Business

(This post was updated at 10:05 a.m. ET.)

In the morning's second sign of strength in the housing sector, the National Association of Realtors reports that sales of existing homes rose 7.8 percent in August from July and were 9.3 percent above the pace of August 2011.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with an adjustment to the oil supply.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

The most expensive work of art ever sold at auction is going on public display at New York's Museum of Modern Art. For six months starting in late October, museum-goers can stare into the abyss suggested by Munch's iconic image of a screaming man beneath a swirling orange sky.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Far more than half of Americans pay some form of federal, state and local taxes. But one thing all parties seem to agree on is that the proportion of people not paying federal income taxes has grown larger in recent years.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Less talked about is that policies backed both by Democrats and Republicans, combined with an aging population and a high unemployment rate, have fueled that growth.

NPR's David Welna has this brief history of federal taxes.

Facing competition from cheap natural gas, coal producer Alpha Natural Resources said it's cutting production by 16 million tons and eliminating 1,200 jobs companywide. The cuts include 400 jobs with the immediate closing of eight mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Congress is set to make a brief appearance in Washington this week, then recess until after Election Day. That means a farm bill is likely to be left undone, just one of the many items on lawmakers' "to-do" lists that won't happen anytime soon.

In Chicago, parents were fuming over a weeklong strike by teachers. Around the rest of the country, in the face of growing evidence that many U.S. students are falling behind, administrators have tried to devise different ways to motivate teachers.

Careful planning can transform the shape and life of a city. But sometimes, a city's features develop spontaneously — like the immigrant enclaves that grow around certain jobs and trades in urban centers like New York.

Occupational cliches have been a fact of life in the Big Apple for generations. Historically, New Yorkers thought of Jewish tailors, Italian greengrocers or Irish policemen, says Philip Kasinitz, a sociologist with the City University of New York.

I'm a Pepper, You're a Pepper, but clearly, some people are not Peppers.

Dr Pepper's new Facebook ad campaign featuring an ape moving from all-fours, to seeing a soda on a rock, to an upright man, enjoying a Pepper, is apparently red meat to some creationists who are loudly expressing outrage at the idea that humans evolved from soda-discovering apes.