Parents who say their daughter suffered serious health problems from a childhood vaccine are trying to persuade the Supreme Court to allow them to sue the manufacturer. The justices are hearing arguments in a case that could open drug makers to a flood of lawsuits over the side effects of vaccines, including those from families of autistic children claiming that mercury-based thimerosal is linked to autism. Bloomberg News Supreme Court reporter Greg Stohr brings us the latest.

Six months after President Obama signed healthcare reform into law, we get a progress report. Healthcare analyst and Yale political science professor, Jacob Hacker, discusses how employers and insurers are adapting, as well as how Republicans, Democrats and government agencies are both facilitating or thwarting the law. Hacker is author of "Healthcare for America" as well as the recently released "Winner Takes All Politics."

Former governor and Oakland mayor Jerry Brown and former EBay CEO Meg Whitman hold their third and final debate tonight. Brown, a Democrat, is leading the polls even though last week he was buffeted by a recording of a conversation in which Brown and aides are caught calling Whitman, a Republican, a whore for her support of public safety pension benefits. Whitman has been struggling for several weeks since her housekeeper told reporters how Whitman fired her after learning she was an undocumented worker. We speak with John Myers, Sacramento bureau chief for "The California Report" on KQED.

Zora Neale Hurston grew up to become a writer, anthropologist and a leading folklorist of southern African American life. But how was she as a girl growing up in Eatonville, Florida, in the 1890s and early 20th century? Two authors, Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon, wrote "Zora and Me" for young readers. It imagines Zora living in Eatonville, weaving tales for her friends, getting into mischief, and sticking her nose where it shouldn't be.

• Sea + Cake, "Colony Room"
• Doug Wamble, "Antoine's Pillow Rock"
• Four Tet, "Slowjam"
• "Mule" performed by Zora Neale Hurston