Featured Articles from the Washington Post

Shorty needed a ride home. She got confused sometimes, the result of some undefined mental condition, and wasn't always sure where she'd wandered. Her family knew this about Michelle "Shorty" Knight, all 4 feet 7 inches of her, and that's why they worried. She got in a car. It begins there, with that simple act, a 21-year-old — in many ways still very much a girl — got in a car. Aug. 22, 2002. If she'd looked up in that last moment of freedom, she would have seen a church steeple.

In the contentious debate over immigration policy, three groups have dominated public and political attention: the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants seeking to become legal, the skilled foreign workers bound for high-tech jobs and relatives waiting to be reunited with their families. Then there are those who won the green card lottery. This tiny visa program, aimed at diversifying the pool of immigrants to the United States, selects 55,000 applicants at random each year.

RICHMOND — Democrat Terry McAuliffe has pulled slightly ahead of Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II in the race for Virginia governor , according to a poll released Thursday. The Quinnipiac University poll shows the former Democratic National Committee chairman getting support from 43 percent of voters while Cuccinelli has 38 percent. A recent Washington Post survey had Cuccinelli up narrowly among registered voters, 46 to 41 percent, and ahead 51 to 41 percent among likely voters.

If you've ever furnished a house or an apartment, it's highly likely you've asked yourself this question: Should I reupholster or buy something new? Unfortunately, there is no quick answer. What kind of shape the furniture is in, how much new fabric you'll need and how much the fabric will cost are a few things that should be considered before making the decision. There is also the cost of labor, which varies from shop to shop because there is no industry standard. A reputable upholsterer should be able to provide potential customers with specific answers to all questions, including a final price, after seeing a piece of furniture in person.

It wasn't the toll from lugging a heavy tool box to work that finally sent Ray Clark to the gym. It was something more profound. He lost his wife of 67 years. Then he lost his daughter. He was looking for something to fill the empty hours. "I was getting a little lazy at home, and I decided I'd go down to the exercise club," he recalled. That was more than three years ago, when Clark was 98. As he turned 102 last week, Clark was able to curl 40 pounds, work out vigorously on a rowing machine and deftly pluck bouncing eight-pound kettle bells from the air with the hand-eye coordination of a much younger man. "He's a tenacious son of a gun," said Thom Hunter, Clark's 70-year-old personal trainer at the Sport&Health club in the Lakeforest section of Gaithersburg.

When you're choosing a range for your dream kitchen, bigger -- and more expensive -- isn't always better. If you've watched a renovation show on HGTV or flipped through design magazines, you've seen endless reiterations of the same look: Dark granite countertops, clean lines of cabinetry and the ubiquitous six-burner "professional-style" gas range. The heavy grates, chunky front-mounted knobs and stark stainless-steel range exteriors evoke the no-nonsense, high-volume bustle of a restaurant kitchen.

The de-malling of Washington continues. Forest City Washington is planning an upgrade of Ballston Common Mall in Arlington that would include adding a row of sidewalk retail along Wilson Boulevard and building 306 residential units above the property. Thomas W. Henneberry, chief operating officer at Forest City Washington, said he has begun discussing the future of the 579,000-square-foot mall with county officials and pitching the idea of a reconfiguring it with prospective restaurant and shop owners.

Jack Diamond, a fixture on Washington's radio airwaves for more than two decades, may have broadcast his last program on WRQX-FM, the station known as Mix 107.3. Diamond was scrubbed from the station's Web site after his broadcast Friday morning. Station Manager Mark O'Brien said in an e-mail that an announcement about Diamond's replacement would be made Monday. "The Jack Diamond Morning Show" has been Mix 107.3's marquee attraction for 24 years. It predates the station's changeover in 1990 from a Top 40 station to an adult-contemporary outlet aimed at women.

Some grandmothers pass down cameo necklaces. Katharine Cook Briggs passed down the world's most widely used personality test. Chances are you've taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator , or will. Roughly 2 million people a year do. It has become the gold standard of psychological assessments, used in businesses, government agencies and educational institutions. Along the way, it has spawned a multimillion-dollar business around its simple concept that everyone fits one of 16 personality types.

Vertigo is an unsettling yet common condition, similar to seasickness but without the sea. With its illusory sense of spinning, vertigo can be frightening and lead to nausea, vomiting, headaches and other symptoms. But a solution is often more simple than you might think. Vertigo has been linked to anxiety, a drop in blood pressure, migraines, multiple sclerosis and Meniere's disease, a disorder of the ear that can also cause tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and hearing loss. It can also signal a more serious condition, such as a brain tumor or stroke, although that is less common.

As public schools across the country transition to the new Common Core standards, which bring wholesale change to the way math and reading are taught in 45 states and the District, criticism of the approach is emerging from groups as divergent as the tea party and the teachers union. The standards, written by a group of states and embraced by the Obama administration, set common goals for reading, writing and math skills that students should develop from kindergarten through high school graduation.

Illegal immigrants could obtain Maryland driver's licenses under a measure the General Assembly sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley on Friday, and that aides said the governor supports. The measure , which passed the House of Delegates 82 to 55, would reinstate and expand a program that allowed some immigrants to obtain licenses prior to 2009, when it was ended so Maryland could conform to a stricter, federal rule on IDs. Maryland lawmakers, however, voted to repeal that decision.

Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland dishwasher who heard a scream, kicked in a door and rescued three women from horrific captivity, stepped out of a white Rolls-Royce on U Street NW Friday night and seconds later was on Alex Soto's Facebook page. "You're kidding me," shouted Soto, who was strolling in front of Ben's Chili Bowl with his girlfriend when Ramsey miraculously emerged from the gleaming Rolls. "You're, like, a lifesaver. I've been watching this on the news all the time and here you are!

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge approved a $40 million class-action settlement Monday between Skechers USA Inc. and consumers who bought toning shoes after ads made unfounded claims that the footwear would help people lose weight and strengthen muscles. U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell in Louisville approved the deal, which covers more than 520,000 claims. About 1,000 people eligible for coverage by the settlement opted not to take part. Those with approved claims will be able to get a maximum repayment for their purchase — up to $80 per pair of Shape-Ups; $84 per pair of Resistance Runner shoes; up to $54 per pair of Podded Sole Shoes; and $40 per pair of Tone-Ups.