Featured Articles from the Washington Post

1 . Cheating and affairs are more common among the rich and less common in conservative cultures. From golf star Tiger Woods to Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich, cheating seems commonplace among famous and wealthy men. But although studies have found that the more money and celebrity men have, the more likely they are to cheat, cheating is hardly the domain of just the rich and famous. In fact, according to Boston College economist Donald Cox, poorer women are more likely to cheat than wealthy women . Nor do more socially conservative times erase infidelity.

Will Smith fans who have been eagerly awaiting their hero's next rock 'em, sock 'em action ad­ven­ture will have to wait a little bit longer. Sequels to " Hancock ," " Bad Boys " and " I, Robot " will take up much of the actor's time for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, Smith's character in " After Earth " spends most of the new sci-fi flick flat on his back, with two broken legs. It's an odd choice, considering that many people who buy tickets to a Will Smith movie do so under the assumption that he'll be able to, you know, walk.

Amtrak 800-USA-RAIL (872-7245) www.amtrak.com Starting prices for one passenger are below. Note that prices rise as departure dates approach. Meals are included in roomette and bedroom rates. When two people travel, only one accommodation fare applies, although each person pays a rail fare. Rail fare discounts available for children (50 percent); seniors and Student Advantage members (15 percent); and active military and AAA members (10 percent), among others. Rates change if you disembark before the final destination or add stops to your journey.

By now, you know everything. You have watched every episode of the first three seasons of "Arrested Development. " You have swallowed Netflix's bonus fourth season without chewing. You have tried to wash it down with honey from the hive mind. You have begun to gag. The new season started streaming early Sunday morning. The professional recappers picked it apart almost instantly, littering the Internet with twitticisms. Superfans got exactly what we wanted but still felt bereft — a psychological symptom of 21st-century existence, as well as a fitting response to the sitcom that best satirizes this now-teenaged era. The first two seasons of "Arrested Development," which aired on Fox from 2003 to 2005, ennoble the medium of television.

The storm chasers had always managed to get away. No one had ever died. But the unthinkable finally happened — and it was unthinkable because of the people involved, a veteran team of chasers led by one of the deans of the profession, Tim Samaras, 55, known for being cautious even as he stalked the world's most dangerous vortexes. His son, Paul, 24, was also killed, as was colleague Carl Young, 45. Precisely how an experienced team of chasers met disaster remained unclear Monday, three days after a mile-wide tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City suburb of El Reno.

Eric Melby lost a good friend Feb. 2. The saddest thing is, the friend didn't have to die. Eric's office overlooks Farragut Square, and for the 15 years he's worked at the Scowcroft Group, a consulting company, he's gazed down upon a majestic ginkgo tree. An oasis of shade in the summertime, adorned with brilliant yellow leaves in the fall, the ginkgo — at least 140 years old, possibly older — was a familiar sight to all who passed through the downtown park. Then, a little more than a week ago, the tree was cut down.

The rapid-fire growth in the Washington region slowed appreciably last year as other cities hit hard by the recession started to recover and attract more newcomers, new Census Bureau figures show. In the 12-month period ending July 1, Washington slipped from fourth to 15th among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas with more than a million residents, according to population estimates released Thursday. Washington is still attracting new residents, just not as many as it did for several years running during the recession.

1. Hoover was a gay cross-dresser. Despite rampant speculation — that Hoover was gay, a cross-dresser or had no sex life — the truth about his sex life is nearly impossible to pin down. Hoover was married to his job and zealously protective of his public image. He lived in an era when being outed as gay would cost anyone his career and reputation, and he was not one to risk such consequences. The story that Hoover, a lifelong bachelor, participated in cross-dressing, all-male sex parties in New York hotel rooms, as reported by British writer Anthony Summers in a 1993 biography, has been widely debunked by historians.

Tea party groups over the past few weeks have suddenly and successfully pressured Republican governors to reassess their support for a rare bipartisan initiative backed by President Obama to overhaul the nation's public schools. Activists have donned matching T-shirts and packed buses bound for state legislative hearing rooms in Harrisburg, Pa., grilled Georgia education officials at a local Republican Party breakfast and deluged Michigan lawmakers with phone calls urging opposition to the Common Core State Standards . The burst of activity marks the newest front for the tea party movement, which has lacked a cohesive goal since it coalesced in 2010 in opposition to Obama's health-care initiative.

Sitting around the long, wooden kitchen table in their farmhouse on a Sunday afternoon, Rene and Judith Dekker were tired-eyed from rising before dawn to tend to their 1,200 dairy cows. Their two older kids were packing up for the drive back to college — Bart wanted to know whether Mom had ironed his dress shirt, while Susanne gently scooped her live goldfish into a plastic bag. Mathias, 16, had algebra homework, and Benny the chocolate Lab bounced around outside. They looked like any other family here in rural Michigan, but they are Dutch citizens.

Mexico's 19th-century leaders spent lavishly to bring the railroad to their young republic, eager to show the world that they were building a modern, technologically advanced nation. More than 100 years and a few upheavals later, with Mexico's economy barreling forward but its pride in need of a boost, new President Enrique Peña Nieto has outlined a grand vision to showcase the country's renewed prosperity and engineering might . He'll make the trains run again. Peña Nieto surprised many at his Dec. 1 inauguration when he announced a multibillion-dollar plan to restore passenger rail service in Mexico, nearly 15 years after his own Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)

Jack Markell, the governor of Delaware, co-chaired the Common Core Standards Initiative . Over the past three years, 45 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards . These objectives were developed to ensure that America's students acquire the academic skills they need to reach their full potential. Yet the Common Core standards are under serious assault by the tea party movement, which argues that they were developed by the federal government [" A new battle for tea party ," front page, May 31]

In the publicity material for William Landay's " Defending Jacob ," its publisher and several advance readers liken the novel to Scott Turow's " Presumed Innocent ," arguably the finest of American legal thrillers. The hype is justified. I don't think Landay's novel has quite the elegance or gravitas of Turow's, but it's an exceptionally serious, suspenseful, engrossing story that deserves and should achieve a large audience. The similarities start with the fact that Turow and Landay are lawyers who began as prosecutors, and each novel is narrated by a prosecutor who finds himself in grave legal trouble.