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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but maybe you just need a few moms and dads in your corner. Every week, we check in with a diverse group of parents for their common sense and savvy parenting advice. We're going to do that today, but we need to let you know that today's topic is sensitive, might not be appropriate for all listeners because we are going to talk about the case of an alleged sexual assault in Steubenville, Ohio.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The number of suicide deaths in the U.S. military surged to a record 349 last year — more than the 295 Americans who died fighting in Afghanistan in 2012. The numbers were first reported by the AP; NPR has confirmed them.

Audie Cornish speaks with Michael Dimock, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, about a new study out on gun control options and beliefs.

One month after the mass killings in Newtown, Conn., families of those killed joined with other residents to announce the formation of a new national organization that's aimed at curbing gun violence in America.

The natural gas fracking boom has sped up life in Towanda, Pa. There are positives and negatives to that fact — Towanda's unemployment rate stayed low throughout the recession, but its crime rate jumped, too. And now that natural gas prices have slowed down drilling, Towanda is wondering whether its boom is already turning into a bust.

The national dialogue on gun control has focused attention on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Federally-licensed gun dealers in all states are required to run a check through the system on any customer looking to purchase a gun. Critics, though, see a flaw in the program. While all states are asked to contribute information to the system — on their convicted criminals, drug abusers, mentally ill — they are not required to.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

We begin this hour with the end of President Obama's first term. He's got less than a week before next Monday's inauguration. This morning, he capped things off with an hour-long news conference in the White House East Room. As NPR's Ari Shapiro reports, most of the focus was on a rash of recent financial crises that Washington itself has created.

When it comes to supernutritious foods, the blueberry has long had a health halo floating over it.

Going back to Colonial times when Native Americans and English settlers ground up blueberries and added them to porridge, in both dried and fresh forms, there have been hints of health-promoting effects.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The war in Afghanistan may be winding down, but the toll on soldiers and Marines back home is not. The military has tallied suicides among active duty troops last year, and the number is at a record level. NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman joins us now. And, Tom, suicides were up again among troops in 2012?

President Obama will soon be sworn into office, and whether you voted for him or not, he's everybody's president. What do you want him to remember in his second term?

Share your thoughts at http://inauguration2013.tumblr.com/

Fried chicken, mac and cheese, and sweet potato pie! Soul food has drawn Americans to the table for generations. But is the greasy goodness doing more harm than good? Byron Hurt tackles the question in his new documentary 'Soul Food Junkies.'

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now, we want to talk about a different kind of service. If you were in Washington, D.C. over the weekend, then you probably saw a sea of ladies wearing red and white - or rather crimson and cream. Those are the colors of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. The organization celebrated its centennial over the weekend.

It was founded by students at Howard University in 1913 and the group now has some 900 chapters all over the U.S. and in countries around the world, including Germany, Japan and Korea.

If you live in a college town, you might have noticed that campus coffee shops are still buzzing late into the evening.

And that makes sense. New survey data from the NPD group, which tracks trends in what Americans eat and drink, finds that 18- to 24-year-olds are turning to coffee, rather than caffeinated sodas, as their pick-me-up of choice.

America's military future is decidedly undecided.

Looming sequestration cuts of massive proportions, coupled with a U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan are adding to the boiling partisanship over nominating Chuck Hegel as defense secretary. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that some of the biggest challenges for the Department of Defense come from inside U.S. borders.

The head of the National Rifle Association said Sunday that there's little appetite on Capitol Hill for a ban on assault weapons.

"When a president takes all the power of his office, if he's willing to expend political capital, you don't want to make predictions, you don't want to bet your house on the outcome. But I would say that the likelihood is that they are not going to be able to get an assault weapons ban through this Congress," NRA President David Keene said on CNN's State of the Union.

Every day this month, the Army Corps of Engineers is working hard to deepen the Mississippi River's shipping channel in an effort to keep navigation open between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill.

Water levels are forecast to remain high enough through January to float loaded barges, but some say the only way to keep the river open next month will be to release water from the Missouri River.

Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and columnist Eugene Patterson died Saturday of complications from prostate cancer, a family spokeswoman tells The Associated Press. He was 89.

Patterson, editor of The Atlanta-Journal Constitution from 1960 to 1968, "helped fellow Southern whites understand the civil rights movement, eloquently reminding the silent majority of its complicity in racist violence," the AP reports.