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NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with San Francisco Chronicle reporter Melody Gutierrez about the shortage of special security paper used for birth and death certificates in California.

The Asia trip is generating the kind of video and headlines that could prove useful if the vice president decides to run for president in 2016.

For 27 years, Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island for his fight against South Africa's apartheid regime. Saki Macozoma served time on Robben Island alongside Mandela in the 1970s, and he joins Robert Siegel to remember Mandela, who died Thursday at age 95.

Saturday is the day the White House promised the website for the Affordable Care Act will work for the "vast majority of users." NPR's health policy correspondent Julie Rovner explains what that means, and whether the deadline is going to be met.

The Senate this week pushed through the nomination of Democrat Mel Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Watt replaces an official who was a thorn in the side of Democrats, and the move changes the landscape of housing finance reform.

More than 1 million people lost their unemployment benefits as 2014 began. Whether or not those benefits get extended, economists say there are ways to change the program that will make it work better. One suggestion is work sharing, which has helped reduce Germany's unemployment.

Wearable technology is often said to look dorky. "Stylish" and "fashionable" are not words anyone would associate with devices like Google Glass or smart watches. But companies are now working to embed technology into clothing so that it's unobtrusive or even attractive.

"I see the government operating the way the founders intended," says FBI Director Jim Comey, who notes that branches of the U.S. government approved the bulk collection of U.S. phone records.

President Obama took a moment from his European tour to stroll through Amsterdam's spectacular Rijksmuseum. That got NPR's Ari Shapiro wondering about which painting captures the current global mood.

In his re-election bid, Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott can point to a rallying economy and a big war chest. But his campaign has recently run into trouble with an important group of voters — Hispanics.