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TAMARA KEITH, HOST:

In the year since Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was ousted, a military man was elected president and a budding insurgency has grown, as correspondent Leila Fadel tells NPR's Tamara Keith.

The Islamist radicals who have declared an Islamic caliphate on land they control straddling Iraq and Syria are waging an audacious publicity stunt, according to some analysts.

While it may bring them even greater attention, it's also likely to be an overreach that will open rifts with its current partners, the Sunni Muslims in Iraq who welcomed the militant group in early June. They all share the goal of overthrowing Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his sectarian rule, but the more secular parts of the Sunni coalition didn't sign up for an Islamic state.

Four generations live under one roof in the Jackson household in Sacramento, Calif. — 46-year-old Loretta and her husband, her daughters and granddaughter, her sister and her 71-year-old father. There are a lot of breakfasts to prepare, and Loretta usually starts the laundry and other chores at about 6 in the morning.

Part of her daily routine is working with Shirlene, Loretta's 51-year-old sister, who suffered a stroke in 2000 that left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak.

"She couldn't say nothing," Loretta says. "Nothing at all."

A fiery oil train derailment in Canada killed 47 people a year ago, prompting regulators and railroads in the U.S. to make changes. Some who live near where oil trains travel are still worried, though.

Amy Roe with the Delaware chapter of the Sierra Club lives not far from where tank cars transport and store crude oil. Roe wishes the country would move away from fossil fuels faster. That plays into her opposition to oil trains, but she's also concerned about safety, especially after the accident that happened last July in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.