Morning Edition

One Marine had been killed. A dozen had collapsed from heat exhaustion. It was 130 degrees, and their supplies of water were running out.

"And that's when Sgt. Nathan Harris handed me his last bottle of water," says Danfung Dennis, a filmmaker and acclaimed combat photographer. "We first met on Machine Gun Hill."

Tina Brown, editor of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, tells us what she's been reading in a feature that Morning Edition likes to call Word of Mouth.

This week, Brown says the media is taking a closer look at the gap between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party. "There's a kind of fire bomb that's about to go off when the debt talks again resume," she says.

The Republicans Are 'Playing With Fire'

Writer Malin Alegria's first novel, Estrella's Quinceanera, covers familiar territory for anyone who's ever been a 15-year-old girl battling with her mother — but the fact that the book's sassy protagonist, Estrella Alvarez, is Mexican-American makes her unique in the world of young adult fiction.

Over the weekend, Fauja Singh became the oldest person to complete a marathon. He is 100. Singh said he was "overjoyed" at finishing in just over eight hours. Toronto was his eighth marathon. He ran his first at age 89.

In 1941, Bertie McConnell attended rush parties for Zeta Tau Alpha sorority at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan. But then World War Two intervened, and she left college to work at an ammunition plant. Decades later, her daughter was a teacher at the same university, and shared her mother's story in class. Members of the sorority responded by inviting Bertie McConnell to become a pledge at age 90.

In southwest Alaska, officials are counting votes on a controversial initiative to stop an open-pit copper and gold mine. If passed, the initiative could stop the developers from getting permits they need to start digging at Pebble Mine. The mine's location, near the spawning grounds for the largest sockeye salmon runs in the world, worries conservation groups, commercial fishermen and sport fishers. Daysha Eaton of member station KDLG reports.

President Obama spoke at the long-delayed dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on Sunday. Almost 50 years after the March on Washington, Obama said, barricades and bigotry have come down. But the nation still faces severe economic challenges and too many neighborhoods with too little hope.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

The world of IndyCar racing has lost one of its stars. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon was killed yesterday during an IndyCar race in Las Vegas. Wheldon was trailing a pack of cars when he was unable to avoid a massive pile-up.

(SOUNDBITE OF BROADCAST)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Oh, here we go. (Unintelligible) a huge crash. Up at turn number two. Oh, multiple cars involved.

There's been an explosion in the number of Americans who take vitamins and other dietary supplements. But do they do any good? And might they actually be doing harm? Two new studies raise serious questions.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Cleanup is under way in cities around the world after a weekend of protests. Tens of thousands of people turned out. They protested greedy bankers, inept politicians, government austerity, the growing gap between rich and poor, and above all, the system that runs the global economy.

There was some violence in Rome, dozens of arrests. Other places were more peaceful. And in London on this Monday, the protests are still going on. So let's talk about that and more with NPR's Philip Reeves, who's on the line. Hi, Philip.