Tough economic times have changed what's for dinner, and not just on the family table. Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema says that even the finest restaurants serving up comfort foods. He speaks with host Michel Martin about this and other trends in fall dining.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Coming up, we'll hear about what's hot and what's not in the world of restaurants from Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema. Interesting even if you don't eat out a lot. That's coming up later.

Millions of voters across the country could cast their ballots before Election Day. Some experts say early voting could have a disproportionate impact on certain voting blocs. Host Michel Martin discusses the issue with Professor Paul Gronke, founder of the Early Voting Information Center, and Republican strategist Lenny McAllister.

A startling new report finds freshly graduated college women will likely face this hurdle when entering the work world: they're worth less than equally educated men.

The American Association of University Women is releasing a new study that shows when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns.

If you're reading this blog, you're probably into food. Perhaps you're even one of those people whose world revolves around your Viking stove and who believes that cooking defines us as civilized creatures.

Well, on the latter part, you'd be right. At least according to some neuroscientists from Brazil.

Surely you've heard of crowd funding sites like Kickstarter that have helped thousands of filmmakers, musicians and painters leverage Facebook and Twitter to raise money for creative projects.

Sales of new single-family homes rose 5.7 percent in September from August and at an annual rate of 389,000 hit the fastest pace since April 2010, the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development say.

Sales were up 27.1 percent from September 2011.

Reuters calls the news "further evidence the housing market recovery is gaining steam."

Surf Beach near Vandenberg Air Force Base along California's central coast is closed after the death of a 39-year-old man who was attacked by a shark Tuesday while surfing.

The man's death came two years and a day after a shark killed a 19-year-old man along the same stretch of the coast.

Reuters and Fox News have obtained copies of an email sent about two hours after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which the White House, Pentagon and other agencies are told that the Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia had "claimed responsibility."

Earlier ceasefire deals have quickly fallen apart in Syria this year, so this news should be viewed with some skepticism: