petition on the White House website signed by more than 70,000 people that seeks the secession of Texas from the union.

Well, the governor of the great state doesn't agree with those people.

As I'm currently separated from most of my earthly possessions for the rest of this week, some of my cultural intake has been interrupted. (There's this great Hitchcock Blu-ray set I wanted to tell you about, and I will, but it has to come out of storage first.) Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but the news is really weird, and we're coming off a time where it's contentious over very serious things.